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When You Can't Breastfeed

Breastfeeding is the most healthy option for moms and babies. That is usually not much disputed in the attachment parenting community. What is disputed is whether it is ever right to choose to formula feed your baby and what to do when there are breastfeeding problems.

As moms, we always want to do the very best we can for our babies - and it is so easy to feel guilty or criticized if you have to make a different choice than the one that is considered "right.' So many things I had planned with my baby have not worked out the way I had hoped. One of those things is breastfeeding.

From the first day, breastfeeding has been a challenge with my very active little girl. I persisted and worked my way through the challenges one by one. From getting her to accept breastfeeding at all, to dealing with biting with her new sharp teeth. She bites very deliberately now, usually when my milk supply is too low for her liking or when I try to nurse her to sleep when she is insisting she does not want to sleep.

Due to my mother's health and several other factors beyond my control, my stress level has been running much too high lately. I first noticed the impact at about 4 1/2 months when Eva started screaming, biting, and refusing to nurse each night at about 8 PM. I quickly realized that my milk supply was all but stopping in the evenings. No amount of trying to relax and rehydrate was helping, my little girl was hungry. So, I gave her a bottle of formula each night at 8 and another at midnight when she was going to sleep. Any attempt to nurse her got me bitten - several times if that is what it took to get her point across. Even the doctor was surprised when I told him she was biting and turning away. She is a little girl with big opinions and starving was not on her agenda.

Then she started refusing to nurse at other times of the day. After several days I finally tried pumping - and got only 1/2 an ounce after half an hour with a good electric pump. I had to face the fact that my milk supply was dwindling. I cried. More than once. I was not ready for this. I had planned to nurse her for a full year or more, and my body was not cooperating - nor was my baby.

If I was free to do so, I would have simply cut back on everything I could, taken some good herbs, and spent a week trying to nurse every hour or so to rebuild my supply. However, that is simply not possible for me right now - and with a tall skinny baby (just 22 percentile on weight and 61 on height) I am not willing to force her to wait for food. Eva is still happily nursing in the mornings and any time she wakens in the night, but afternoons and evenings she insists on bottles.

This leaves me wondering what to do for formula and trying to budget in this unexpected expense. All commercial soy formulas I have looked at contain almost 50 percent corn syrup to replace the natural sugars in milk. Even the Earth's Best Organic formula contains organic corn syrup - which I feel is a bit safer and at least the organic formula won't have genetically modified soybeans in it - but it is very pricey. So I am looking to save money on formula. I found a good deal on it at Diapers.com - with a coupon for $10 off (use the code BUYNOW to save $10 off your first purchase of formula). A month's supply of organic soy formula is only $100 with the coupon - that is about $60 cheaper than I found elsewhere and they include free shipping. They have several brands, so you can find the right one for your baby. We can't always afford the organic formula, so we sometimes use the other brands as well and they all come with the discount and free shipping.

Formula feeding was not my ideal, but at least we can afford formula better with the discount and I can feel good about what I am feeding her.

If you need formula, or many other baby things, the code BUY NOW will save you $10 at Diapers.com

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