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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Bottle fed from day 1

No regrets, zero guilt, sooo much easier.

Bottles can be  washed in the dishwasher. If you want you can get a microwave sterilizer but it’s not necessary.

Premixed formula is available so open can, empty into bottle. Or powder - dump a scoop, add water, shake, heating it is unnecessary.

[/quote]

You don't get to say "soo much easier" because you did one way.

I both breastfed and formula fed my daughters. I found breastfeeding to be much easier and more enjoyable, but I am really glad we mixed in formula/bottle feeding so that DH and others could help, and so that my transition back to work was easier.

Pumping was NBD for me, but if it had been problematic, I would have just stopped. But to me, nothing was easier than simply breastfeeding. No prep work, no cleanup, and a wonderful rush of oxytocin and snuggles! (And no, put down your sword, I'm not saying that formula or bottle feeding isn't also a snuggly great way to bond. FOR ME, MY EXPERIENCE was that breastfeeding was the most profound bonding moments I had with both of my infants.) [/quote]

You keep acting like people are about to attack you (if you are the same poster from the last page who was emphatic about MY EXPERIENCE while simultaneously downplaying other's experiences) but you are the one doing the preemptive attacking.

Ask yourself this, do you harbor no bad thoughts in your heart towards women who choose to formula feed without trying breastfeeding? If the answer is no, then honestly you should find a different thread. [/quote]

I have fed my babies both ways. I do take issue with PP above declaring FF is “soooo much easier” when she doesn’t have the BF experience to compare. There’s really no arguing that someone who hasn’t tried both gets to declare which is soooooo much easier. [/quote]

I did not breastfeed but I have read A LOT of these threads. There is a lot of "subject matter expertise" people who show up to claim one or the other is easier/better/whatever. But IMO, the consensus seems to be that breastfeeding in many ways can be extremely convenient and easy when it goes well and mom doesn't have PPD, etc. But that it can also be inconvenient, ie, baby refuses any bottle so mom can never have a break of more than an hour or two, baby will only go to mom for feedings, mom has to pump and clean that equipment every day.

So in other words, when it goes well, it is exceptionally easy, but there are a lot of ways for it to go not perfectly, and all of those ways have different levels of impact on that base level super easy.

It sounds from your experience that it went really well for you. But for many women, when it doesn't go well it is really upsetting/traumatic and they feel like a failure because to them it was not easy. For many women, dealing with pumping and frozen milk is exhausting. For many women, if their baby doesn't take the bottle, they experience really extreme and dangerous sleep deprivation from having to be on the clock 24/7.

You didn't describe your exact formula routine (nor do you need to) but like breastfeeding there are a lot of modifications one can make to make it easier or harder. For me, with a baby brezza and a sanitizing dishwasher, formula feeding was, truly, extremely easy. Maybe my children would have been excellent breastfeeders who also took a bottle, who knows, but I had no interest in finding out. And I had no interest in sharing my physical body for one minute longer after extremely traumatic pregnancies.

Easier is a subjective word. For me doing formula was, if nothing else, far easier mentally than tackling breastfeeding. And mentally is really important those first few weeks.

I think if you know up front that there is a lot about breastfeeding that you find not just kind of mysterious and intimidating but actually are turned off by it, then deciding to just not can be a lot easier of a choice, even if in the day to day there are certain things that would have been easier. There is a reason people turn to formula when breastfeeding is too hard, and its not because formula is harder. And its also not because breastfeeding is bad in any way, its just two different ways of doing the same thing. [/quote]

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