Dear Breastmates,
I have a Breastfeeding Story to share with you.
My son was born attached to the breast! He taught me how to breastfeed, because being my first, I had no idea what I was doing. Once the nipples healed we both loved breastfeeding, it was the right thing for both of us, although my son was an extremely unsettled baby who suffered with severe colic and just could not burp.
Then one day I enjoyed a delicious hot chocolate and only hours following I had a very sick baby. I was very quick to realise that we had a problem with dairy, and I stopped eating any foods that contained dairy. I then had bacon and eggs for breakfast. Again, a sick baby. I avoided eggs and we were back to our usual routine a couple of days later. By the time he was 5 weeks old we had been to the local GP a dozen times because something ‘just wasn’t right’ but we were getting very little relief.
When my darling non-burping son was 5 months old I began to worry about introducing foods due to the issues with dairy and egg and other wind problems so I trotted off to a dietican who announced that my son is food sensitive and placed me, the breastfeeding mother onto a total elimination diet for one month. For 30 long days I ate an extrememly limited diet consisting of bread, bananas, mangos, meats other than pork, potatoes, butternut pumpkin and a handful of other boring foods. It was the hardest thing I have ever done, but miraclulously, my unsettled baby became the most fun loving, happy, adorable, easy amazing child! He was indeed food sensitive to a huge amount of foods. I was now faced with a decision to breastfeed on a limited diet or place him onto a hypoallergenic prescription formula. I chose to breastfeed.
I was able to introduce foods to my son through breastmilk before I gave them to him to eat, proving to be a very gentle proccess when trials of a new food didn’t go well. I fed my son until he was 18 months old then weaning was considered – what will he drink? At 18 months of age my son was prescribed a hypo allergenic feeding formula.
I was now a formula feeding mum with an 18 month old! My son enjoyed his new milk in a cup and it seemed I missed breastfeeding much more than he did. My lovely, healthy formula feeding toddler is now three years old and is still drinking his baby formula. Thank God for these formulas!
I am so lucky that I was given a choice, I was lucky to be able to breastfeed my son but some mums don’t get the option. I feel blessed that weaning was a choice that I could make and that there is a suitable feeding formula for my son to drink so that he doesn’t have to take a tablet to receive his calcium each day. I am pro breastfeeding because I like it and it suits me, but I am also pro formula feeding because it helps my darling son to be healthy and happy.
Best wishes
Kim
