Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Breast-Fed Babies 'More Challenging' Than Bottle-Fed babies?

Here's the article: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/01/10/breast-fed-babies-more-challenging_n_1197087.html

Where does one begin with this?
Yes, I'm big about breastfeeding (BFing). Squish is 14 months and we're still happily breastfeeding. So when I saw someone else mentioned this article, I just had to read it. Why are BFing babies "more challenging?" What do they consider to be a challenge? And of course they only did this based on the first three months. Ask any BFing mom if the first 3 months were blissful and I bet 9 out of 10 will laugh and say no. BFing is not something that comes natural to most mom and baby pairs. There are certain ways to latch so that they can get the milk easily where it doesn't hurt mom, and baby is not born knowing how to do this. Then you've got the growth spurts that are normally at 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks. Growth spurts mean LOTS more time spent BFing and babies are more grumpy as they're working on increasing your milk supply. And let's face it, growing isn't exactly pain free (anybody else remember growing pains like I did as a kid? Ouch!).
Another thing I'm wondering about is how much BFing support these moms had. If you've never BF before it can be very stressful wondering if baby is getting enough (usually yes, but it's easy to doubt yourself since you can't measure the milk!), if there is any thrush or mastitis, if your baby is allergic to anything you've eaten (since it ends up in your milk), and more! Without support it's easy to get overwhelmed and assume the worst. Most babies get more stressed the more mommy is stressed.

In my experience, Squish was easy to calm down thanks to BFing. Once we got past a nasty case of mastitis at 2 weeks, life with BFing become much easier. I really doubt if formula would have made Squish happier. He smiled early and was content. And not to mention, I've taken great joy in knowing that I have not had to clean bottles or spend DH's hard earned money on formula.

As one friend told me, "I can't say that I agree with it at all....just more useless info in that article."

1 comment:

Jen said...

wow! what BS. I cant imagine formula ever being better!