Mother of three breast fed babies

by Barbara
(St Thomas, Ontario, Canada)

Long ago, and far away, thirty four years ago in England, I gave birth to my first child - my son Daniel, who was born weighing 7lbs 12oz at our local hospital without much fuss and bother.

But breast-feeding didn't start out that way ...... in those days as soon as your baby was born, you were given a bottle of formula and told that even if you were breast-feeding you would need the bottle to "top up the baby afterwards because he would likely still be hungry", and so that is what I did.

Instead of following my instincts and breastfeeding when the baby wanted, for as long as the baby wanted, I fed him every 4 hours for 5 - 10 minutes each side, just as they told me.

Luckily, once we came home from the hospital, breast feeding was well established (we stayed in hospital for 7 days in the good-old-days!) and once we were home I dropped those bottles of formula, and just fed him for as long as he wanted, whenever he wanted.

Daniel was a very contented baby, who grew well, played well, and was very healthy - he avoided many childhood illnesses, never had an ear infection, and unlike many of his school friends, never had antibiotics until he was well into his teen years.

Daniel self-weaned at around a year old and was by that time eating well and drinking water and diluted fruit juices from a cup - although, he never did like cow's milk, and still doesn't!