Did you/do you exclusively breastfeed?

well, we aren't at the 6 month mark yet...barely 2 week mark yet actually, lol, but it's going just so well this time it's beyond me why any mother would not want to bf. I love it! This little dude is welcome to my boob until he don't want it no more, lol

 

My son (a 35 week preemie) was mostly FF due to oral motor delays (couldnt latch or suck effectively). I tried to pump but my body isnt pump compatible and my milk dried up by 8 weeks. When I gave birth to my second child, my son was 11 months. At this point i reintroduced expressed breast milk in a bottle which he got for some feedings, altho with my supply issues it usually wasnt more than 4-8 oz a day. Hes now 22.5 months and still occasionally gets ebm when he is sick (has history of recurrent pneumonia).

My daughter (a 34 week preemie) received formula supplements not exceeding 2-4 oz/day for about the first six months. I struggled with low milk supply and in the early weeks her preemie status necessitated supplementation. She was exclusively breastfeed from 6-10 months. At 10 months she began self feeding on her own accord, but at 11.5 months still nurses avidly. I intend to nurse for another 6-12 months.

 

I exclusively breastfeed my 2 daughters up to now...my toddler is 1 yr and 4 months and my youngest 3 months

 

My son is 11 months old now and has never had formula. I definitely have been seeing the benefits of breastfeeding. I weigh less than when I became pregnant and I haven't been dieting or exercising at all. More important, my son has never been sick - he's a healthy little chunk!

 

My wife was on heart drugs when she had both of our children. So breast feeding wasn't even an option. Both were raised entirely on formula and are perfectly normal in every way. They don't seem to have any deep hatred of their mother or any of the other crap we heard.


However, I do recall the lady from the La Leche League telling my wife she should go off of her medication because breast feeding was more important. When did breast feeding become such a Nazi issue? Such an action would have had me raising a child alone on my dead wife's social security.

Be VERY careful who you decide to take advice from.

CF

 

You know, as an exclusively ff-ing momma and avid breastfeeding advocate, I take so much offense to your allusion that overzealous support of bfing can be equated to nazi-ism. Breastfeeding advocates are not nationalist genocidal soldiers killing for a cause we were brainwashed to believe was an ideal. We, for the most part, are mothers concerned about the health and life-standards of the children of this planet.

I will admit that the lady that spoke with your wife was OVERZEALOUS and yes, she was incorrect. I would never tell a mother to stop taking life-saving medications just to bf. And thank goodness for formula, in my case, as I had no milk for my daughter. My breasts are deformed.

Do I think that formula should be the go-to in either situation? NO. I think the next standard should be donated breastmilk, or wet-nurses. There are so many benefits of breastmilk not found in formula, not limited to antibodies and a better balance of nutrients. There is also the new discovery that breastmilk contains stemcells that helps the infant achieve their potential genetically. So yeah, the lady your wife spoke with was incorrect, overzealous, but not ever a nazi.

 

Wow, you sure read a LOT into a single word. Thanks.

 

************ - it's a rather loaded word. "Militant" tends to rise a few less hackles
love,
mom

 

I will stray only this much further on the issue. I'm more than aware of Nazi history and while most people tend to center on the horrific issues of their insane failed regime, I look at the entire picture. Nazis were very cunning in their methods of turning up enemies of the state through networks of cataloged rumors and reports from neighbors. Among the mandates the Nazis were pushing down the throats of the German populace was the idea of having to raise as many children as possible for the Reich.

Oddly enough they determined that breast milk (which was beyond common use anyway) was the best and that any woman who couldn't properly feed a child of the Reich could have it taken away. I can easily see how a group like the La Leche League would be PERFECT for this kind of snooping and coercion.

Which is where my mind went as soon as I heard this woman suggest she knew better than my wife's cardiologist and our pediatrician. She was indeed very Nazi-like in her need to spread her message and got almost hostile when we made it obvious we weren't going to risk it.

So I wasn't just blurting the word out for casual effect.

Charles

But for the record, I have a 7 and 13 year old who developed just fine on formula. And so far I haven't been visited by any La Leche henchmen. Or is it Henchwomen? Hench-Ladies? Hench-Hunnies? Hench-Wenches?

 

I breastfed my daughter for about a year.. after about 9 months, I didn't breastfeed in public, but.. my mom used to breastfeed my brother till he was two, I don't know why it really bothered me though.. maybe because i used a blanket, and she didn't.

But people were never really bothered by me doing it in public, but I never hung them out there for the world to see.. so I guess it was okay.

 

Well, Holly, I'd like to take issue with the fact that you are calling your perfectly cute little breasts "deformed". It sounds like you are being negative about your body. How's about just saying they couldn't produce sufficient breast milk for your baby and leaving it at that?

((((Holly))))

 

i nursed my oldest for 2 months because i got 3 bad infections, i wish i would have persevered a little longer and gotten past the 2 month mark, because the same thing happened with my second but she flat out refused to take a bottle, even with breastmilk, so i had no choice but to nurse through it, and it worked out wonderfully and she nursed exclusively until she was almost a year old.

 

I'm pretty sure I will, at least for the first 6 months. It's not as bad as I thought, not easy either but I think I can stick to it. The only reason I'll stop is if I have to go back on my ADD meds which right now is iffy is I will or not.

 

Three out of four of mine were breastfed for a year or more. My daughter weaned at a year, she was my first. The only thing she supplemented with was solid foods. With my second, and my first of three sons, he only breastfed for about three months, his choice. I pumped before I would go to work, but it wasn't enough to keep him the eight to ten hours I had to be gone, so supplementing was necessary, and after the first week or so he refused the breast. My other two boys breastfed for about 15-18 months each, with the only supplement at that point being solid foods, which they loved

I must say though, that with all four, I was encouraged to breastfeed them by the hospitals they were born in. I am just not in an area that has too many midwives or home birth options, so we didn't go that route. None of them offered me formula after I told them I wanted to breastfeed, which was a bit of a blessing with my daughter. They helped me position her, and showed me the proper way to allow her to latch on, she would try to take too much, and were extremely supportive. I am shocked by how many say that this isn't the pervading attitude in hospitals, for it certainly is in my area. It just makes good sense since it is better for the baby, and the mother. I think we may find that we are moving back in that direction, and I welcome it.

 

What was the major life trauma, if I may ask?

 

Can't a baby get HIV from infected breatmilk? <I know, I know, they can screen for that stuff> But my aunt got hepatitis from a blood transfusion, so I know it's not 100% accurate. I would never expose my baby to someone elses milk.

 

I would never give my child milk from some random stranger off the street. And anyone that donated milk would, indeed, be screened. But humanity existed for how many centuries using donated breastmilk/wet nurses? I don't see it as disgusting, but as a sincerely beautiful act of helping to nourish the community, the village, not just your own.

 

I have a 10month old beautiful healthy 25lb baby boy! When he was first born he did not latch on so in the hospital I pumped and saw a LC. The LC was a no help! The last day we were in the hospital the doctor told us he was jaundice. So he had to go under the Billi lights. He was not latching and I hadn't pumped at that time so there was no breast milk for him. They told us he had to be under the lights right at that moment and had to eat. So they told me he had to have formula. I was so upset!
My son didnt latch until he was about 2months old. Everyday since he was born i just kept trying and trying and one day he latched! I was never so happy. He did get formula about once a day while we were having difficulties latching. Not to mention I was very ill with 102 fever about 3x's with a breast infection. Once he started to latch he never had formula and excusively breastfeed until 6months and ate solids once a day until 8months twice a day. We make ALL of the food he eats no jar only all natural organic well mostly organic!Still very attached to the breast and will be as long as he pleases!: )........No reason to stop when we both enjoy every second!

 

I wonder what kind of support your mothers who had problems breastfeeding recieved.
I know where I am breastfeeding isn't even something that is thought about with a lot of moms, because formula is so present, so normal, they see breastfeeding as rare, strange and just can't relate to it.

I'm at a little over 6 months, my little one latched on immediately after she was born and is very attached. She currently eats avocado on occasion, and sometimes apple and cucumber, but is mostly breastfed. I've never even seen formula since I was pregnant, so no problems there.

Also to the woman who's daughter has weaned herself at 10 months, don't feel bad. Lots of babies wean themselves around that age, it's just a part of her personality, you let her nurse as long as she wanted and that's awesome!

 

I'm a la leche league breastfeeding peer counselor and I would never treat a woman like that, nor would many other peer counselors or leaders that I know. I might suggest she ask her doctor if there is something she can take that will not affect breastfeeding, but if she came back with a no that would be her choice. La leche league is around to support, educate and advocate for breastfeeding, because sadly, in our society it really is needed, for some reason there is a lot of negativity about breastfeeding and some people feel attacked for their stance on breastfeeding all the time, that is probably how this woman felt, like it was an attack on her, and so she attacked you... not an excuse at all, but she is human just like everyone else, what she did was not appropriate but it does not reflect on La Leche League as an organization... that was her doing and is not the kind of behavior the la leche league is all about.