reader submissions. It is an attempt to allow people to tell their
personal stories, in the hopes of bringing greater compassion to the
unique issues each of us face. If you would like to submit a story to
this series, click here. Today’s guest posts is by Julia.
My intent when bringing my little dude into the world was OF COURSE I’LL
BREASTFEED! However, the world had another plan. With him losing much
weight near the beginning of life, and us having trouble finding a
groove for many weeks… I made the heart wrenching decision to
supplement, and then finally go completely to formula. I’ve not talked
much about this, because the general consensus is that formula moms are
lazy, and generally aren’t conscious of the OMG HARM they are doing to
their kid. Before I get into that, please note that my son (who is the
cutest kid of all time) is doing great. He is well fed, meeting
milestones, not overweight/underweight and probably will be a model for
awesomeness. (Note: yes, breast feeding is best. No argument here.)
However,
over the past few months I’ve fielded ignorant, judgmental comments
about how awful it is to make that choice and I’m setting him up for
basically failure.
What I got out of many articles about
breastfeeding (admittedly, I’m defensive on the topic, and thus no doubt
found it much more adversarial than most) was that breastfeeding was
great (agreed) and if you don’t it’s cause you are lazy and don’t try
hard enough… not to mention that you don’t love your kid. (Or love
bonding with them.)
Speaking as a formula mother (and hopefully
more of us will come out of the woodwork) my son and I bonded just fine,
and we are in love with each other. Another side effect of bottle
feeding is that not only am I in love with my son by sharing feeding
time, but so is my husband.
So, those of you out there who:
-fought hard to breastfeed and couldn’t…
-weren’t able to make that choice because of circumstances out of your control
-adopted your little one, and thus it wasn’t an option
or otherwise had to make a gut-wrenching choice…. You are ok. Your child is ok.
Those
of you who are breastfeeding… good for you! I envy you. However,
stop judging us. Or at least know that if you say something to us that
is ignorant or hurtful, we will respond.
I love my son more than
life itself, and to imply otherwise will awaken the beast. Remember,
don’t anger the makers of the tiny humans… they will eat you alive.
