Breast or bottle feeding

Mrs. Bottle: "I don't want to breastfeed because it is embarrassing to
breastfeed baby in public."

Mrs. Breast: "If you wear the right clothes you can breastfeed without
exposing your breasts, in fact nobody will even notice that you are
breastfeeding."

Mrs. Bottle: "Putting the baby on the breasts will cause engorged
breasts and sore nipples. Most times baby sucks non stop all day long
which can be very tiring for the mother."

Mrs. Breast: "You will have engorged breasts even without breast
feeding as nature is preparing you to breast feed. With adequate
support and practice, most moms are able to get baby to latch on
properly without having sore nipples. I know breast feeding can be
very tiring in the early days but once baby knows how to latch on it
is so easy. In fact I can do other things like caressing baby or
eating whilst my baby is feeding as one hand is free, so sometimes we
actually have our meals together. You cannot do this with bottle
feeding because you need to hold baby with one hand and the bottle
with the other."

Mrs. Breast: "Breast milk is the perfect food for baby as the
components - lactose, protein (whey and casein), and fat - are easily
digested by a newborn's immature system."

Mrs. Bottle: "Nowadays most infant formula have been modified to
resemble breast milk as closely as possible with the correct amount of
protein, fats, vitamins, carbohydrates, minerals and other nutrients
that babies need."

Mrs. Breast: "Breast milk is more easily digested so breastfed babies
have fewer incidences of diarrhea or constipation"

Mrs. Bottle: "If you eat the wrong food your baby can have diarrhea
and a lot of wind too and, if the feeds are made up hygienically, the
risk of diarrhea is reduced and constipation can be prevented by
giving extra water."

Mrs. Breast: "A nursing mother passes antibodies to her baby to
protect or lower the occurrence of many conditions such as ear
infections, diarrhea, respiratory infections and meningitis.
Antibodies cannot be added to formula milk"

Mrs. Bottle: "I have passed antibodies to my baby via the placenta
during pregnancy so my baby has some immunity for about 6 months."

Mrs. Breast: "Those antibodies are for infection that you have been
exposed to before your baby was born. Breast feeding will give your
baby new antibodies against infection that you are exposed to now."
"It also protect baby against allergies, asthma, diabetes, obesity and
SIDS."

Mrs. Bottle: "In that case, I can give my baby expressed breast milk."

Mrs. Breast: "Yes, but why create extra work for yourself? If you give
your baby expressed breast milk, you will have to spend money buying
feeding bottles, sterilisers etc and think of the time spent washing
and sterilising them when you can just let the baby suck directly from
the breast."

Mrs. Bottle: "If I use bottle feeding my husband or someone else can
feed the baby while I rest and it will help my husband to bond with
baby."

Mrs. Breast: "Daddy can still bond with baby without actually feeding
the baby. I understand that if daddy changes diapers and bathe the
baby it will also help them bond."

Mrs. Bottle: "Mothers can leave baby at home with daddy or another
care taker and go out shopping or run errands on her own without
having to bring baby along or rushing back to breastfeed."

Mrs. Breast: "It's also easy for breastfeeding mothers to be active
and go out with their babies knowing that they'll have instant food
available whenever their little one is hungry and they don't have to
carry an extra bag of bottle feeding paraphernalia. There will be
times when you need to go out on an urgent matter and if there is no-
one available, you will have to take baby with you."

Mrs. Bottle: It is easier to determine when baby needs feeding so
mothers can work out some sort of feeding schedule and plan her day
around this schedule.

Mrs. Breast: "There's no question that breastfeeding does require a
substantial time commitment from mothers like many things in
parenting, but with a little organization and time management, it is
easy to work out a schedule to breastfeed. The skin-to-skin contact
enhances the emotional connection between mother and infant and many
nursing mothers enjoy the experience of bonding so closely with their
babies."

Mrs. Bottle: "With bottle feeding I can get someone else to feed baby
in the night therefore I don't have to get up at all."

Mrs. Breast: "Breast milk is always fresh and available and at the
right temperature, so there's no need to warm up bottles in the middle
of the night. It is fantastic because I can nurse baby lying down so
there is minimal interruption to my sleep."

Mrs. Bottle: "I am going back to work after 2 months leave and I would
rather start feeding with a bottle so that it will be easier when the
time comes."

Mrs. Breast: "You need to let baby suckle on the breast to stimulate
the let down reflex. Milk production will diminish if baby does not
suckle. You can start offering the bottle when baby is 6 weeks old.
That should give you 2 weeks to adjust to bottle feeding."

Mrs. Bottle: "What if my baby does not want to take the bottle by that
time?"

Mrs. Breast: "Don't worry all babies will suck on anything if they are
really hungry."

Mrs. Bottle: "I was told that I have to eat more in order to make
milk. Won't that make me put on more weight?"

Mrs. Breast "A nursing mother needs extra 500 calories per day to
produce breast milk but breastfeeding also burns calories and helps
shrink the uterus, so nursing moms are able to return to their pre-
pregnancy shape and weight quicker. You need to eat a wide variety of
well-balanced foods as this introduces breastfed babies to different
tastes through the breast milk which will have different flavors
depending on what their mothers have eaten."

Mrs. Bottle: "What other benefits are there to breastfeeding?

Mrs. Breast: "Recent studies indicate that breastfeeding might help
prevent childhood and adult obesity. According to the National Women's
Health Information Center, babies who are breastfed tend to gain less
unnecessary weight, which may help them be less overweight later."
"Recent studies suggest that children who were exclusively breastfed
for 6 months have IQs 5 to 10 points higher than children who were
formula fed."
"The ability to nourish a baby totally can also help a new mother feel
confident in her ability to care for her baby. In addition, studies
show that breastfeeding helps lower the risk of pre-menopausal breast
cancer and also may help decrease the risk of uterine and ovarian
cancer."

best regard,
vee
http://www.kidsmanual.duniamama.com