Monday, May 12, 2008

A note on nursing. . .

When our son was born, my wife wasn't sure she would be able to nurse. She thought it'd be a little weird, and we'd heard of a lot of moms who weren't able to for various reasons (low supply, small baby mouth, etc.). So we went into it not sure how long it'd last.

Over the past month-and-a-half we've started taking steps to wean our little monkey from the breast. . . he's starting to look at my wife's breasts and lick his lips in a slightly sleazy way. Pumping in her classroom at school has worn her down and we've been using a nipple shield since day one which eliminates the connivence of nursing. So for a month an a half we've been slowly moving him onto formula (he's down to nursing only once a day in the morning, and doesn't seem to care when we drop a feeding).

The reasons for weaning him are not an issue for us. It's our decision and we've made it. I've heard lots of reasons for breast-feeding. It's less expensive, it's better for the baby, it promotes bonding. . . all bullshit! Only one reason should sway moms in favor of breast-feeding. . .

The smell!

The smell of formula has to be the second worst smell in the world. The first is the smell of formula-fed baby poop. My God it's awful!

I support women whatever way they feed* their baby, but damn. . . I don't think I'd have been able to handle the smell for this long.

*I still will say nursing past one year is a little creepy, and breast-feeding in public is fine, but if you can whip it out in public I'm allowed to ogle.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh I know the smell is aweful. I had a friend who wanted to give up breastfeeding because it was starting to be too much for her, but her husband didn't want her to. So he made her a bottle of formula and had his wife smell it and that sold her on continuing breastfeeding. For me it wasn't so bad because anything felt better then having Carter latch on. He had ruined me from every wanting to breastfeed again. I had tried pumping, but it just took too long to get anything and when I did it just wasn't enough. I tried with Peyton but I guess the fears came back and was afraid the same thing would happen again, so just switched him to formula as soon as we got home. The poop is aweful and it is so hard for them to pass sometimes that it makes me want to cry. I feel bad that I couldn't give my son what my body was made to give him, but I just feel breastfeeding is meant for some and not for others. I use to watch my friend breastfeed and it just came natually to her and I use to get sad and wonder why it didn't for me.

I agree as long as your baby is fed that is the most important thing. Your wife should be so proud of herself that she did it this long. I know my friends daughter use to look at her boobs like mmmm give me some of that.LOL I guess when they know that is where food comes from then that is why they look at them like that. Like me when I drive past McDonalds. LOL

Amy

I'm Not Skippy said...

That's exactly what it's like. driving by whatever food makes you hungry. . . and they can smell it. You know when you're driving with the windows open and you smell something yummy. . .

Anyway, yeah more power to ya if you can stand the smell for the first full year (or more). I know the smell alone is going to make us try and get him off it sooner and onto nothing but table food as soon as we can.

~Joe said...

I seriously do NOT get how my daughter can drink formula and turn her nose at peaches, it amazes me, it stinks SO BADDDD,it cant taste good.it just cant.Breast milk doesnt smell that great either though.

I'm Not Skippy said...

In my experience breast milk is mostly odorless.

Anonymous said...

I commend your wife being able to keep going this long and pumping at school with her schedule and using one of those damn sheilds a lot of people would have thrown in the towel a long time ago. Neither one of my kids actually nursed Miles had horrible latching problems and Emily didn't but Miles thought she was biting me and kept ripping her head away from me (and holy hooverville she hurt) so back to pumping I went (plus I didn't really want to nurse I was not a comfy person about it I felt weird and well too much exposure for someone with um bigger girls lol). I pumped 14mos with him and am going strong with Em now, BUT I am home that makes a HUGE difference in pumping and I am one of the lucky ones that have a great supply. Formula OMG yeah the smell and poop OMG you'd think you need a full hazmat suit to change him and holy hell if he spits up phewwww and he is being fed that's all that matters. BM only really has a smell if you eat strong smelling foods otherwise it is pretty much just there. And HeH about the last sentence you are such a guy *shakes head* :)