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We’ve never given our baby formula (made it almost 11 months so far) and the thing that really frustrates me, as a new father, is to watch my wife struggle to f

We’ve never given our baby formula (made it almost 11 months so far) and the thing that really frustrates me, as a new father, is to watch my wife struggle to feed our kid and work full time because she’s been told she needs to breast feed. I’m not arguing the health benefits, but if I were, here’s one for you: It’s better for the long term health of the baby if the mom doesn’t jump off the fucking roof because you put too much pressure on fucking breast feeding! It’s probably fine to supplement once in a while to ensure the mother has a lower stress level. All things in moderation I think... Do I sound panicked?

astura 7y ago
This woman agrees with you. >I beg to differ [that there is no reason for a healthy well-fed mother not to breast feed her baby]. There are a lot of healthy well-fed mothers who have found what they think are valid reasons not to breastfeed. I chose not to breastfeed my babies because it was inconvenient, time-consuming, interfered with my sleep, and was incompatible with my job as a doctor working 24 hour shifts in the emergency room and as a flight surgeon on call. I suppose I could have pumped milk and planned ahead and found a way to do it, but it would have required heroic measures. I can imagine leaking breast milk all over my flight suit when I was on an emergency helicopter mission and simply couldn’t stop to pump. Moreover, I tried breastfeeding briefly with my first baby and frankly, I didn’t like it. All in all, I thought my babies were better off with a happy mother and a bottle. https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/breastfeeding-is-good-but-maybe-not-that-good/ https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/breastfeeding-is-good-but-m...
Ma8ee 7y ago
We gave our son both. My wife breastfed him in the mornings and in the evenings when she worked, and in between he got formula. He’s as healthy and strong as anyone. Everyone has an opinion about how to raise a kid. As long as you use some common sense and treat your kid with as much respect as you would any other human, he or she will most likely turn out fine. Considering that much more stupid people have managed to raise kids, it actually seem hard to fail if you succeed reasonably well with other endeavours in your life.
duncancarroll 7y ago
So true! The bias towards breastfeeding is out of control. It's nutrition / calories, not magic fairy dust. Research shows they will get slightly less of your antibodies, which if I understand correctly translates to one or two less cold viruses in the first year.
refurb 7y ago
The pendulum really has swung too far on breast feeding. Yes, if you can do it, it’s better than formula. But if you can’t, you’re not a bad parent. If you can only sustain it for 6 months because it’s too much work, that’s ok. Only 50 years ago we had a couple generations of kids where breast feeding was almost never done. Those adults don’t seem to have been handicapped by it.
scruple 7y ago
It's truly insane. My wife is panicked over it. She's _only_ producing about 1500mL per day. Which is an insane amount of milk. But, we have 5 month old twins. She can no longer keep pace with their needs. We have a freezer stash of her own milk plus some donor milk from a friend, but we will run out in ~2 months by my estimate. She's slowly coming around to the idea of doing their last feeding of the day with formula. I hope we're now on a path to start weening back the scale and magnitude of pumping operations in our home. It's been... quite a ride.
yongjik 7y ago
Always remember that your kid will eat a fair amount of hamburgers, ramen and pizza ten years later. And beer, twenty years later. Obviously breastfeeding is better if you can, but no need to lose sleep over it.

astura 7y ago

This woman agrees with you. >I beg to differ [that there is no reason for a healthy well-fed mother not to breast feed her baby]. There are a lot of healthy well-fed mothers who have found what they think are valid reasons not to breastfeed. I chose not to breastfeed my babies because it was inconvenient, time-consuming, interfered with my sleep, and was incompatible with my job as a doctor working 24 hour shifts in the emergency room and as a flight surgeon on call. I suppose I could have pumped milk and planned ahead and found a way to do it, but it would have required heroic measures. I can imagine leaking breast milk all over my flight suit when I was on an emergency helicopter mission and simply couldn’t stop to pump. Moreover, I tried breastfeeding briefly with my first baby and frankly, I didn’t like it. All in all, I thought my babies were better off with a happy mother and a bottle. https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/breastfeeding-is-good-but-maybe-not-that-good/ https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/breastfeeding-is-good-but-m...

Ma8ee 7y ago

We gave our son both. My wife breastfed him in the mornings and in the evenings when she worked, and in between he got formula. He’s as healthy and strong as anyone. Everyone has an opinion about how to raise a kid. As long as you use some common sense and treat your kid with as much respect as you would any other human, he or she will most likely turn out fine. Considering that much more stupid people have managed to raise kids, it actually seem hard to fail if you succeed reasonably well with other endeavours in your life.

duncancarroll 7y ago

So true! The bias towards breastfeeding is out of control. It's nutrition / calories, not magic fairy dust. Research shows they will get slightly less of your antibodies, which if I understand correctly translates to one or two less cold viruses in the first year.

refurb 7y ago

The pendulum really has swung too far on breast feeding. Yes, if you can do it, it’s better than formula. But if you can’t, you’re not a bad parent. If you can only sustain it for 6 months because it’s too much work, that’s ok. Only 50 years ago we had a couple generations of kids where breast feeding was almost never done. Those adults don’t seem to have been handicapped by it.

scruple 7y ago

It's truly insane. My wife is panicked over it. She's _only_ producing about 1500mL per day. Which is an insane amount of milk. But, we have 5 month old twins. She can no longer keep pace with their needs. We have a freezer stash of her own milk plus some donor milk from a friend, but we will run out in ~2 months by my estimate. She's slowly coming around to the idea of doing their last feeding of the day with formula. I hope we're now on a path to start weening back the scale and magnitude of pumping operations in our home. It's been... quite a ride.

yongjik 7y ago

Always remember that your kid will eat a fair amount of hamburgers, ramen and pizza ten years later. And beer, twenty years later. Obviously breastfeeding is better if you can, but no need to lose sleep over it.