Bottle Babies

Jess, I know how you feel about the whole bottle baby thing... I couldn't do it past 6 months as she was always attached to me as she got older (feeding 2 hourly) and Keziah is a much happier baby now that she's formula fed..

Was weighed yesterday for her 9 month Plunket check and she weighs in at 9.25kg (between 50 & 75%ile) and is 72cm tall (well in to the 75%ile) so we're obviously doing something right aye??

Thomas is on the Karicare thickened formula for babies who regurgitate - not cuz he pukes, but cuz he's a ravenous baby who wouldnt settle, and now we're doing fabulous! He uses Fisher Price adjustable flow teats on the same bottles or Avent - depending which is clean. We were using the tomee tippee ones, but the thick formula doesnt like to come out of them.
He's putting on lots of weight now he's getting the nourishment he needs - he's nearly 7kg!!!!! what a fatty :P

Andrew was a bottle baby. He went from losing weight being BF to gaining good amounts on formula. Don't know what was up with my milk it was there but not enough to get him growing.

Another bottle fed baby here.

Jorja gets EBM vis the bottle and has done since she was 2 weeks old (before that EBM/Formula via tube in nose).

We brought the tommee tippee breast like bottles but she just spat them out, we tried nipple shields, she spat them out too! LOL! Finally found a teat she does like, the tommee tippee anti-colic bottles with PUR standard teats. :)

Hi all, nice to have a non judgemental thread about bottle feeding.

I saw that thing on the news this morning and it angered me as does one of the new ads, where the woman isn't sure she wants to continue bfing but basically gets told she should. Well sorry but if you don't want to do it, why should you feel like you have to and then you won't enjoy feeding your baby and your baby will sense you aren't happy.

I have nothing against bfing, but it was never going to be for me. I have never wanted to bf and never did, my wee girl has been formula fed since she was born and she is a healthy happy little bubba, who has not been sick for one single day of her life.   

I get so sick of people judging me for it though, why should i feel guilty because I choose not to bf, she's my child and there is nothing wrong with formula feeding. I personally think there is too much emphasis on bfing, if its not for you why should you feel forced to do it.

We use nuk bottles and teats, but I also have some phil and teds latte bottles, which are great for travelling, and Gabs doesn't seem to care either way.

God there is so much more to being a mum than bfing anyway.

Sorry I get on a bit of a rant about this subject cos it really p*sses me off that people think they can pass judgement on others in this way.

Anyway rant over sorry.

Hi everyone. Yay for a pro bottle-feeding thread! Both my babies were bottle-fed from really early on. It's a real pity there isn't more support & information about bottlefeeding from medical professionals.

My son was on the bottle from birth because he had low blood sugar. I tried bf as well but ended up with really messed up nipples due to poor support in the hospital . My milk didn't come in either so going on the bottle was an easy choice. I still felt guilty I couldn't feed him though. I stopped going to my antenatal coffee group after one of the women told me I didn't try hard enough to bf (without knowing anything about my situation). I had enough guilt myself without needing to feel judged by others. He thrived on formula (once we got his silent reflux under control) so I have no regrets about him being bottle fed.

I thought i'd give breastfeeding a go again with my newborn. I even went and saw the hospital lactation consultant beforehand and she wrote a bunch of things in my notes as well as giving me instructions etc before the birth. Unfortuanately this time around was even worse & she ended up being formula fed from about 1 week.

With my daughter the hospital midwives assured me my milk had come in and my daughter was feeding fine (despite her being permanently attached to me, and jaundiced). I was worried about her but they said she was fine & didn't need supplementary feeding and stupid me believed them.   I took my own formula and bottles into the hospital just in case & I think they would have said anything to discourage me from formula feeding. Turned out they were wrong ... I left hospital with a baby that lost more than 10% of her birthweight and was jaundiced to the point of nearly needing treatment. I'm still worried that she might have some damage resulting from it. I actually need to write a complaint about it but haven't got to it yet because she also has silent reflux.

She's now been checked out by a paediatrician & even he admitted what happened to us was a case of "breast is best" going too far.   

I use Dr Browns bottles - love them!

Gremlins are my bottle babies and at 21 months still having two bottles a day. They were bottle fed EBM from 6 days old till 10 weeks with supplemental formula feeds from 3 weeks and then fully weaned onto formula at 10 weeks.

I struggled hugely with the decision to finally wean, even tho they were being bottle fed EBM I never really considered it 'bottle feeding' coz they were still getting breastmilk. But I had badly cracked nipples, ended up losing the top of one to a staph infection and neither of them latched well. Switching to formula was like admitting defeat which is not something I am good at, especially as I was able to express enough milk to feed them both so had no supply problems! But having two much happier babies made it all worth it, and I wasn't at all sad to give up the 3 hourly expressing.

One thing I do feel bad about is that they have both had no end of problems with their ears and I do wonder if they would have had the same problems if I'd been able to breastfeed them as bottle fed babies do have a higher incidence of middle ear problems. Still, it is what it is, nothing I can do about it now and it was the best decision for us at the time.

One good thing about bottle feeding tho is that I could escape from them! Maya never took a bottle and Chiara is looking to be the same way so I am tied to them, whereas anyone can feed the gremlins, as long as they get their bottles they don't care who gives it to them!

sarahbetha wrote: wow yay go you ladies. i'm expressing into bottles at the moment my lil ryan won't laatch without a nipple shield. They're such a hassle and so damb ugly. my dh is loving being able to give ryan a bottle. am thinking of going to formular as soon my milk will just dry up. i'm not sure where to start though.

Thats like what happened to me, I had to start giving caden formula as my milk wasnt the best, it wasnt filling him up no matter how long he fed for and he wasnt gaining nearly enough weight.
He started fussing at the boob and ended up causing major nipple pain.
I got the tommee tippee bottles with the nipple like teat cause I was still breastfeeding as much a I could handle, but he just didnt want to know, cos the formula was filling his tummy and he was happy. He had never been 'full" before and was like and a much more settled bubba.

I didnt really know where to start or what to do either so thats why I tried doing both, but he didnt get better on the boob and my milk started to dry up and then I stopped all together.

Caden is on Heinz Nuture, he was on karicare but it made him constipated.
Is the Heinz Nuture Gold better? I thought about buying it, but wasnt sure if your ment to change their formula more than a few times.
Caden was constipated yesterday the poor wee thing, he was doing "sheep poo's" so I gave him boiled water with brown sugar and he loved it lol, and he did a nice big normal poo this morning, was so funny, he was doing his poo face and then once he had been he did this big sigh, like he was thinking "ahh thats better" lol

Josh is now almost 7 months 11kg was and at 6 months was 70cm.

He been fully formula feed since about 2 weeks after almost ripping off my nipple because he is a very strong sucker (i actually needed something to bite down on while BFing i was in so much pain) poor midwife almost had me locked up after i decided to give it another go after a course of antibiotics and a couple of days to heal but despite a perfect latch the pain was just to much i thought i would pass out. I have no issues with my decision and as i was a breastfeed baby i had more health problems than my formula fed sister so i in no way feel like im not giving josh the best start (as some book i read implied). Ok end of my path to formula story.

We now on SMA as josh also a hungry baby and wanted feed every 2 hours no matter what up until we started solids properly. We advent users here. Oh and josh has had all the jabs

Ollie is fully formula fed - I've just posted my breastfeeding experience in the other thread so I won't rant emotionally here again!!

I struggle to not feel guilt, or sadness at our failed attempts at breastfeeding even though my head knows we tried our hardest and that Ollie is much better for us giving up. I feel like I want to make some sort of stand for bottle fed babies (and mums) simply because I think we should have choice (and the health professionals code for breastmilk supplementation says we should have informed choice). I don't feel our current choices are allowed to be informed.

On a positive, Ollie is a little guzzler and loves his food. We use Avent so I have no idea how good the other bottles are but I do know people who swear by Tommy Tippee. We also use the Nestle NAN Gold formula which seems to be fine for us. Actually I've heard that paediatricians feel that there is no real difference between formulas so it's really just what suits your baby best.

Hmmm, as usual I think I've typed too much!