How did your own feeding method impact your feeding decisions?

[Pippi Longstocking]

I can't remember if this was done before but anyhoo....


Following on from the discussion in "Current Affairs", this is a poll to see how people's own upbringing may have affected their decision to breast or formula feed.

[Areca]

As a baby I was bf until I was 5 months old. I always knew I'd bf, but thought I'd stop at 6 months at the absolute most. After doing some reading I changed my mind and still going strong at 8 months with no plans to wean.

[Rainbowbrite]

I was ff as a bub. I was the 4th, & mum was told that she would never bf due to inverted nipples so never tried. She loves that all her daughters BF their bubs, DD1 for 4 months, dd2 for 9 months & me for the longest at 15 months & still going strong :smiliedance:

How I was fed had no impact on why/how I feed my DD, its just what i did :yes:

[tanni_83]

I was breast fed for 3mths then put on a bottle because my mum thought small boobs equaled low supply.

My brother on the other hand (born 10yrs later) was breast fed until he was about 2 1/2....its amazing what a bit of educating to do!! :thumbsup:

Ive been feeding elise for 15mths now and have no intentions of giving up any time soon :smiliedance:

I never even put a thought into bottle feeding while i was pregnant. I always wanted to breastfeed :hugs:

[aardvark]

I was bf'd, and my much younger brother was bf'd.

I had a lot of support and encouragement from my maternal grandmother, too. She bf'd my mum and uncle well into the "extended" period. She also looked after me when I had mastitis with #1 - helped me care for baby and cooked for me so I could rest.

[~EmsMum~]

I was breastfed and I had every intentions on doing the same with my DD but it just didn't work out that way

[MrsMiggins]

My mum BF all 3 of her kids (one even having been born with teeth!:eek: )

I started out BF my baby (and will try again with #2), but was unable to continue. DD was FF from around 4 weeks & although I tried to continue with at least 1 BF a day, had to stop at 3 months due to lack of supply.

[Karizma]

I was breastfed, but I had no milk so had to FF mine :D

[cheezelkat]

I was FF, and chose to breastfeed.

My mum has been so supportive of my decision.

[Ana Gram]

Maybe this question would be better in a different section if you want a decent cross section of answers, not everyone is comfortable invading the breast feeding section :)

I couldn't pick one of the options given. I was breastfed for 6 weeks and then formula fed, but I didn't know this until after I started my own daughter on formula at 6 weeks. I was the younger sibling and the only baby I ever had any memorable contact with was my cousin who lived with us had a cleft palete so i was unsure if she was breastfed or not

[Pippi Longstocking]

I did wonder if I had put it in the right section but the problem is there isn't really an appropriate section to place it. I decided that I'd be least likely of being accused of trying to get an unbalanced cross section if I placed it in the breastfeeding section :rolleyes:




not everyone is comfortable invading the breast feeding section To be honest, i really hadn't noticed.....;)

[Seekrit]

I was FF due to latose intolerance, I BF my baby. To be honest, the way I was fed didn't even have me think about how I'd feed my bubs... it was just what I was going to do :)
Although I do think "pfft formula's not that bad, I turned out okay"

[Funkychicken]

From what mum tells me she, breastfed my older brother for about 4 months (quite happily) but her dad asked her to put him on a bottle so that he could feed him too-so she did!:eek: I guess the parents of our parents had more of an influence than our parents on us. I was on cows milk at 2 weeks-:eek: again, as the health nurse told mum to do this. My little brother was FF as mum was suffering severe depression and had a disastrous cold sore virus all over her face and my brothers.
Until I had my first baby, she was always OK with how she fed us but the longer I fed my DS#1, the more defensive ahe would get about her own feeding experiences-totally unprompted by me. She just started having these cone-sided conversations with me about having FF us. That was also when she told me about her dad's suggestion and that I was on cows milk. Mum has always reminded me how all I ever did as a baby was scream and cry (thanks mum!)-no wonder, a tummy filling with cow's milk!
When DS#1 was about 6 months she asked if I was going to put him on a bottle as maybe my nipple was too small for him now!:eek: again!
When I was 22, I was fortunate to work as a nanny for a family who I had a lot of respect for and the mum BF her babies, so I had an example right there in front of me every day. I'm sure this had an impact on my decision to research BFing and make a decision.:)

[Desertress]

I was breastfeed for the first 6 weeks but i have very bad colic so mum had to bottle feed me. I always though that i would breast feed and i have with both my obys. I did think that i would start weaning them onto a bottle but that never ended up happening i bf ds1 till he self weaned at 1 and i will bf ds2 until he weans as well.

[MamaSage]

I was BF until I was two, I BF my child and will with this one as well.

[Mamaduke]

From what my Mum tells me she tried to b/f with me but I was the type of baby that didn't like to be held. She saw nurse after nurse about this, with one nurse forcibly holding my head to Mum's breast, with me hysterically kicking & screaming the whole time. My Mum said she was beside herself as to what to do. She ended up formula feeding me...she would lay me in the basinette and hold the bottle for me without physically touching me - apparently I was fine with being held and having cuddles but not when I was feeding. The nurse that 'assaulted' me was still trying to grab my head and forcibly put it to the breast and Mum ended up getting tablets from her Doctor to dry up her supply because she was so distraught with this nurse's attitude, "EVERY baby breastfeeds...and she will to!" was her attitude.

I b/f both boys - Jesse for about 6 weeks and Lucas for about 4 days - I was struggling and getting upset and just couldn't get anything but conflicting ideas from the midwives and rudeness so I changed to formula - special thanks go to the wonderful midwife who found me sitting in my hospital room, Lucas crying and me in tears and just asked what I wanted to do and what would make me happy!!!

[Niki]

i couldnt bf jake but i wont say why, i was formula fed because i was sick as a baby and had to be feed throu a tube in hospital

[meme]

i was breastfed until 2. all my memories of babies are of breastfed babies. i took it for granted that that was just how babies fed.
it wasn't easy to breastfeed but there was no question in my mind about doing it.
i was fed for 24mths and my kidlets will get at least that too.:thumbsup:

[Milly]

I was b/f for 3 months and then FF after that. Mum weaned due to lack of support (no family around, she was living far away and dad was always at work)and serious post partum complications.

I breastfed my first child for 13 months and am currently breastfeeding my second child going on 7 months and hope to keep going for a good while yet.

My mother is in full support of me breastfeeding my children and was one of my main sources of encouragement. :D She has been wonderful! Many of my cousins breastfed well past a year, so I am used to seeing it in my family too.

[Pixie]

I was adopted so I was FF but I know breast is best and thankfully it's been an easy and wonderful experience for myself and Eliza :D

[WeThree]

My mum has always been a huge advocate of all things booby, and yes, it definetly played a large part in my feeding decisions, in fact, I didnt even make a feeding 'decision' with any of mine, meaning I never umed and ahhed over whether I would bottle feed or not, it was just, have breasts with milk in them, will learn how to use them :D

[Tam-I-Am]

My mum had four children. The older two were formula fed, the younger breastfed. I was one of the later two. It definately did impact on my decision to breastfeed. Mum can still become quite emotional about her inability to bf her first two children (34 and 30 years on respectively!), and about how bf made her feel more emotionally connected with me and my younger brother than with our older sibs (BTW - I don't share this view. This is my mother's opinion not mine!)

All throughout my pregnancy I kept telling myself that not everyone can bf, and although I would try to bf if I couldn't it would be okay for me to ff. In reality, I know I would have been absolutely devastated had i had to ff. And that is mostly because of my mother's attitude, I believe.

I hope I'm able to bf my future children too.

The funny thing is now that DD is 13 months old and still bf - mum keeps asking me when I'm going to wean DD. WTH?! :confused:

[Rockett]

I was formula fed as a baby,as were my brother and sister,but I breastfed my girl until she self weaned at 15 months,otherwise I would have kept going.
It never entered my mind not to BF,it's what I've always planned on doing for my children,and luckily I could (so far) with no problems.:)

[MummyCharmzy]

As a baby i was bf and i now express and bf my daughter and expressed bm for my other two children after many difficulties feeding

[reAllytee]

My mum tried to breastfeed with all 3 of us girls.
My oldest sister would latch but wouldnt feed & this was overseas where my mum had huge support because even though they were very pro bf the entire ward of women had chosen to bottle feed ( they didnt have formula then ). So my mum had all of the nursing sisters helping to get my sister to feed to no avail. To be allowed to change over my mum had to speak with the matron who was fascinated at how my sister wouldnt feed so agreed after a few days that my sister who was becoming unwell needed to change over. Yep my sister was put onto cows milk shock horror ( she hasnt grown a second head btw ).
My older sister was like Mamaduke & refused to be held let alone touched the doctors thought at one stage she may be autistic but she just hates contact so wouldnt even allow the contact to be fed so was put onto formula even now as an adult she hates to hug anyone.
Now for me :rolleyes: i too was formula fed because again i wouldnt even allow myself to be attached my mum again had all the support from family friends & even at 40yrs being older, wiser & calmer tried everything to get me to feed being that i was her last she was determined for it to happen. It didnt happen they actually had all the nurses coming in to see this baby who wouldnt even attached anytime i was put near the breast i screamed & arched my back i astounded everyone as none had seen a baby do this. My mother had funnily enough & knew what the outcome would be. We have talked about it a few times & we actually wonder whether there is possibly a reason as to why none of us wanted my mums milk maybe there was something that triggered this reaction with all 3 of us who knows.
That all being said & done my mum being breastfed herself as was my grandmother who fed not just my mum but my uncle & aunty who then went onto bf her 5 boys. So to me breastfeeding was a done thing.
My problem was i did have a decision to make because i was stressed about bf because of my abuse as a child but in the end i was determined to try determined not to let someone else dictate another part of my life to me & who was i to say i couldnt do it without trying.
I just wish my determination got me through because it didnt nor did it help me with my milk because i didnt get a drop instead i had a screaming baby at each feed hopefully if all works out well & i have more then i can try again. Time will tell

[Beany]

I was exclusively breastfed as a baby and weaned at about the age of 1 or so - as soon as I could drink cows milk.

My younger brother, born 5 years later, was breast and formula fed. My mother needed to work and, even though she was working from home, other people would have to feed him sometimes. Since then, all the mothers in my family did the breast and bottle thing out of sheer convenience.

I guess that's why I don't particularly care as to whether I'll manage to breastfeed or not - it is certainly my plan to exclusively feed the sprog breast milk (which I will doubtless have to express in order to be able to do all the other things I need to) but should be unable to do so for whatever reason *shrug* no biggy and certainly no feelings of guilt and/or failure.

[Tea Lady]

I was bf until about 7 months - at this stage I started getting very upset and wouldn't feed so mum rang the ABA and was told I needed to be weaned. She didn't really want to but did because she thought they knew what they were on about ....... sure enough it turned out I had some kind of bug, but by the time mum realised it was too late.:(

My sister was given a bottle of formula while still in hospital without mum's permission :shame: and she has always had shocking allergies, eczema, asthma etc etc etc while my brother and me are fine. I don't know if that is why she had those problems but that was what made me so determined to bf my daughter even though I was pretty sure the pain was going to kill me for about the first 6 weeks. :eek:

I ended up bf my DD for 17 months which I was really glad to be able to do :)

[Oscar's mum]

I breastfed (still going) Ozzy and I was a formula fed baby and yes that impacted me as to how I would feed my children.

[BlueEyedGirl]

My mum breastfed all ten of her children.. yes 10!
Being in the middle, I remember her feeding my younger siblings.
The fact that I was breastfed didn't impact on my decision to breastfeed.
It was always the way I was going to do it.
At one stage I thought I would wean DD at 6 months, but that went out the window, and am still breastfeeding her, and plan on doing so til she self-weans.
My mum has suggested that maybe I should start to think about weaning her onto a bottle as she is starting to teethe, but I am not ready to travel that path yet.
Will just have to see how we go!:thumbsup:

[LittleBoysRock]

I was breastfed and I had every intentions on doing the same with my DD but it just didn't work out that way


Same here! Had intentions to BF but it turned out I didnt have any milk!! I was breastfeed for 3 months until Mum had problemsfeeding me too.

[ozzysmum]

i come from 3 generations of women who didn't make milk so i was obviously FF and assumed i would FF ozzy - that is until he was an hour old and i put him on and voila :yelclap: no dramas, no problems, easiest thing in the world... go figure! 11 months on and still going strong :yes: he's now a boobie addict...

[twolittlegirls]

My Mum bf me until I was 14 months old. I bf my dd till she was 3 months old then she was put on to the bottle.

[SilverStarfish]

How I was fed had absolutely no bearing no the way I feed my baby :)

[Africamum]

I had always assumed that I was breastfed for some time. I found out after the birth of my DS that I had been breastfed for less than three weeks and with the support of a CHN was started on solids at age three weeks.

My mum thought at the time that she didn't have any milk because at three weeks we (me and my three brothers) were not sleeping through the night! The concept of a four hourly feeding routine and the perception (albiet false) of what a baby should be doing and lack of support resulted in my mum not breastfeeding.

I think in hindsight she is dissapointed that she did not feed for longer.

Mum is extremely supportive of both Ally (my sister in law and I had our babies one week apart, both of us always intended to breastfeed) and I. We both have faced our own challenges with breastfeeding as most of you know that it has its downs and the most amazing ups.

I guess in my mums case poor education and advice from professionals of the day should not be confused with lack of desire.

[mrsd]

I was breastfed and fed my elder daughters for a while but as I've always had to go back to work at 5-7 weeks, it's just been easier to formula feed them. I had the whole cracked nipple / mastitis thing, too, so that helped make my decision. Mum soldiered through with abcesses etc for all 9 of hers so I had good role modelling.

Just as an aside (probably off track) - one of the scariest things I've heard :
My 14 yr old (Yr 8) student had a baby and her partner wouldn't let her bf because "those boobs are mine." :no: I wonder if he realised how much money he was wasting ?