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Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Infant feeding

Has anyone who sucessfully bf their a baby ff a subsequent child through choice?

16 replies

mumzarello · 20/06/2007 10:34

I understand that there are many factors that take away your choice to bf & I support the right of those who make an informed choice to ff.

What I wondered was if anyone who had successfully bf a baby - say for 4 months or more - had then gone on to solely ff a future child?

I should say I was prompted to ask this after reading about several people who wanted to bf after ff & wondered if the situation was ever reversed?

OP posts:

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flibbertyjibbet · 20/06/2007 10:49

Yes not me but a good friend ff her first. He just wanted to feed 24 hours a day for 6 months, absolutely would not take a bottle. Wouldn't go to anyone else, woke up for feeds all night. She even tried to wean him a bit early but he just wanted bf. 2nd baby was planned and from the moment of finding out she was pg she made clear to all the midwives etc that this baby would be ff. There was only 18 months between her babies and she was not going to go down the route of a baby demanding 24 hour attention when she had another child to consider. I know some people might not agree with this but its what worked for her and 2nd baby is perfectly happy, as are all the other family members.

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flibbertyjibbet · 20/06/2007 10:51

Just in case anyone jumps on my last comment and says 'all babies need 24 hour attention', that line should read 'demanding 24 hour attention for at least the first 6 months'.

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rainbow83 · 20/06/2007 11:55

its just unreasonable and illogical to suggest that just because the first baby needed 24 hr attention, so would the next. i have a 19 months gap between mine - dd1 fed 24 hours a day till my nipples fell off. i ended up bottlefeeding her, thought dd2 would be the same, planned to botlefeed again but didnt coz dd2 feeds for 5 minutes every few hours, sleeps through,... gosh soemtimes i have to remind her to feed! and i have a 2 y old to take care of and thank god i dont have to waste extra time on bottles.

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colditz · 20/06/2007 11:57

It's a personality thing, I think. I formula fed both of my babies, and yet ds1 was like a little squidgy robot, eat-poop-sleep-eat-poop-sleep, ds2 was a whiny snugglebum. Would never be put down and didn't think much of going to sleep either.

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moo · 20/06/2007 12:03

Yes, I know someone who breast-fed her first child for 15 months, and formula fed her second from the outset.

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BornToBeAPrincess · 20/06/2007 12:19

I tried but it didn't work out!
Bf dd1 for 18 months. When I was pg with dd2 dp and I decided it would be best to ff to try and avoid the clinginess we had with dd1.
We bought all the stuff and when she was born gave her bottles.
By day 2 I was sick of all the washing and making bottles and the urge to bf was just too strong. So I bf and never looked back
My hv tells everyone she can find about it. She thinks its very funny that I can't ff

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GreebosWhiskers · 20/06/2007 12:26

I BF dd1 for 6 months then FF dd2 & dd3 (not entirely through choice but for health reasons). I then went on to BF ds & am still doing it 7 months on.

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gess · 20/06/2007 12:34

I think it would be unlikely unless you rerally really loathed bfeeding and struggled through every minute of your 4 months plus, because established bfeeding is so much easier than ff. I fed ds1 for a year, ds2 for over 2 years, and could not establish bfeeding with ds3 so he was ff. Like BTBAP I found making formula, sterilising a complete PITA waste of time compared to the ease of established breast feeding ('oh i'm going out, here I am, here's my baby' vs 'oh I'm going out, where the bottles of sterilised water, where the milk powdewr, hmmm I need a hot one so it will be the right temp to give at feed time' faff faff fuss fuss). Bedtimes, rather than 'night then dear', faffing around with kettles and bottles and warmers, or flasks and powder.

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MuffinMclay · 20/06/2007 14:18

I bf ds unsuccessfully for 3 months (he was exclusively bf, but hated being bf, wouldn't or couldn't latch on etc), before throwing in the towel and going on to ff. I had loads of support from mws, hv, bf counsellors etc, but I found it a thoroughly miserable and heart-breaking experience. I only started enjoying ds once he was ff - he was a totally different child overnight.

I've already decided that dc2 (not due until the new year) will be ff.

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ViciousSquirrelSpotter · 20/06/2007 14:29

Yes I did, though I wouldn't say it was through choice exactly.

It took me over 9 weeks to establish BF with DS, my first child. Had I known it would take that long, I wouldn't have bothered tbh, because I wasn't as well-informed about the powers of breastmilk as I am now. I had good days where,just as I was about to give up and buy formula, we had a couple of days when I thought I'd cracked it, and that kept me going. I bf for about six months before going back to work (again, didn't realise the huge benefits of feeding beyond 6 months and would have done things differently if I had done).

The factors which kept me going were a) sheer blissful ignorance of the fact that it could take so long to establish bf and b) a wonderfully supportive, well informed HV who was also a fully trained BF counsellor so didn't talk a load of shit about BF like most of them.

With dd, I had 2 weeks of hell with no good day. I'd moved house, was now a lone parent, and had a toddler to look after. I also very, very importantly, didn't have a BF counsellor as a HV, I had a bog standard one who as usual couldn't cope with bf and felt insecure and worried about it. The combination of having an older child to look after and no support, were the main factors. Also of course, the lack of knowledge of the real differences between formula and breast milk. I knew "breast is best" but it was only as a result of a thread on Mumsnet a while ago that I realised I'd also subliminally imbibed the message "but formula is near as dammit". Had I not believed that, I think I would have sought more support and tried for longer.

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flibbertyjibbet · 20/06/2007 16:35

See, rainbow, I knew someone would jump on me for answering this oP's question. Did you not read my post? It was not me, it was a friend of mine, I am not judging her, just telling OP what she did and that it worked for her!
Grr I knew I should not have broken my usual rule of not posting on bunfight ff/bf threads as I feel that whatever other mothers choose to do is fine by me and its not my place to pass comment.

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flibbertyjibbet · 20/06/2007 16:41

Sorry rainbow have just read your thread properly, you did plan to bottle feed no 2 and the bf went well, sorry to jump on you but you know what these feeding threads get like!

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rainbow83 · 20/06/2007 16:52

it's alright, anyway i was answering the op too.. i was 100 percent sure i'd breastfeed... got my steriliser and bottles ready before going into labour... bit anyones head off if they mentioned bfeeding or giving it a go.. and once i fed her from the first time i kept thinking.. this'll be the last time! but each feed was so short quick and easy that i kept on going and still am exclusively bfeeding at 5 months . i didnt mean to say tha YOU or even your friend were unreasonable, just that the IDEA that all babies have identical feeding patterns isn't very fair.

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rainbow83 · 20/06/2007 16:53

sorry i meant 100 percent sure i'd NOT breastfeed!

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Troutpout · 20/06/2007 19:02

Yep ..a friend of mine bf for 15 months and then announced when pg that there was no way she 'would ever do that again' and formula fed no 2 baby from birth.