Formula. Ugh: Wrong Information is Worse.

I want to make something clear from the get go: formula is not my first choice for infant feeding.


This has come after almost totally formula feeding my first born and exclusively breast feeding my second for 22 months. So I think I am somewhat a subject-matter-expert on my preference for solely breast feeding.

Jeremy was not gaining weight. No matter how hard I tried to breast feed him, or how much I breast milk I tried to force down his throat through a bottle, he just would not gain weight. With Joey the slow weight gain was easy to digest (so to speak), doctors were not concerned that he had issues as most breast fed babies tend to be at or under the ideal weight. Jeremy on the other hand was not only not gaining weight, his head wasn't growing (5th percentile to be exact), and he wasn't getting any longer.

 The biggest issue with having a congenital heart defect (besides a heart defect, and this is my opinion) is growth. Jeremy's heart worked so hard to do anything that eating was similar to me going out and running a marathon. It would take (on average) one full hour for him to eat 3-4 ounces. I spent the majority of my day feeding him. Then there were the days where he would only want to eat about 12 ounces total. For a period of 6 weeks, Jeremy did not gain any weight. Not one single ounce. Not even a gram. 

To have the heart surgery at 6 months Jeremy needed to weigh at least 5 kilos, or about 14 pounds. It was a long, long road.

At around 5 months the cardiologist, nutritionist, and pediatrician decided he needed to supplement his breast milk with formula. This was the single hardest decision I had to make regarding his health care. Every bone in my body hated that it had come to this, but I knew that if he did not make weight for surgery I would hate myself even more. So we supplemented his breast milk by adding calories.

Why am I writing this? This is why.

I had never been told such off-the-wall, point-blank wrong information about breast feeding until I met this "Doctor" in the NICU graduation clinic (which we no longer participate in because of this incident). She "informed" me that breast feeding was terrible for babies because:
 - it did not provide them all of the nutrition they need at any point
-at 6 months of age babies get absolutely nothing from breast feeding and all babies need to supplement with formula at this time
-that Jeremy was really far behind at 3 months because he could not sit on his own and therefore he would not be able to eat table foods on time

And this was just some of it. I was shocked. I had never heard such wrong information from a Doctor no less... and a FEMALE doctor who had even breast fed her OWN children! Needless to say I left and when asked to schedule the future appointment I declined and explained why.

For the record:
-babies get so much nutritionally, developmentally, etc. from breast milk and breast feeding that I can't even begin to start... but you can go here for more information.
-babies still benefit from breast feeding at 6 months of age (and beyond)
-I don't know too many babies that can sit unassisted at 3 months of age

Today:
-Jeremy is still receiving breast milk with no formula
-Jeremy is 7 months of age TODAY!
-I try to nurse Jeremy because it will help develop his speech, which he may have issues with because that is common with Down syndrome
-Jeremy is learning to sit unassisted, and at this age within the normal guidelines for a child with Down syndrome this is considered normal-to-early
-Jeremy is eating baby food from a spoon(!) and sitting in a high chair at an age I consider to be ok to start baby foods
-Jeremy is also making "b," "d," "g," and "m" sounds and some of those are the most difficult for ANY baby to learn to make because it utilizes the lips