Depressed over bottle feeding

Hi, I haven't used the site before but have been driving myself crazy and would appreciate some support. I was determined to breastfeed my youngest (now 5mths) having bottle fed other 2 kids but within first day had introduced bottle. Have had rotten time with acid reflux and just keep beating myself up cos I won't ever have opportunity to breast feed now. Not sure why I didn't other than was scared would be too difficult. Would like to hear others experiance cos its really getting me down - stupid as its not as if I can change anything.

Did you BF for a while?? That's enough to get the antibodies etc. I turned to bottle feeding after a while and felt guilty, but I literally had no milk. I used a breastpump for hours and be lucky if I got an oz!!
Martha is 5 and happy and healthy, she slept fine, has had chicken pox and that's it! She has no allergies (that I know of yet?). She's had a few colds but nothing major.
I know it's difficult, but in the end the only person that can stop the guilt is you and s*d everyone else

Hi!
I only breastfed my daugther for about 3 days and then got the bottles out - i just couldnt do it
My son never got breast fed as i was sooo tired after giving birth i could hardly hold him so he ended up on a bottle.
I dont fell bad about it though hun both my kids are happy and healthy and both are really close to me and i dont think breastfeeding would of made any difference to how close and bonded we are

Hi there

I expressed for 8 weeks and my son did not take to the breast at all. I was on the express pump all day long its started to get silly as that seemed to be all i did, as well as then actually feeding him once i had finished expressing.

By the last week after an hour i was lucky to get an oz out. Well Harrison at 12 weeks was then on 8oz i felt awful as maybe he had been really hungry, i id top him up mind you with formula.

He has always had reflux the doctors gave him infant gaviscon that helped loads, he is 20 weeks and still on it.

Do not be as hard on your self, i felt happy i had managed to pump away for that long.

xx

Yes - looking back I was glad to have kept on for as long as I did - it is so not a bad thing at least you tried

I didn't breast feed my daughter as I just didn't feel comfortable doing it, so she was bottle fed from birth. I was made to feel like a terrible mother by some for not trying, but she's happy and healthy.

I was absolutely desperate to breast feed my son but after a difficult birth, he was rushed to special care and his first feed was formula via tube, not the best start. I then tried to breast feed him, but he wouldn't latch on, when he did, he instantly pulled off and screamed. I had every midwife in the hospital trying to help me (unfortunately they all had individual techniques which confused me, but they tried). I gave him a bottle and felt like the biggest failure because i couldn't get him to do something that was supposed to be natural. I expressed instead and half fed him breast milk and half formula and managed to do it for about 3 weeks but found it hard going. I had an excellent milk supply but it took a good half hour each time I expressed and I could only do it by hand, I couldn't use pumps, so I had no hands free to do anything else, like run after a toddler aswell as sort out a screaming newborn.

Don't beat yourself up hun, you've tried but they are many bottle fed children out there who are healthy just like breast fed children.

i bottle fed my daughter from day 1 as i was very tierd after birth, and as soon as i put her on breast she fell asleep. she's fit and healthy and were very close.

i did manage to breast feed my son for 4weeks, i was quite upset when i had to stop but im ok now hes 5months old and good and healthy. i actually found it quite hard n time consuming.

Thank you all for your support. I am feeling more upbeat now - Eilidh is happy and healthy. What you did remind me of was just how tired I was not just because of the birth but also in the weeks just before. I also had a home birth which was a great experiance but straight after the other kids wanted mum back so I can try to stop being so hard on myself, I took what seemed to be the easiesat route at the time really because I was just too tired being reminded of this has been a great help so once again thank you for taking the time to respond.