Myth: Feeding your baby is for bonding and turning off life, looking into their eyes, and devoting all your attention to them while you feed them.
It’s only for a short time. Surely you can devote all your love to them and cherish these small moments when you can.
Obviously you will master the bonding the best if you are breastfeeding. For the poor bottle feeders, you really need to overcompensate for the lack of bonding you’re susceptible to by being EXTRA present when you feed a bottle to your child.
Reality: Breastfeeding is one of many ways we can nourish our children who eat quite frequently, sometimes breastfeeding for years. Bottle feeding offers the same amount of bonding opportunities.
Sometimes you may bond with your baby while feeding them via either breast or bottle and stare at them lovingly. Other times, a lot of the time, you will watch TV, drink something, check Facebook, eat, or yell at your other children while you feed them.
AND THIS IS OKAY AND NORMAL.
This PSA brought to you by the rage I felt reading some comments on my friend Jamie’s (TheBabyGuyNYC) Facebook page the other day in response to a device that helps bottle feeding parents feed their baby one-handed.
May every parent, breast or bottle-feeder, feel guilt free about doing something other than bonding with their baby when they are feeding their baby.
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9 comments
Hey there! Loved this blog post. It’s so true! I formula fed my daughter from the beginning for various reasons. She’s 16 months and thriving and I honestly don’t feel like I missed out on any bonding whatsoever. I spend a lot of time on mommy groups standing up for breastfeeding because I think it’s great if that’s what you want to do. I wish people would show us formula feeders the same respect! We’re not lazy. We’re not poisoning our kids. We’re just trying to do the best we can.
Thanks again – I really enjoy reading your FB posts and I also love Jamie’s FB page! Let’s all just stick together and be parents.
Yes!!! My milk didn’t come in for either of my children, so as much as I wanted to breastfeed, it wasn’t in the cards for me. Breast is not best, any way that you can feed your child is best. The stigma around formula feeders has got to stop. As for the one handed bottle feeding rage, I don’t understand the problem with that. When you breastfeed do you have one hand on your boob the whole time? You are able to do one handed breastfeeding, why is it such an issue to bottle feed one handed? Some people need to get over themselves!
fyi, I’m breastfeeding *and* yelling at my other children while I read this… No hands breastfeeding, FTW!
AMEN! Thank you for posting such real photos and speaking from an honest place. I was able to nurse my older two but had to stop nursing my twins at 8 weeks due to a fructose intolerance. http://nestingstory.ca/postpartum-depression-fructose-intolerance-stopped-breastfeeding-twins/ I prop up my twin’s bottles ALL OF THE TIME.
Haha. A big yes to this. 🙂
Snort. I will gaze lovingly into my baby’s eyes while nursing him if he will gaze back into mine and not do push-ups, downward facing dog, try on my shoes, and perform dental checkups on me while he is nursing.
I’m sorry it’s impossible to gaze lovingly into your child’s eyes if hey are attempting to turn summersaults in your lap!!! That was impossible when bottle feeding and incredibly painful when breastfeeding! My phone was my breast friend when it came to nursing.
Word. And I felt the same rage, reading through those comments.
Also, I’m a little jealous that Lowell is still nursing! I went on an 8-day vacation (sans kids and hubby) and returned to a little boy who was no longer interested. Offered every night, but he wouldn’t latch anymore. Sigh. 19-mos will have to do. :/
I believe mom’s breastfeed with one hand free a good deal of the time. Such trivial things to be so upset about when there are babies in our own country being neglected. They would be lucky to get a clean bottle of properly made formula!