who did not breastfeed their baby from the beginning and use formula?

i breastfed my little girl for a week and it wasnt for me. i was exhausted. she has since been on formula and is very healthy… shes 6 months old, has 2 teeth (so cute) is sitting up, crawling, pulling herself up on furniture, says mama, dada, buba and bum! her development has in no way been affected and i have no regrets at all!

I never tried breastfeeding. I fed formula to my son all along. I was never interested in it for several reasons. I don’t think it is right that some people pressure pregnant women to breastfeed. My child is just as far developmentally as the kid who was breastfed. If you are writing this because you feel bad for not wanting to, don’t. It doesn’t matter what other people think, it is what fits YOUR lifestyle. You are the one who will be caring for this child for 18 years. You should be able to do things the way you feel comfortable (As long as it is within means and ok for your child.) These are some of the reasons I did not want to breastfeed:

1. I didn’t want to be the only one who was waking up with my son at night when he was a newborn.
2. Don’t want to pump
3. I miss beer (HA HA!)/And I didn’t want to watch everything I ate because I was breastfeeding
4. NOT interested in breastfeeding anywhere other than my come
5. Didn’t want to go through the biting and general discomfort.

I can basically go on but you get my drift.

Good luck with what ever YOU decide to do

I never once breastfed and my daughter is far ahead developmentally….she is 3 now and is one of the three tallest in her class at nursery, she speaks with a larger vocabularly than your average 5 year old (according to the health visitor) and is happy and healthy.

I have no regrets or worries and do not plan to breast feed my next baby.

I breastfeed my 3 month old, and have never formula fed him, but I’m not going to give you a bad time about wanting to use formula. I just wanted to say you might want to try it out a couple times before deciding against it. If you try and decide against it, atleast you’ll know for certain it wasn’t right for you.

I say this to you because I’ve encountered quite a few women who regret never even trying out breastfeeding, but never anyone who regrets that they did do it. And one of those women that wishes she BF is my own mother. She formula fed my brother and I, but even though we are all grown up now, she feels badly that she didn’t give breastfeeding a chance, and she begged me to try it out with my son.

I wasn’t really interested in breastfeeding, because where I grew up bottle feeding was the norm, but where I now live (Finland), breastfeeding is what is done by just about every woman and I wasn’t really even talked to about formula feeding. After I gave birth, the nurse just put my son at my breast, and he’s been happily there ever since. I’m glad I didn’t really have a choice in it at first, because I really love breastfeeding my baby.

I know you didn’t ask for the opinion of a breastfeeding mom, but I’m giving you my thoughts just as a mom, in general. If you formula feed, that’s fine with me and not anyone’s business but you own, but the advice I would give you or any other women that is wondering if they should BF or not, just give it a try!

I wish you all the best of luck with your pregnancy/delivery, as well as with your new baby… It’s really great once they get here, and when they give you that first smile it just melts your heart! Just try and savor every moment – even the ones that feel completely hopeless – because they grow so darn fast! And, no matter how you feed him/her, as long as you are the best mama you can be, your babe will be just fine!

EDIT: to comment about one of the poster’s reasons for not BF: You don’t have to watch what you eat, you don’t have to pump, you don’t have to BF in public, and you certainly can drink beer when you are breast feeding, and biting only occurs when the mother doesn’t tell the child ‘NO!’…

If you are even a tiny bit interested in maybe breastfeeding, I suggest you read a bit about it on kellymom.com, because it’s often ‘old wives’ tales (like above) that keep women from even giving it a try.

I tried to breastfeed my daughter but it didnt work and we stop before she was a week old and she is now almost two and has only had a cold twice and is extremely heathy and she was crawling talking and walking before any of out friends in Mothers Group (which all the babies were breastfeed) i am currently breastfeeding my son (12wks) and if going well and enjoying it.

I breastfed exclusively for 4 months–then my baby was so demanding I couldn’t keep up–(I work and had to pump). So, he was supplemented with formula. He is actually gaining more weight now because he is getting formula as well. He was a little guy when he was born (5 lbs. 8 oz).

Both my nephew and my niece were formula fed. My sister in law never got her milk in with both. My nephew is 2 1/2 years old and my niece is 1 years old. Both are doing great–weight is fine and they are both hitting thier developmental targets.

Yes breastmilk is best–and if you can nurse in the beginning for a few weeks–that original milk is really good to help build immunities. If you can’t then formula is the second best. It is a personal decision for you as a mother.

I breast fed early on but I just wouldn’t produce enough milk. I tried everything. I had to supplement baby for 3 months while breastfeeding, Baby had mostly formula. He is 7 months now and is growing strong. My sis had 3 kids on formula and they are all strong.

I tried to breast feed my baby the first couple days after she was born, but I was in so much pain and she wasn’t getting enough milk so we supplemented with similac. She’s 4 months old now and developing perfectly.

My baby was bottlefed from day one and her development so far had been just fine….