Is Breastfeeding Worth It?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are the benefits of breastfeeding?

Seriously?

[Anonymous]

20 year Nanny here- Breast fed babies are always easier to care for and sleep better. It’s hard for me to comfort a baby who is used to the boob when they need to soothe themselves. It’s also hard when they aren’t on a regular feeding schedule and you don’t know how much they’ve eaten. But, I will say from experience, it’s better for your bond as a working mom outside of the home to breast feed. That’s something you and only you share with your baby.

[Anonymous]

My two very successful kids were not breastfed. It was my choice. I did not want to be tied down so much and had to return to work. You have to decide for yourself. It was something I had zero interest in. No regrets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:20 year Nanny here- Breast fed babies are always easier to care for and sleep better. It’s hard for me to comfort a baby who is used to the boob when they need to soothe themselves. It’s also hard when they aren’t on a regular feeding schedule and you don’t know how much they’ve eaten. But, I will say from experience, it’s better for your bond as a working mom outside of the home to breast feed. That’s something you and only you share with your baby.

You are just wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:20 year Nanny here- Breast fed babies are always easier to care for and sleep better. It’s hard for me to comfort a baby who is used to the boob when they need to soothe themselves. It’s also hard when they aren’t on a regular feeding schedule and you don’t know how much they’ve eaten. But, I will say from experience, it’s better for your bond as a working mom outside of the home to breast feed. That’s something you and only you share with your baby.

+1. Another nanny here. EBF babies are definitely harder for the nanny but, in my experience, are healthier and happier babies. I’ve never found a correlation between formula-fed/better sleepers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I’m a schedule oriented person. It seems snowy breastfeed babies don’t through the night until much later than formula fed babies. The family and friends that breastfed has babies who could only fall asleep being nursed, never slept more than 2-3 hours at a time well past 1 year, never learned to self-soothe, etc. They were very clingy, high needs babies. Most were super cranky because they were never getting adequate sleep. The formula fed babies were great sleepers, on schedules, and always happy. I don’t want to breastfeed because I’m afraid that will lead my child to becoming clingy and never sleep. I’m not willing to co-sleep as my husband and I don’t think it’s safe at all.

Nanny again - I know that all of dcum is going to pile on me now, but in my 20 years of experience this has also been my experience. Nannies love formula babies. I want to also repeat what I said earlier, that for working moms it’s good to do a combo of formula and breast, for your bond. When I’m with your child 10-12hrs a day, it’s nice that you can come home and have a bonding experience with your baby that is only your own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:20 year Nanny here- Breast fed babies are always easier to care for and sleep better. It’s hard for me to comfort a baby who is used to the boob when they need to soothe themselves. It’s also hard when they aren’t on a regular feeding schedule and you don’t know how much they’ve eaten. But, I will say from experience, it’s better for your bond as a working mom outside of the home to breast feed. That’s something you and only you share with your baby.

You are just wrong.

I didn’t say this was fact, this is only my personal experience during 20+ years caring for newborns. I’m a Night nanny and newborn care specialist. Formula fed babies are only easier because you know how much they are eating, but if the baby is co-sleeping or not on any schedule etc it doesn’t matter if they are breastfed or formula fed. With breastfed babies sometimes they will fall asleep on the boob after an ounce and then wake up hungry 20 mins later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I’m a schedule oriented person. It seems snowy breastfeed babies don’t through the night until much later than formula fed babies. The family and friends that breastfed has babies who could only fall asleep being nursed, never slept more than 2-3 hours at a time well past 1 year, never learned to self-soothe, etc. They were very clingy, high needs babies. Most were super cranky because they were never getting adequate sleep. The formula fed babies were great sleepers, on schedules, and always happy. I don’t want to breastfeed because I’m afraid that will lead my child to becoming clingy and never sleep. I’m not willing to co-sleep as my husband and I don’t think it’s safe at all.

Nanny again - I know that all of dcum is going to pile on me now, but in my 20 years of experience this has also been my experience. Nannies love formula babies. I want to also repeat what I said earlier, that for working moms it’s good to do a combo of formula and breast, for your bond. When I’m with your child 10-12hrs a day, it’s nice that you can come home and have a bonding experience with your baby that is only your own.

ugh, I never found breastfeeding bonding when I got home. Just one more thing I had to do on top of working and pumping and everything else. I get that it looks that way, but don’t assume.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I’m a schedule oriented person. It seems snowy breastfeed babies don’t through the night until much later than formula fed babies. The family and friends that breastfed has babies who could only fall asleep being nursed, never slept more than 2-3 hours at a time well past 1 year, never learned to self-soothe, etc. They were very clingy, high needs babies. Most were super cranky because they were never getting adequate sleep. The formula fed babies were great sleepers, on schedules, and always happy. I don’t want to breastfeed because I’m afraid that will lead my child to becoming clingy and never sleep. I’m not willing to co-sleep as my husband and I don’t think it’s safe at all.

Nanny again - I know that all of dcum is going to pile on me now, but in my 20 years of experience this has also been my experience. Nannies love formula babies. I want to also repeat what I said earlier, that for working moms it’s good to do a combo of formula and breast, for your bond. When I’m with your child 10-12hrs a day, it’s nice that you can come home and have a bonding experience with your baby that is only your own.

ugh, I never found breastfeeding bonding when I got home. Just one more thing I had to do on top of working and pumping and everything else. I get that it looks that way, but don’t assume.

And I loved every second of it. Don’t assume. -np

[Anonymous]

I breastfed both of my babies, and I loved it. Absolutely loved that time. We also supplemented with formula after I returned to work, so I do think formula/bottles are great. Having fed both babies at my breast, and from a bottle, the bonding experience is exponentially stronger from the breast, and there’s nothing else like it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:20 year Nanny here- Breast fed babies are always easier to care for and sleep better. It’s hard for me to comfort a baby who is used to the boob when they need to soothe themselves. It’s also hard when they aren’t on a regular feeding schedule and you don’t know how much they’ve eaten. But, I will say from experience, it’s better for your bond as a working mom outside of the home to breast feed. That’s something you and only you share with your baby.

+1. Another nanny here. EBF babies are definitely harder for the nanny but, in my experience, are healthier and happier babies. I’ve never found a correlation between formula-fed/better sleepers.

Were you a night nurse/newborn specialist? My nanny started when DS was 4 months and EBF. Nanny didn’t seem to have any issue getting him on a bottle feeding schedule (and in fact she quickly identified that I wasn’t pumping enough and baby needed to supplement). I could see it would be harder with a newborn or if the mom got really rigid about it (like refusing to supplement or insisting on “paced feeding”).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I’m a schedule oriented person. It seems snowy breastfeed babies don’t through the night until much later than formula fed babies. The family and friends that breastfed has babies who could only fall asleep being nursed, never slept more than 2-3 hours at a time well past 1 year, never learned to self-soothe, etc. They were very clingy, high needs babies. Most were super cranky because they were never getting adequate sleep. The formula fed babies were great sleepers, on schedules, and always happy. I don’t want to breastfeed because I’m afraid that will lead my child to becoming clingy and never sleep. I’m not willing to co-sleep as my husband and I don’t think it’s safe at all.

Nanny again - I know that all of dcum is going to pile on me now, but in my 20 years of experience this has also been my experience. Nannies love formula babies. I want to also repeat what I said earlier, that for working moms it’s good to do a combo of formula and breast, for your bond. When I’m with your child 10-12hrs a day, it’s nice that you can come home and have a bonding experience with your baby that is only your own.

ugh, I never found breastfeeding bonding when I got home. Just one more thing I had to do on top of working and pumping and everything else. I get that it looks that way, but don’t assume.

And I loved every second of it. Don’t assume. -np

I was really happy when the nanny started giving a bottle right before I picked up. That way I could take my time getting situated back at home and baby was happy and full when I picked him up.

[Anonymous]

Hey OP - I’m also an early schedule/sleep training mom (in fact we do Babywise, which everyone in this board is NOT okay with) and I found breastfeeding to be much easier than formula feeding (I did both, as I weaned at six months for fertility reasons). I am definitely “fed is best” - I was not going to contort myself into all kind of knots trying to make nursing work, but I would give it the ole college try. For me it came easily. If it hadn’t, I would have given up within a few weeks and switched to formula.

Advantages of breastfeeding :
1) there are some small health benefits for babies
2) it’s “free” at least as far as hard costs. Formula cost us $100+ a month
3) it’s so easy to go places. From vacations to day trips to the local park. With formula, you’re mixing and carrying a cooler, and a bottle warmer (mine would not take room temp formula!) and that was a pain. When he was EBF, I just needed the baby and the diaper bag.
4) zero prep time. No mixing and warming. Baby’s hungry, here’s a boob. Done.
5) eat more calories guilt free (I love eating!) and for me at least, the baby weight fell off.

Advantages of formula feeding:
1) easy to be apart from your baby. Pumping sucks. I did it for work for a couple months, and it was annoying
2) ease of dad doing MOTN feedings. I pumped a bit during my maternity leave to build up a little stash before going back to work, but I didn’t have a ton of extra supply. So my husband was only doing one MOTN feeding a week. That became tough when I went back to work, cause he was still getting up once or twice a night, for a very short time.

Our son did take a bit longer to stretch out night feeds than most babywise babies, but that was due to silent reflux, not nursing. We had no problem getting on a schedule, he’s been on a schedule since two weeks old, and he was fully night weaned at four months despite being EBF, no problems at all.

I think it’s worth a shot, assuming you’ve got a decent maternity leave. The convenience alone was really worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My two very successful kids were not breastfed. It was my choice. I did not want to be tied down so much and had to return to work. You have to decide for yourself. It was something I had zero interest in. No regrets.

I think everyone woman should make the choice that is best for them and their family. But, I do want to comment on the bolded. I understand some work circumstances might make pumping at work impossible, but working women can maintain breastfeeding. When I went back to work, full time out of the house, I continued breastfeeding at home, and in daycare my baby took bottles of pumped breastmilk until he was 1 yo. I also know some women who switched to formula when they returned to work and keep breastfeeding at home. I just don't want anyone thinking it has to be one or the other, doing both is possible.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it was so much more convenient in many ways, but not worth beating yourself up over if it doesn't work. I decided I'd give it a solid try for the first month and revisit the decision then. Because of poor lactation support or inadequate information, many women give up early and miss it out on a lot of the benefits to MOM.