Why do people switch babies from breastfeeding to formula?
Sure, breastfeeding is better. But if mama is working full time, it’s darned hard to pump enough to feed the baby. Pumping rather than nursing lowers your supply. I’ve only met ONE MOM who was able to avoid formula, when working full time, the first year. It’s REALLY REALLY hard. So if you’re not a stay at home mom – odds are, your baby is going to at least have formula supplements. Also, in the USA, women get A LOT of criticism from “authority figures” – ill informed pediatricians, mothers and inlaws and aunts who raised their children on karo syrup and cow milk, tons and TONS of bad advice, myths passed off as facts, and basic wrong information and misinformation. If you don’t know any better, and do NOT have a strong breastfeeding supporter backing you up, you’re going to believe those things, and stop nursing. When my son was 6 weeks old, my mother in law asked me when I was going to wean him to a bottle. She was shocked when I said never, LOL, but left me alone after that.
Lauren F (BCA) its great that you can breastfeed your child but you need to keep your opinions to yourself. Some of us don’t get to choose. I started out breastfeeding. Just as we were getting the hang of it, I had to go back to work (he was 6 weeks). When I say I had to go to work, we wouldn’t be paying bills without both paychecks. My job makes it impossible to find 15 min to pump plus an extra 10 min to clean the pump. Plus since I’m working nights I’d have to pump 24 hrs a day. Not my idea of a life. Plus my son has bad reflux and the formula stays down better and has helped him gain weight. I switched because formula was easier and as far as I’m concerned formula works just as well for my sons health. Not to mention both my husband and I are formula fed and we graduated HS with honors, graduated college with A’s and B’s, have great jobs, a nice house, nice vehicles. Overall a pretty darn good life.
Breastfeeding almost exclusively my 5-month-old myself, I can actually understand WHY those women do it. Quite frankly, breastfeeding SUCKS. at least for me. i have to still feed my almost 5-month-old baby girl every couple of hours. I dont work, so it’s okay. But it’s still a hassle. I actually WANT to switch to formula, I admit for my own convenience, but my baby princess hates it and will only take my boobs, sometimes if I’m lucky or if shes in the mood, a bottle of the less favored to her formula, good ole’ similac. anyhow, why does it suck? well, let me paint you a picture; Imagine wanting to go to the bathroom, and you cant bc a baby is stuck to your boob. You get baby off boob, and baby cries like no tommorrow. being a mom, I cant bear to hear my baby cry like that so I just go with it. Imagine your boobs, or any part of your body, being a source of comfort entertainment even a “play thing” to a little baby. It’s hard, really hard.
Many reasons. I just had my 6th child 5 weeks ago. He was quite ill when born and was given high doses of IV antibiotics which damaged his stomach and bowel linings. He had to have the antibiotics, or he could have died. Because he was so sick I expressed breast milk out for him while he was in hospital and then spent the next 3 weeks expressing and feeding him from me until he learned how to breastfeed again and was strong enough to take a full feed from me. However, due to his bowel damage he would scream for hours and was pooping water because his bowel could not process my milk (lactose), we then tried different formulas and half breast fed/half formula fed him but he would projectile vomit the formula as his stomach could not break down the cow’s milk protein, so he still had painful water poop but was also vomitting. So now he is only having soy formula and has been for a week. His poop is normal, no more screaming in pain and he does not vomit it up.
