Why do Mothers/parents choose to formula feed?

Question

I know this is going to offend a lot of people, but I am honestly just trying to understand why birth Mother/parents willingly choose formula over breastfeeding. I know many women and babies cannot breastfeed, and that is not what I am talking about here. I mean women who make milk when their babies are born, and choose to buy artificial milk and stick a plastic nipple in their baby's mouth, instead of bringing baby to the breast to drink the special-made super duper healthy immune-boosting milk that our bodies make for our babies. Please enlighten me--it just seems so unbelievable that SO many people make this choice. AGAIN, I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT PEOPLE WHO CANNOT BREASTFEED, I AM TALKING ABOUT PEOPLE WHO CAN BUT CHOOSE NOT TO.

Answer 1

Many of us grow up in an environment that looks upon it as unnatural and gross. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth, but there aren't many resources in rural and poor areas. I think with lots of support and lots of education, breastfeeding can once again become the norm.

If a "boob nazi" (as people like to call us) can change even one woman's perspective on feeding her child, then I say it's worth it.

Answer 2

I have a friend who has a 10 week old and she can produce milk but she chose to use formula. This child is number 5 and for her it was a practical choice. If she is at the store, park, dinner, mall etc... and the baby gets hungry she doesn't have to go find a place to hide and nurse. She doesn't have to drag the other 4 into the mall bathroom and make them sit there for 15-30 min while she nurses. She makes a bottle and feeds the baby. She is very happy with her choice. She is also married to a doctor and is aware of all the benefits of both methods of feeding.

There are plenty of moms who pump and put that "super duper healthy immune-boosting milk" in those bottles and stick plastic nipples in their child's mouth and there is nothing wrong with that either. Both are healthy ways of nurturing our children and her children are just as healthy as the next and should not be looked down upon because you chose a different method of feeding your child. Ridiculing them is the true ignorance in this situation not their method of feeding.

Answer 3

I am nursing two babies, 21 months and 6 months, and MANY people do not understand why I continue to nurse my older one, so it does go both ways =)

As stated, some women just don't understand or appreciate that breasts are MEANT for suckling babies. Many women are influenced by their parents or siblings, just like with intervened childbirth.

If you go back to the 1940s-1950, women were NOT ALLOWED to nurse their babies if they delivered at a hospital. There is a whole generation where women who went to the hospital were knocked out during labor, the child extracted by use of forceps, and the woman and child "quarantined" from each other for seven days. The belief was that "science" was better than Nature, and there was no reason for women to nurse.

That thinking pervaded some people through generations, even though now it is proven otherwise it simply isn't considered appropriate for women's breasts to be exposed for nursing.

Add to that the stress of having to return to work, and that kind of bonding becomes a burden, one that some of us don't understand but have to accept.

Answer 4

We live in society where breast are looked at as purely sexual. That makes many women uncomfortable with it and often pregnant women have concerns about it "feeling sexual". In many areas bottle feed is what is the cultural norm. When I decided to breastfeed, my family was shocked and told me "why don't you just bottle feed". When I was still breastfeeding my son at 9 months, I even go nasty comments from the nurses at the doctors office. " Isn't it time to wean him" Or " You could just put him on the bottle".
Bottle feeding is also more convent.My son wouldn't take a bottle. So daddy or anyone else was unable to feed him. I went several months without being able to leave his side.
Their will always be women who chose to bottle fed for their their own reasons. However, if breastfeeding became more culturally acceptable and their was more support available, more women would choose to do so.

Answer 5

Less than 1% of all women cannot breastfeed. The rest are given bad advice or choose not to. I have never understood the choice not to. It is the lesser food and yet so many choose it. I really don't get it either. The only reasons I have ever heard are that they don't want to feel "tied down" (then why have a baby?), they want to drink etc (good reason), or they don't wan their breasts to sag (like that's not going to happen anyway). I've never heard a good reason outside of the 1% who can't because of the removal of a breast, a communicable disease, or taking medications to control a non-communicable disease that would have side-effects for the baby. The number of women who "don't make enough milk" is less than 30 women worldwide per generation, yet I've heard at least that many say that on Y!Answers. I honestly think the reason is inadequate education. Starting back in high school Biology and right on through pregnancy education in hospitals and clinics.

Answer 6

I find it pretty offensive that people think that women who chose formula over breastmilk are selfish, or that we are lazy...that is closed-minded thinking. First of all, I didn't make this baby by myself, and I'm sure as heck not going to raise it by myself, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I need my husband to help me, whether it's night feedings, or when I need to get out of the house for an hour to go walk and center myself. I always thought I would breastfeed my child, and after I got pregnant for some reason my mind changed and I was no longer comfortable with the idea. There's no way I would be successful doing something I don't want to do or feel comfortable doing, and if I'm uncomfortable, my baby will be too.

If you choose to breastfeed, more power to you, and the same if you choose formula like I did. We are all mothers, and there's no reason to knock each other down for the things we do or don't do. We were all created differently for a purpose, if we were all the same this world would be mighty boring!

Answer 7

I breastfeed my daughter for 3 monbths, but when I went back to work it was tough. I was a single parent and I'm in the military, I work between 12 to 18 hours a day and I wasn't always able to eat properly to give my daughter the best nutrients. Honestly, I wonder if I would have continued if my daughter wouldn't have all the food allergies and illnesses that she suffers from, even though her doctor assured me that everything was hereditary and it may have not been prevented anyway. But really, you should lighten up on other mothers, because everyone can't sit home and breastfeed or have the time to pump milk as you do.

Answer 8

I have asked this question, and have been told that some women are simply not comfortable with feeding a baby at their breast. Some consider the breast a sexual object, and can't switch their thinking. Others feel it's a little too close to nature for them. Some don't know any other way - all the babies they ever saw fed from bottles.

Answer 9

#1 People have been led to believe (by a massive marketing assault) that "formula" is just as good or just as nutritious as breast milk. (which is a lie)

#2 People are lazy, and they rather have daddy do the night shift.

#3 A stupid superficial society has convinced us that our breasts are for our husbands and boyfriends and not out babies.

Those are the only possible reasons (besides "health" reasons) that I can think of that people wouldn't breastfeed...

I don't even feed my dog "formulated food" ...I would never think of feeding my baby some crap that comes out of a lab.

Any "milk" that can sit on the shelf at target for months at a time...is not the "milk" that will EVER go into my baby.

I make homemade dogfood, and I run a household, and I work 40+ hours a week, and I make my baby food and I breastfeed....and I'm just a regular person...I'm no supermom...If I can manage...anyone can.

I don't understand the women that don't even try and just choose to go straight to formula. I thought the point was to protect our children...and keep the toxic chemicals and crap intake to a minimum while we could...opting to make it their primary source of food just makes no sense to me.

To each her own...but I just don't get it.


***Firefighter - We may have all been created differently as you say...however...we were all given mammary glands...seeing as how ...we are mammals.

And I'm sorry so many people are confused about this...but THATS WHAT BREASTS ARE FOR.

And hubby can help just as much with a bottle of expressed breastmilk as he can with a bottle of formula.

I can't think of a single reason that formula would ever be considered a suitable replacement.

If you do any research as far as the chemicals found in formula and additionally, the nutrients NOT found in it...it just doesn't compare.

It doesn't make you a bad mother, and I'm not "knocking you"
But...as I stated in my first post....

To each her own but I still don't get it.

Answer 10

I know what you mean...I am 100% for breastfeeding. But I think there is more than one answer. Some women are shy and think that they will have to show there breast....god forbid. Some women smoke and don't want any chemicals getting to their baby. Some women want the father's to be involved more and bottle feeding allows some more bonding time for them. Some women drink or do drugs and the reason is obvious in this case. Some women simply don't understand the benifits. I figure as long as no one had bothered me about nursing in public or nursing till my soon was 2.....then I have no right judging thir choices either. Bottle feeding may not be the absolute best for us...but it is for some women. And you just have to respect their decision. It is still perfectly healthy for babies to drink, and they are reformulating it all the time to make it better and better for babies. Don't worry about it....it's not that big of a deal.......

Answer 11

At first i choose not to while i was pregnant because i was not comfortable with the idea but the more i learned about it the more i wanted to do it...i was getting very excited about breastfeeding but then was unable to do so....it really made me feel upset and people still make me feel bad...i tried for about a month but then was advised by my Doctor to stop trying....