Breastfeeding for the Lazy Mother
There’s lots of good reasons for breastfeeding our children. We all know that, and I’ve recently read some great blog posts about breastfeeding toddlers at My Little Drummer Boys and Olive Juice. There’s also some great information on the benefits of breastfeeding from the World Health Organisation.
All of these factors are part of the reason why I breastfed Guerita until 2 years old and plan to continue feeding Chiq for at least that long.
But I have to admit that another factor in choosing to breastfeed my kids and to continue into toddlerhood is that I am lazy!
Yes, the nutrition and health benefits of breastmilk are better than formula, but more than that - who can be bothered sterilising bottles and mixing formula? I seriously think all that hassle would drive me crazy. When my kids woke during the night our system was always the same - Rocky gets up to fetch her out of the cot, hands her to me in bed, I feed her (she usually falls asleep on the breast) and put her back in the cot. It’s a shared responsibility but neither of us is up for long and we barely need to wake up. There’s no standing in the kitchen at 3 in the morning cursing that we forgot to sterilise the bottle or that we’ve run out of formula. (I’m sure there’s lots of very organised parents who would never have this problem, but I have no doubt we would regularly face this hassle if we bottle fed!)
And going out - you’ve got to remember to pack all that stuff!! If I was bottle feeding, I’m sure I would continually forget to bring a bottle or the formula or the water. Imagine what it would have been like on our recent trip? I don’t even know how you would pack enough bottles, formula etc and manage sterilising for a 24-48 hour trip. Thank goodness Chiq’s milk is permanently “packed” with me!
When Guerita was a newborn I had all the (probably normal) worries about how much to feed her. The parenting books are full of information about 4 hour feeding schedules and this many mls for each feed, but you can’t measure that when you breastfeed. A quote in Baby Love, by Robin Barker, always stuck with me though,
You can’t overfeed a breastfed child.
This might sound oversimplified but it made sense to me. I think babies have an inbuilt understanding of appetite and breastfeeding allows them to feed until they are full, rather than to a certain amount. (This is actually a philosophy I have extended beyond breastfeeding. I don’t believe in making kids finish everything on their plate. As long as you offer them lots of healthy options, I think we should let them decide when they have had enough and teach them to listen to the signals from their body about feeling full. Maybe this will help them to have healthy eating habits when they are older and hopefully go some way to avoid obesity issues.)
In those early days of feeding a newborn, we were stumbling our way through the days trying to work out how this little person worked and what she needed to keep her happy. Breastfeeding was always a useful source of comfort as well as food and I often used it to calm the baby as well as feed her. I’m not sure how I would have managed if I had been bottle feeding and had already given her her “quota” for the day. Some people take issue with feeding babies to sleep and if you read some of those “baby boot camp” style of books they are scathing about the practice of comfort and demand feeding. My approach has always been that when getting babies to sleep, find whatever works for you and stick with it. There’s no wrong way to soothe them, but whatever you adopt as your ritual, do it with the understanding that you might be stuck with it for quite a while. In other words, choose a ritual you can live with - if your ritual involves 3 songs, 4 books, a feed, a cuddle and rocking, well that’s fine in my opinion, as long as you are happy to do that every night over and over again.
Anyway, back to breastfeeding! Whenever Chiq gets sick (and Guerita in her time) breastfeeding has been my saviour. I am always amazed by the painkilling properties of it, as well as the comfort factor. Poor little Chiq is sick at the moment with a high fever from tonsillitis and an ear infection and about the only thing she’ll take is the breast. I would be a lot more worried about her lack of appetite if I didn’t know that she was still getting a lot of nutrients from the breastmilk. When Guerita was 5 months old and had an operation, the nurses advised us that she would probably be in pain when the general anaesthetic wore off, and recommended we get some Painstop medication to get her through the night. Maybe she was just a little trooper, but she needed no medication, just a breastfeed to get through the pain.
There are so many situations when I find breastfeeding is such an easy and hassle free solution to feeding/calming/healing the kids. For a lazy mother like me, it’s a lot easier than worrying about bottles.
Obviously, this is a little tongue in cheek. The serious reasons for breastfeeding are all really important, but I also know that lots of mothers can’t or choose not to breastfeed for good reasons. I am a strong supporter of it, but I don’t like all the guilt that goes with it. I have had both my kids in countries where I had to really fight to be able to breastfeed and I had to be very determined to keep going with it, with very little support from doctors and nurses. The stories I hear from friends who’ve had babies in Australia certainly give me the impression that a lot of mothers are made to feel guilty and inadequate if they can’t or won’t breastfeed their kids. If a woman is given all the information and support to feed their babies, but is unable to or makes an informed decision not to, then their situation should be respected.
What about you? What has been the best thing about breastfeeding for you?
If you didn’t breastfeed, were you made to feel guilty about it? 
And how did you organise yourself with all those bottles?? 
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I did try and breastfeed my first and it was not fun. Lots of hassles and ended up hiring a breast pump for 6 weeks and then gave up and put him on bottles. Second child came along and had similar issues. I knew that I couldn’t sit and pump for hours with a toddler - that just aint gunna happen. And yes both times I was made to feel guilty by nurses, friends, other mothers who “meant” well. Except for one amazing midwife when my second was born. What a legend she was.
I used to make up bottles at night. Once I realised that bottle feeding was the thing, I splurged and bought myself an electric steamer. I would steam the bottles. boil the water 50 times (not really but I prob went overboard) and then make up the formula for the next day. If I was going out I would make up less formula than I needed and just add water to the bottles to take with us. Then I would put the powder in a special container to take with me. After Daisy was born I had it down to a fine art. I then shouted myself an electric bottle warmer, perfect for those midnight feeds - no brain power required
The one thing that struck me with breastfeeding over bottle feeding, you have both hands free if you need to. When you bottle feed, you pretty much need 2 hands. Much harder sometimes.
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I am so with you on this… all of this post had me nodding along the whole way through!
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Gemisht - Sorry to hear you had hassles feeding your babies. I know it happens to quite a lot of mothers. Unfortunately sometimes it seems the reason they are able to sort them out or not comes down to having great, supportive (and not judgmental) nursing staff. You sound like you had a pretty good system with the bottles and sterilising system though!! I must admit having your hands free while feeding is a bonus - much easier to blog and feed at the same time
Kate - I think I saw you comment somewhere (at Trish’s?) that you fed the twinadoes until toddlerhood. That’s very impressive - it’s one thing to keep going with one but I’m sure you’re in the minority having breastfed twins for so long.
I wish those nosey people who just love to tell women when, where and how to feed children would slink away under a bush somewhere.
I breastfed 5 bonnie babies, never forced children to finish what was on their plate, cooked millions of meals in a pressure-cooker then in later years used a crockpot (ah the miracles of modern technology) and — every couple of weeks or so — let them eat a meal of pure junk.
There are now 5 strong, healthy, fit and lean men and women to show for it. I’m the one who’s worn out
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Susanna - good on you, and I’m not surprised you’re worn out!!
I am with you all the way! I am nursing my 23 mo old and we both love it. I am also sympythetic to those who can’t nurse — I have a few friends who can’t for medical reasons (they are on meds for medical conditions). Obviously in this case, breastfeeding is not best for these babies. In the US there are not many milk banks, so even getting donor milk is difficult. I wish every baby could be fed breastmilk!
I have several breastfeeding articles on my blog as well that you and your readers may like. I have one on breastmilk cures. Breastmilk can be used to treat everything from cold’s, to acne, cold sores, burns, and much more! Here is a link http://www.amomsblog.wordpress.com
Enjoyed reading your post!
Trisha
Excellent post .I was nodding and smiling too - yep I am lazy too. I agree 100% with the serious reasons too.
Breastfeeding is so cheap, though what I saved on formula I spent on chocolate LOL. No it was good for weight loss and keeping it off for me (all that chocolate again)
For the first 5 months I pumped breastmilk for Joel (breast refusal) because I wanted too mostly but also because I couldn’t give Sam BM and not him. It was such a big hassle sterilising and cleaning bottles, talking stuff everywhere and even leaving it at home once OMG.
I hope Chiq is feeling better soon.Sam has been sick for 5 days with temperatures too and only breastfeeding - so it has been reassuring to know he is getting something nutritious.
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After the initial serious stress of the early months….breastfeeding has definitely been easier than formula for us. I love just whipping it out and like magic he is content. I actually wonder how moms who dont breastfeed do it! The soothing element alone is just terrific.
Thanks for the post..and visiting Olive Juice.
Much love
Ah, we are so alike! I am such a lazy breastfeeding mum :). Funny though, after a difficult start with Lily, I thought I had breastfeeding down pat… until Jasper arrived 5 weeks early and I had to get to know the pump. It was hard work and I really admire women who express milk longterm. I’m gearing up to start weaning him now. It will take months I’m sure as I still feed on demand and nightweaning went out the window. But if I can have him weaned at about 2 1/2 I will be very happy. Lily breastfed until she was 2years 5 months and she dropped her last feed when I was 13 weeks pregnant with Jasper and had to go into hospital. It was all very easy and felt right. I hope it goes as easily with him. Whoops, I know your post was about breastfeeding, not stopping it! On the good side, I have two pretty healthy kids, neither of whom have had ear infections - maybe the breastfeeding helped with that, maybe not. It didnt stop Jasper getting RSV when he was 5 months old but at least he only had 3 days in hospital! I love it and will miss it when my days of breastfeeding are gone
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Both my girls decided at 6 weeks that they’d had enough of breastfeeding. Dunno what the problem was, but they just flatly refused.
I’m so over it. With my first I expressed until 3months when I went back to full time work, and my second I expressed until 7 months. That was hard work.
This time I’m over it. She’ll either feed from my breast or she’ll get formula. And you know what? Because I’m much more relaxed about it, it seems much easier, and she’s not fussing as much as the other two did even at this age. I suspect half the problem is the stress from pressure we put on ourselves to do the right thing by our babies.
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Trisha - Milk Banks are a great idea, but I wonder if some mothers would feel uncomfortable about using them. I’m not sure how common they are in Australia. Thanks for visiting!
Babyamore (Trish) - I must have saved heaps of money on formula too! Hope Sam’s feeling better now.
Paula - I had troubles at the beginning too - I don’t think the nurses etc ever really prepare mothers for how difficult it can be at the start. Thanks for visiting!
Penny - Yes, I think we are alike! I thought second time round would be much easier too, but I still had all the normal probs (latching, cracking nipples etc) with Chiq. I think the difference was that I was more confident we’d work out in the end. I agree the weaning just feels more natural when they are older. By the time Guerita weaned we were down to one feed and it was pretty easy to drop. Hope weaning Jasper goes well!!
Kin - I definitely agree stress is a major factor in supply and getting everything to “click”. Hope it goes well but glad to hear you’re not beating yourself up about it!
laziness.
I also co-sleep because I can’t be fugged getting out of bed in the middle of the night to feed my baby. I roll over. And stick a boob in. And go back to sleep.
That said though, I get plenty of sleep and have happy babies.
So it can’t be all that bad being lazy ..
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