Bottle Feeding vs. Breastfeeding

So, let’s talk about bottle feeding and breastfeeding for a few minutes. This is a personal decision once your little cub is born. When you are in the hospital (or any other environment) giving birth, the nurses or midwives should always ask you if you would like to breastfeed or bottle-feed (formula) your cub. This is very important. Whether you do one or the other or both, that does not mean you are a horrible mother in any way. Everyone is different and has their battles to fights, reasons to believe, options to choose, etc.. Each has their pros and cons.

Short story: A colleague of mine strictly told the nurse that she wanted to breastfeed her son. When her son was born, apparently the nurses needed to make sure he was alert, so they gave him a bottle of milk. While this was happening, my colleague was on her way to the recovery room. Of course, the nurses never confessed that they gave him the bottle. Luckily, my colleague was still able to breastfeed. However, in the process of breastfeeding. she was so frustrated and miserable because her son was refusing the breast for a few days. As a result, her milk supply ran really low, and she was only able to provide for two months.

Bottle feeding: With bottle feeding, you feed your baby with formula or breastmilk. Formula is manufactured and sometimes processed to provide the necessary amount of nutrients needed for your cub to grow strong and healthy. For formula to be sold, it should be approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). This is very important, so make sure it is FDA approved. Formula is not perfect, however, it has its pros and cons.

• Pros:

  • A family member or friend can give your cub food, you don’t have to physically be present.

  • You can control the amount of intake for your cub.

  • Bonding

    • Now, about bonding, what is means is that you can have a physical interaction with your cub. If your are breastfeeding, only you would be able to experience that bond between you and your cub. On the other hand, if you are bottle feeding, family members and friends are also able to share that bonding with your cub.

• Cons:

  • Bottle feeding (formula) does not give the exact nutrients as maternity milk provides.

  • You have to mix, heat and measure the formula before your cub can intake the milk, however, with breast feeding, the temperature is just right and ready to drink.

  • Bottle feeding equipment can be expensive.

Breastfeeding: The human body functions in many amazing ways, for instance, the ability for a mother to provide maternity milk to her cub (Keep in mind, if you are not able breastfeed, for whatever reason, it does not mean you are incompetent or unable to provide to your cub. Don’t ever forget that.)

• Pros:

  • It is free and does not require any prep work.

  • The World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding until the age of 2 or longer, whereas The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends breastfeeding for 6 months and then offer solid food (Goldman, 2020). Now keep in mind, not all women are the same. I personally was able to make it to 1 year and I was really draining as much as possible.

• Cons:

  • In the first few weeks of giving birth, you may feel discomfort and pain because you are not producing breast milk at 100%. Meaning, when your cub is born, that is when your hormones “activate” the process of maternity milk. It takes a while, so it is very important that you do not get frustrated, this is a slow process.

  • You cannot really measure the amount of milk your cub is intaking. You can only take the amount of time.

“Globally, only 38% of infants are exclusively breastfed. In the United States, only 75% of infants initiate breastfeeding from birth; however, by the age of three months, 67%, or 2.7 million, of them rely on infant formula for some portion of their nutrition.” (Martin, 2016).

Remember, you do you, every parent has a choice. No judgement what-so-ever. Your awesome.

Arora, M. (2023). 15 Advantages and Disadvantages of Bottle Feeding. First Cry Parenting. Retrieved from 15 Advantages and Disadvantages of Bottle Feeding (firstcry.com).

Goldman, R. (2020). Breastfeeding vs Formula: The Pros and Cons. Healthline. Retrieved from Pros and Cons of Breastfeeding: Is it Right For You?.

Martin, Camilia R et al. “Review of Infant Feeding: Key Features of Breast Milk and Infant Formula.” Nutrients vol. 8,5 279. 11 May. 2016, doi:10.3390/nu8050279.