Chose To Formula Feed

Ok friends, here we go. The big breast – well in my case now very small – debate. I actually don’t want to debate any of you, I am on 4 hours of sleep and staring down the barrel of a mile long to-do list – I don’t have the mental capacity to go there. Not now, not ever really. #momlife

I do however, want to have a regular ol’ convo about what feels like the hottest topic of all mom topics – breastfeeding. I want those of you mamas out there who choose not to breastfeed, or are even forced into bottle feeding due to unforeseen circumstances, to feel more comfortable about your situation. And let me preface all of this by saying I am not a doctor, and I’m not pretending to be. I am just an Austin-living 30-something keeping it real and talking about a topic no one wants to bring light to.

I chose to formula feed and not to breastfeed long before I was even pregnant. I know myself best, like you know yourself best. And I knew I didn’t want any extra stressors present when bringing a baby into this world. I wanted her to feel comfortable in her environment. I wanted her to feel safe and at ease. I knew that lack of sleep + the potential of a baby not latching properly or me not producing enough milk would create a very hostile environment for the entire family. And that is not how I wanted to introduce my child to this world. So for me it was decided, and it was a very firm decision: Our baby would be a formula baby.

Ironically, I am a few steps away from being a full blown granola when it comes to what I put into my body. We don’t eat food out of boxes, no preservatives, everything is organic…blah, blah, blah you get the point. So when I decided I wasn’t going to breastfeed, I made an extra effort while I was pregnant to feed my baby only the best. I took supplements, drank bone broth, ate only organic and quite obviously took my prenatals. That little one only got the best of the best for 9, let’s be real, 10 straight months.

I researched formula after formula to find the cleanest of clean recipes out there. A lot of them are full of junk I can’t pronounce – I did not want my baby anywhere near that stuff. We ended up on Nature’s One and were happy with it. Had I done it over again, I would have used HIPP (you need to import from Europe), which is the closest to breast milk but I didn’t stumble upon this brand until well after the bottle stage.

Just like it is the mama’s decision to breastfeed, it was my decision not to do so. I believe we should respect each others’ decisions regardless of what it is and move on. You do you and I’ll do me. For those mamas out there that did breastfeed and ate loads of processed junk food and refined sugars while pregnant and post-partum, what makes that better than formula feeding? I fed my little one only the best of the best for 10 months and once she was born, fed her what I found to be the closest to breast milk I could find. And guess what? Maximara is a happy and very healthy little one. She walked at 9.5 months, only cried when she is hungry or tired and didn’t have a sick visit until she was 11 months old.

Again, I don’t want this post to become a debate, so if you have anything negative to say in the comments please save your energy. I want this to help the other mamas out there that are not breastfeeding to feel more comfortable with their decision. Unfortunately you will get some push-back from your doctor, hospital staff, friends/family, etc. but feel comfort in knowing you and your little one will come out on the other end happier together. And if you want to breastfeed but it’s not working, it is not the end of the world. There are worse problems to have. Make sure you have a formula back up ready to go just in case you can’t produce or your baby isn’t latching properly. There is nothing worse than the cries of a hungry baby. Just be prepared.

If you have any questions about drying up your milk, etc. feel free to ask. I’m the expert on frozen cabbage leaves and simultaneously wearing 4 sports bras.

9 COMMENTS

  1. I thought I was going to love this post. And I know you said that you don’t care to hear anything negative, but this made me just a little mad. I’m a formula-feeding mom by necessity (none of the women in my family are able to make hardly any milk) and I’m thankful for the perspective you provide. But. A lot of moms, myself included, cannot afford to feed their babies formulas like HIPP. To keep up with my 4-month-old’s current appetite, I would have to spend about $50 a week (before shipping) to buy HIPP, assuming their 900 gram box makes as much formula as the 924 gram container of our current formula (Kirkland). That’s more than double our current budget for formula and it would be tough to do for us. Both my children have done very well on “that stuff,” as you call it, so the condescending note in your post is a little hard since I’m literally currently feeding my baby something you couldn’t deign to feed yours.

    Your post makes it sound like if you aren’t able to afford those formulas than you are not doing the best you can for your baby and that’s just not true. Organic has never been proven to be healthier, and you’re perpetuating the idea that you have to spend piles of money or buy the organic, everything-free option to be a good parent. You won’t make me feel guilty for my choice because I did research too, and I and my babies like the formula we use, but there are many moms who aren’t as secure I’m their choice to formula feed, and I hope they don’t read this because you’ve just added your voice to the others who are telling them that they are not good enough.

    They are. Science is amazing, even if you buy your child “that stuff” from the grocery store, as millions of mothers do. I get what you were trying to do here, but for me, you missed the mark.

    • Hi Cassidy. Thank you so much for reading this post and taking the time to reply. I am sorry you feel as though this post is condescending in any way, that was not my intention. It was written from the point of view of me, a mom that wanted to feed her daughter breastmilk but knew it wasn’t in my or my daughter’s best interest to do so. Knowing breastmilk wasn’t going to work for us I was then to find a formula that would work. I made the choice to research formula(s) to find one that that is clean and best resembles breastmilk. I know there are many other moms out there that struggle with the idea of formula feeding because they don’t think there is a formula available that is close to breastmilk. But there is! And I wanted to share that. My experience with ‘cleaner’ formula is vital information to some struggling moms. I do not regret my decision to refer to some formula as ‘that stuff’ because some of it is just that, stuff. It is full of fillers and ingredients I can not pronounce. Me choosing to use a cleaner formula does not make me a good parent and you a bad parent. Remember I am a big fan of “you do you and I’ll do me.” This is the exact reason I never even recommend others to use the same formula as I did because what works for me may not work for y’all. I am sorry you interpreted my personal experience as you being a bad parent because you didn’t use the same formula as I did. That was not what this post was about.

  2. Hey….happy to hear that i am not alone …i still feel gulity to not breastfeed my baby….i have a 7 week old and as i was alone i coudnt get the LO latched on to me plus i used to get only a nap between every feed as he was feeding every hour…i was so tired and had to handle house chores and was nt able to keep up with the pumping schedule so finally after 3 weeks of all this hassel i decided to formula feed him and was very happy to do so but was getting raised eyebrow for not breastfeed from every one i know (including my husband)…Thank you for your post i feel better after reading that it doesnt matter how you feed…only the thing matters is that is he fed h

    • If husbands had to do it no one would ever be breastfed, LOL. Some of them just don’t understand the stress of all things baby related and how that affects our mental well being.

  3. Thank you so much for this article. I feel there’s so much pressure on moms to breastfeed and it’s not always possible. My first daughter was constantly hungry the first five months of her life. She was gaining weight but I had to sit on the couch and breastfeed ALL DAY. I thought I would lose my mind. I almost did. I became very depressed. A midwife told me my daughter would be smart but “not a rocket scientist” if I didn’t breastfeed her only.
    With my second daughter I supplemented with formula from day one. Best decision ever. She actually breastfed for nine months. Much longer than her sister. Moms: you are not a bad mom or causing your child harm if you use formula!! Human beings and babies are very resilient and you’ve got this!

    • Ugh! That midwife, drives me mad. The hospital I delivered at never did skin to skin because I wasn’t breastfeeding. People need to understand fed is best. And so is a healthy, mentally stable mother : )

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