Dealing with the formula shortage

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IS formula more convenient?? I breastfed 3 babies. It was so easy to just nurse any time I needed. No bringing bottles, no formula, no cleaning bottles. My diaper bag consisted of 2 diapers and a thing of wipes. It was particularly easy in the middle of the night with newborns. I never left my bed, just picked up baby, nursed and put them down. I really feel like I got more sleep that way than going to the kitchen to make formula, turning on lights, etc.

Pumping is harder than formula, yeah, but not totally. I pump 3x during my work day. I don't stop working and just pump at the computer. (I realize that not everyone has a job they can pump at)

I have the perfect job for pumping and I found pumping to be hugely disruptive and exhausting. Not everyone finds breastfeeding as convenient as you did. I'm not saying you didn't find it easy, I'm saying I didn't. For many, many women, it is not easy, but people like you insist only your experience is valid.

[Anonymous]

I very much wanted to breastfeed. However, it didn't work out in my case. Both my kids had pronounced lip ties, which prevented a successful latch, and made breastfeeding a painful struggle for both of us. I also had a bout of mastitis that landed me in the ER with my first, 4 days postpartum, and didn't get a pump in the ER (apparently, the doc doing the rounds was supposed to have brought me a pump in my room, but she forgot, and DH and I were so sleep-deprived we didn't think to remind her!). I also got mastitis with my second, but I knew the signs and was able to request a prescription for antibiotics which cleared up the infection promptly. The lip ties weren't picked up until their first dental appointment, around 18 months; neither the kids' pediatrician nor lactation consultant noticed them in their infant checkups. The whole experience was so physically and emotionally draining that, if I ever have a third, I will seriously consider going straight to formula. I don't relish going through this again, ever.

In those first few months, we simply had to supplement with formula, as I didn't have the support available to exclusively pump. *Maybe* if I'd stayed on the pump all day, I could've made it work... but that wasn't sustainable in our situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know many, many women have valid reasons for using formula. I tend to think some do, understandably, to simplify their lives and relieve the burden of being tethered to baby for 12 months nursing - either because of stress, going back to work, or some other non-medical reason (for mom or baby).

I can't help but wonder how many families use formula out of convenience, and how we might all be better served if we gave women the space, time and support to breastfeed. I recognize that there are different interests at play.

This is not meant to suggest any judgment or incite any breastmilk/formula wars.

I'm watching the news unfold today about Biden invoking the defense production act to produce formula. Heaven knows there are so many broken parts in our systems, but I've been mulling this over for weeks now. Why aren't we putting any effort into breastfeeding education??

I'm about 10 years out now from having had an infant. A coworker recently returned and mentioned using formula to both give dad an "opportunity" to feed and to get a break. And I felt a little sad for her.

For those of you closer to this stage, I'm curious about your take on this. I sense a level of panic around this formula shortage and I wonder how many parents actually medically need it, and how many are on it out of convenience and why we don't do anything to help support those families?

I’ve never said this before but OP is a real See You Next Tuesday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IS formula more convenient?? I breastfed 3 babies. It was so easy to just nurse any time I needed. No bringing bottles, no formula, no cleaning bottles. My diaper bag consisted of 2 diapers and a thing of wipes. It was particularly easy in the middle of the night with newborns. I never left my bed, just picked up baby, nursed and put them down. I really feel like I got more sleep that way than going to the kitchen to make formula, turning on lights, etc.

Pumping is harder than formula, yeah, but not totally. I pump 3x during my work day. I don't stop working and just pump at the computer. (I realize that not everyone has a job they can pump at)

I have the perfect job for pumping and I found pumping to be hugely disruptive and exhausting. Not everyone finds breastfeeding as convenient as you did. I'm not saying you didn't find it easy, I'm saying I didn't. For many, many women, it is not easy, but people like you insist only your experience is valid.

Sorry, I think no one hears from the experience of women who enjoyed it and find it easy. I don't talk about it in public. In mom's groups, people only talk about struggles. Why isn't my experience valid too?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IS formula more convenient?? I breastfed 3 babies. It was so easy to just nurse any time I needed. No bringing bottles, no formula, no cleaning bottles. My diaper bag consisted of 2 diapers and a thing of wipes. It was particularly easy in the middle of the night with newborns. I never left my bed, just picked up baby, nursed and put them down. I really feel like I got more sleep that way than going to the kitchen to make formula, turning on lights, etc.

Pumping is harder than formula, yeah, but not totally. I pump 3x during my work day. I don't stop working and just pump at the computer. (I realize that not everyone has a job they can pump at)

I have the perfect job for pumping and I found pumping to be hugely disruptive and exhausting. Not everyone finds breastfeeding as convenient as you did. I'm not saying you didn't find it easy, I'm saying I didn't. For many, many women, it is not easy, but people like you insist only your experience is valid.

Sorry, I think no one hears from the experience of women who enjoyed it and find it easy. I don't talk about it in public. In mom's groups, people only talk about struggles. Why isn't my experience valid too?

I SPECIFICALLY SAID IT WAS VALID. YOU were the one who said "IS formula more convienient?" As though your experience is the only truth.

I've been around long enough to recognize that in every area of life but especially online people tend to complain about their struggles more than they celebrate their difficulties. But when it comes to breastfeeding advocates, NEVER in my breastfeeding classes, with the lactation consultants or doulas did I ever hear anyone validate the fact that breastfeeding is hard for so many women. All you hear about is how great it is, how breastfed babies sh&t doesn't stink (that's quite the gem lol), never recognizing the sheer amount of time and literal energy it takes.

[Anonymous]

I think this is an interesting and relevant topic for discussion, OP, but so don’t think DCUM (or even most of the mainstream) is emotionally able for this kind of exploration. This goes into deeper questions of sovereignty, radical responsibility, and connection to self that are just outside of where most people are operating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think this is an interesting and relevant topic for discussion, OP, but so don’t think DCUM (or even most of the mainstream) is emotionally able for this kind of exploration. This goes into deeper questions of sovereignty, radical responsibility, and connection to self that are just outside of where most people are operating.

No, it isn't. "Breastfeeding education" is not relevant or helpful to the babies that need formula right now to survive.

You just love the idea of starving babies you sicko.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, is breastfeeding education going to make mothers start lactating after they've been using formula for weeks/months? What do you recommend we do for those babies, exactly?

[Anonymous]

One thing I’d love though is if the idea of wet nurses come back. I remember when I was just desperately trying to teach my NICU baby to latch, but my supply was low, and he wouldn’t stay on the breast, but I didn’t want to get him too used to bottles, I kept thinking how amazing it would be to have a wet nurse lol but I worried I would sound absolutely insane if I looked for that. In the end my baby never really breastfed and I pumped and used formula.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IS formula more convenient?? I breastfed 3 babies. It was so easy to just nurse any time I needed. No bringing bottles, no formula, no cleaning bottles. My diaper bag consisted of 2 diapers and a thing of wipes. It was particularly easy in the middle of the night with newborns. I never left my bed, just picked up baby, nursed and put them down. I really feel like I got more sleep that way than going to the kitchen to make formula, turning on lights, etc.

Pumping is harder than formula, yeah, but not totally. I pump 3x during my work day. I don't stop working and just pump at the computer. (I realize that not everyone has a job they can pump at)

I have the perfect job for pumping and I found pumping to be hugely disruptive and exhausting. Not everyone finds breastfeeding as convenient as you did. I'm not saying you didn't find it easy, I'm saying I didn't. For many, many women, it is not easy, but people like you insist only your experience is valid.

Sorry, I think no one hears from the experience of women who enjoyed it and find it easy. I don't talk about it in public. In mom's groups, people only talk about struggles. Why isn't my experience valid too?

I SPECIFICALLY SAID IT WAS VALID. YOU were the one who said "IS formula more convienient?" As though your experience is the only truth.

I've been around long enough to recognize that in every area of life but especially online people tend to complain about their struggles more than they celebrate their difficulties. But when it comes to breastfeeding advocates, NEVER in my breastfeeding classes, with the lactation consultants or doulas did I ever hear anyone validate the fact that breastfeeding is hard for so many women. All you hear about is how great it is, how breastfed babies sh&t doesn't stink (that's quite the gem lol), never recognizing the sheer amount of time and literal energy it takes.

They also love to talk about how it is free. Like there is zero value to a woman’s time and autonomy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One thing I’d love though is if the idea of wet nurses come back. I remember when I was just desperately trying to teach my NICU baby to latch, but my supply was low, and he wouldn’t stay on the breast, but I didn’t want to get him too used to bottles, I kept thinking how amazing it would be to have a wet nurse lol but I worried I would sound absolutely insane if I looked for that. In the end my baby never really breastfed and I pumped and used formula.

So you would like for another form of the exploitation and commodification of poor women’s bodies to come back into mainstream acceptance?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One thing I’d love though is if the idea of wet nurses come back. I remember when I was just desperately trying to teach my NICU baby to latch, but my supply was low, and he wouldn’t stay on the breast, but I didn’t want to get him too used to bottles, I kept thinking how amazing it would be to have a wet nurse lol but I worried I would sound absolutely insane if I looked for that. In the end my baby never really breastfed and I pumped and used formula.

So you would like for another form of the exploitation and commodification of poor women’s bodies to come back into mainstream acceptance?

+1 honestly it is sick how some people are so obsessed with breastfeeding they are cool with starving babies and wet nurses

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think this is an interesting and relevant topic for discussion, OP, but so don’t think DCUM (or even most of the mainstream) is emotionally able for this kind of exploration. This goes into deeper questions of sovereignty, radical responsibility, and connection to self that are just outside of where most people are operating.

No, it isn't. "Breastfeeding education" is not relevant or helpful to the babies that need formula right now to survive.

You just love the idea of starving babies you sicko.

As I said, most are not emotionally capable of a deeper level of thinking, only reacting by lashing out and making absurd accusations. Of course breastfeeding education isn’t the priority for non-lactating mothers whose babies are given formula.

But longer term thinking about societal shifts, paradigm shifts, so that there isn’t a crisis of the same level every time a corporation or government agency fails the public… well, that’s not really something many are able or willing to explore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think this is an interesting and relevant topic for discussion, OP, but so don’t think DCUM (or even most of the mainstream) is emotionally able for this kind of exploration. This goes into deeper questions of sovereignty, radical responsibility, and connection to self that are just outside of where most people are operating.

No, it isn't. "Breastfeeding education" is not relevant or helpful to the babies that need formula right now to survive.

You just love the idea of starving babies you sicko.

As I said, most are not emotionally capable of a deeper level of thinking, only reacting by lashing out and making absurd accusations. Of course breastfeeding education isn’t the priority for non-lactating mothers whose babies are given formula.

But longer term thinking about societal shifts, paradigm shifts, so that there isn’t a crisis of the same level every time a corporation or government agency fails the public… well, that’s not really something many are able or willing to explore.

LOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IS formula more convenient?? I breastfed 3 babies. It was so easy to just nurse any time I needed. No bringing bottles, no formula, no cleaning bottles. My diaper bag consisted of 2 diapers and a thing of wipes. It was particularly easy in the middle of the night with newborns. I never left my bed, just picked up baby, nursed and put them down. I really feel like I got more sleep that way than going to the kitchen to make formula, turning on lights, etc.

Pumping is harder than formula, yeah, but not totally. I pump 3x during my work day. I don't stop working and just pump at the computer. (I realize that not everyone has a job they can pump at)

I have the perfect job for pumping and I found pumping to be hugely disruptive and exhausting. Not everyone finds breastfeeding as convenient as you did. I'm not saying you didn't find it easy, I'm saying I didn't. For many, many women, it is not easy, but people like you insist only your experience is valid.

Sorry, I think no one hears from the experience of women who enjoyed it and find it easy. I don't talk about it in public. In mom's groups, people only talk about struggles. Why isn't my experience valid too?

I SPECIFICALLY SAID IT WAS VALID. YOU were the one who said "IS formula more convienient?" As though your experience is the only truth.

I've been around long enough to recognize that in every area of life but especially online people tend to complain about their struggles more than they celebrate their difficulties. But when it comes to breastfeeding advocates, NEVER in my breastfeeding classes, with the lactation consultants or doulas did I ever hear anyone validate the fact that breastfeeding is hard for so many women. All you hear about is how great it is, how breastfed babies sh&t doesn't stink (that's quite the gem lol), never recognizing the sheer amount of time and literal energy it takes.

They also love to talk about how it is free. Like there is zero value to a woman’s time and autonomy.

And it's not even free in dollar terms. I spent hundreds on pump parts/accessories, boppy pillows, nursing pads, nursing bras, pumping bras, mother's milk tea, etc etc.