bubbalicious: the place for young parents

i want to breast feed but i've heard your boobs go saggy & it is really painful so i'm not sure anymore! :/

i was going to breast feed but i thought no i will bottle feed i choose cow and gate and it was really good my little girl loves it even goes to hungry babies x

My Son is on Aptamil & it agrees with him totally. The other 2 didn't! I breast fed solely for 2 weeks then mixed until 6 weeks & now he's on full Bottles (: xx

I did the first feed, it was so painful, after 2 days i sent alexs daddy off to buy bottles and teets. i was up for 3 hours one night as he wouldnt latch on properly. hes on cow and gate now and he took to it instantly

hi. i chose only to breast feed in hospital then bottle feed as soon as i got home. as it turned out my milk never came in anyway so ended up using ready made bottles in hospital too. the formula i chose was cow and gate, as it seemed more appealing to me and because my step sister used it too. also my son doesn't seem to have any problems with it.

I loved breasting feeding Joshua, but because of the problem with his large intestine he ended being lactose intolerant (or however you spell it!) even to my breast milk, I was so disappointed because it was a specail bond that me and him had, and he took to it like a dream, it was like he read all the books! One nurse actully said it was the quickest she had ever seen a baby take to it, shame eh? However he is now on a specail formula milk (none-sterile) and he's absolutly finee :) - breast isn't for everyone, but look at it this way, if you choose bottle people can do the odd feed for you and theres no panic about what to do when you want to go out ect ect, there the postives of bottle but breast is "best" (for some babies unlike my Joshiee!).. but some babies dont even take to it either, my friend tried and tried but her bambino just wouldnt do it, totally up to you, theres no right or wrong way! :D.. and I think you due date is today or soon, GOOD LUCK :D xxx

And just like Earthmummy said, the powder formula is not really "sterile", the ready to serve and concentrated options are though. Don't think you have the concentrate in the UK, but for us, the concentrate is the cheapest for the amount we go through and the easiest- no measuring and mixing. Ready made is the most expensive format :) I formula fed from birth and if breast feeding doesn't work out or you decide it's not right for you, there's nooo shame in that, my baby girl is perfectly healthy and well, doing fabulously developmentally and she is SUCH a mummy's girl. :)

If you are worried about breast feeding in public, here they have family centers in the mall that are all breast feeding-friendly for mums who prefer a bit of privacy, they also have breast feeding support groups at these places :) They also sell all sorts of cute cover ups for breast feeding if you are uncomfortable doing it in public, but I think that you would probably use it just for awhile until you become comfortable if you chose to breast feed and use one of those :) They come in all sorts of cute prints too! If you decide to chose formula, I would see which one your doctor/nurse/HV/midwife recommends, the hospital I delivered at provided formula while we were in the hospital and she had no problems on it so we stuck with that :)

tbh i dont know anything but breastfed evryone in my family was i can uderstand why people bottle feed if they dont like it or whatever but i think its best to try first its the most natural thing in the world. i was dead nervous about breastfeeding in public but theres loads of facilities now where you can go and its so discrete anyway its juts so simple and the best way to feed :)

As far as breastfeeding in public goes, it is suprisingly discrete once you get the hang of it. It is very rare that anyone notices I am nursing toby, and he's 2 and a half and a LOT less discrete than he used to be. You can also get various cover-up type things to make sure no one sees, but in my experience these actually draw MORE attention to what you are doing. I find that nursing in a sling is a great way to keep everything out of sight. If you decide to go with formula, the latest advice is to use the ready made cartons for the first month because the liquid formula is sterile; the powder is NOT. About 25% of formula powder is estimated to contain some kind of harmful bacteria, which is why it is important to follow the guideline and use water that is atleast 70c to make sure it kills the bacteria in the powder. This is why making up feeds and leaving them in the fridge, or putting cooled boiled water in the fridge to add powder to later is no longer recommended. It might be worth trying breastfeeding. If you dont like it you can always switch to bottles, but it is a lot harder to switch from bottle to breast. Even if you dont get any further than the first 3 days, the colostrum (first milk) does baby sooooo much good. It's also worth checking out 'bottle nursing' on the net, which is using breastfeeding practises to make bottlefeeding healthier for mom and baby (skin to skin during feeds, restricting feeds to close family to increase bonding, holding baby for feeds rather than sitting in a bouncer etc) And, without wanting to cause a fight, Infant formulas are not actually regulated all that much. Only 4 samples have been tested in the last 6 years to check for nutrient content etc and the proportion of ingredients can vary from tin to tin. (This is not meant as scaremongering, and I'm not having a dig at formula feeding mums; This is information that came up while I was doing my breastfeeding supporter training) What ever you decide, you've got to do what ever is right for you as a family :)

try breastfeedin and see how it goes , dnt forget breast is bested for ya bby :)

Yay I can finally read the blog!! lol!! I can't really comment on the bottle feeding, both of my kids were/are breastfed and I found it really easy. I was worried like you about doing it in public. some places I have been to have no where I can "hide" to feed but others are great! Mothercare have feeding rooms for example. Most big tesco, asda etc stores have a baby changing room which usually have a chair in them so you can sit and feed. I always tried to work feeds around going out which worked well! I tried expressing and letting them both have a bottle of my milk but neither took to bottles so I stuck with the breast. If I have to feed when i go out now I put a blanket over baby so that no one can see what I am doing. They all think I am giving him a cuddle!! I would try breast feeding to start with, just to give baby the best start but if you find its not for you then go to bottle. xxx

I completely understand you being worried about feeling alone if you breastfed -- it's much easier to do it, if lots of other people are doing it too. So I agree with Lisaw that going to a breastfeeding group would be a good idea -- and you can see how they cope with the public bit. There's lots of mum-and-baby drop-in groups around the country -- Sure Start centres often have them. While breastfeeding can often be tough, it does have some big advantages for you as well -- you can do it lying down so you can get more rest, it's free, you don't have to worry about "has the baby had enough" cos they just take themselves off when they're done, etc etc. And the poos are a lot less smelly too! If you *can* give it a go, remember it's like Tesco -- every little helps! The very first feed helps the placenta come out and stabilises the baby's temperature. The first few feeds (colostrum, it lasts 2 or 3 days) have loads of protective stuff in them that makes the baby's immune system much stronger. Finally, I just wanted to say that even though breastfeeding is a skill for mums to learn, newborn babies can do the whole thing completely by themselves. There's a video of it here -- see from about 2m30s -- the mum has done nothing at all except lie there while the baby crawls up and latches on by themself! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjDQN9keKQk

Hya hunni. I understand how you feel about the breastfeeding I tried though it didn't work out so we decided that I'd pump and we'd also feed her formula. Pumping any is a good thing. They say establish breastfeeding for the first 6 weeks, but sometimes that isn't always a possibility. I really would try pumping if I was you, although I would recommend a different brand than tommee tippee as I had 4 break on me within a week. I stopped pumping when Alyssa was 6 weeks(ish). Pumping allowed others to get the bond with her that feeding brings, and also it meant daddy could be more involved and now they have a fabulous bond, also it was great for her night feeds as John was an angel and did the majority until this last week when he hasn't been well. Also if your formula feeding a great idea is the ready made cartons. They are our life saver. We changed from SMA to Aptamil 2 weeks ago and since then Alyssa's been less sickly and has piled on the pounds even more =]]. Hope that helped xLaurenx

If you have a local breastfeeding group near to you , you can go along while you are still pregnant, and it would give you more of an idea what it might be like - there so so many less hassles, and your baby is half as likely to be hospitalised in the first 6 months. If you are worried about drawing attention to yourself, it is tiny how many people notice compared to the number who notice you when you are pregnant! All infant formula's are the same - they have to be because of the way they are regulated Lisa