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I was discouraged from breastfeeding also. (my youngest is 2) I had to switch peds because of it. My babies are usually slow gainers in the beginning but they more than make up for it later. I was always being pushed to take formula. And I am not confrontational by nature, so I just tried to find a more supportive pediatrician. ..
So yeah its weird how the medical community gives lip service to breastfeeding yet many dr's do discourage it. I don't understand why. I was breastfed until I was about 11 months old. My dh was formula fed. AND they put rice cereal in his bottle from birth because he was such a BIG baby ( 9 lbs) and was hungry all the time. Heh I don't want to get into a debate, but my dh is NOT in touch with his hunger and fullness signals at all. He eats because its time to eat or to regulate his blood sugar. He definitely has weight issues, the more so as he gets older but he eats mostly processed food. Anyway. Fascinating discussion.
Do you understand the difference between discouraging and making a poor attempt to solve a problem? This is the type of thinking in patients I do find irritating. If your baby is not gaining, the doc has a responsibility to address this. Now I know nothing about how slowly your baby was gaining or how seriously concerning it was for your doctor. Do I agree with jumping right to formula? No. But these are the interventions doctors are taught to use when a baby is not gaining. Originally Posted by Pinkhippie
I agree with all this, I have noticed this as well. I am also a hippy dippy mama who breastfed "on demand.". And yes in the beginning that was like every hour. I thought for sure I was doing something wrong because at the hospital they told me every 3 hours to feed her. Im glad I listened to my instincts on that one instead of saying "she can't possibly be hungry, it hasn't been 3 hours yet."I was discouraged from breastfeeding also. (my youngest is 2) I had to switch peds because of it. My babies are usually slow gainers in the beginning but they more than make up for it later. I was always being pushed to take formula. And I am not confrontational by nature, so I just tried to find a more supportive pediatrician. ..
So yeah its weird how the medical community gives lip service to breastfeeding yet many dr's do discourage it. I don't understand why. I was breastfed until I was about 11 months old. My dh was formula fed. AND they put rice cereal in his bottle from birth because he was such a BIG baby ( 9 lbs) and was hungry all the time. Heh I don't want to get into a debate, but my dh is NOT in touch with his hunger and fullness signals at all. He eats because its time to eat or to regulate his blood sugar. He definitely has weight issues, the more so as he gets older but he eats mostly processed food. Anyway. Fascinating discussion.
What if you were not producing enough milk, but your doc continued to "support" your BFing by doing nothing when he discovered that your baby was gaining slowly. I put quotes around support because it seems "support" for you would have been to not recommend formula. So as I was saying, if he did nothing and then you found out down the line that there was a supply issue, and you had to give formula anyway, then you'd be complaining your doc ignored the concern that your baby wasn't gaining. Or here's another thought. Lets say you give formula, but the baby still isn't gaining because of another medical or metabolic issue? Well, now the doc knows its not you milk or the formula, but has evidence that the baby is unable to gain from either source. Suggesting you switch to formula and then seeing a gain tells the doc that there's not a larger issue at play there, but its just a simple problem of you possibly not having enough milk. But patients don't get this. I think if docs explained things a little better, it would prevent some people from jumping to conclusions, like he's discouraging BFing. I'm sorry but patients can be really clueless sometimes.