quote:Originally posted by Mrs.M: I think that one of the main reasons I get so worked up about aggressive breasfeeding advocacy is that it didn't help Aerin the way it should have.
I've very confused by this statement. Aerin was born pretty close to as early as it's possible for a baby to survive. And while I know she's had some serious health issues, she seems to have come through them all so far and is a bright, active little girl. I can't think of any way of knowing how much breastfeeding did or didn't help her, but surely no one told you that breastfeeding was going to somehow eliminate all her problems and make her health situation equivilent to that of a full-term birth?
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I am selfish. I like the free formula samples. All of my friends breastfed, so when I adopted my son, they gave me all their samples and coupons for free cans. I did not have to pay for formula until my son was four months old. You should have seen how much formula I got at the baby shower.
derail Actually, I was lucky in another way. The grocery store put all of its formula on sale for four dollars (for a large can) and I bought them out. That formula lasted for four months. /derail
Posts: 188 | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by ketchupqueen: Oh, and about nutrition: the 300-500 extra daily calories needed by a breastfeeding mother and a store-brand prenatal supplement (to make sure the mineral needs of the baby are available) are not nearly as costly as formula, at least from my discussion with formula-feeding moms.
IME, you often don't need those extra calories if you're going nutrient dense.
Posts: 2711 | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
quote:I've very confused by this statement. Aerin was born pretty close to as early as it's possible for a baby to survive. And while I know she's had some serious health issues, she seems to have come through them all so far and is a bright, active little girl. I can't think of any way of knowing how much breastfeeding did or didn't help her, but surely no one told you that breastfeeding was going to somehow eliminate all her problems and make her health situation equivilent to that of a full-term birth?
No, definitely not. However, Aerin was very jaundiced and anemic even for a micropreemie and her weight gain was extremely slow, again by micropreemie standards. Breastmilk is supposed to be helpful for all these conditions and it wasn't for her. It's so frustrating to kill yourself pumping and have the one thing you can do for your child not be good enough, all the while being told how wonderful it is.
quote:You've got that backwards. They still haven't managed to develop a formula that is a breastfeeding-equivilant experience, nutrition-wise.
In some cases, they have. They had to add fat to my breastmilk for Aerin and I was eating a NICU-approved diet. Aerin was also given vitamins along with my breastmilk, even though I was taking prescription prenatals. The high-calorie formula Aerin eventually went on put much-needed weight on her much quicker than my breastmilk did. Also, some babies can't tolerate their mother's breastmilk and need hypoallergenic formula. One of Aerin's NICU neighbors was horribly allergic to her mother's breastmilk and it was one of the worst things I saw in there.
Posts: 3037 | Registered: Jan 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Breastmilk isn't a panacea. Nothing is. It can make good developments more likely to happen, but that is no guarantee of what will occur in any given case -- and, as dkw said, we never know how bad it would have been in a given case without breastmilk.
The thing is, even identical twins will weigh different amounts, have different levels of jaundice, take different amounts of time to get over infections, etc., even in the controlled environment of the NICU.
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
| IP: Logged |
Neither of my babies have ever had an ear infection-- but then, according to my mother-in-law, my husband only had one (he was only breastfed until 7 or 8 months.) I was almost exclusively breastfed (well, breastfed and fed expressed breastmilk) until I was over a year old-- but I had multiple ear infections (I still get them, due to a funny formation of my sinuses/Eustachian tubes.) So is it that I breastfed my kids, or that they just got their dad's genetics, or luck, or a combination of any of the three? I'll never know. But I'm still happy to breastfeed them, since I can. And if I couldn't, I don't think my heart would break over it.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
