My infant feeding journey

I get asked all the time what I did when it came to feeding my babies. Did I breastfeed? Formula feed? Purees? Baby-led weaning? Well, there’s a simple answer to all this. Yes!

Yep, that’s right, I have done it all! My personal experiences with my own three children and how different each of those experiences has been beneficial to my clients including my experience giving birth at three of Ottawa’s hospitals. When it comes to feeding my babies I tried all the different things.

Baby #1- Austin, now 14.5 years old

I planned on breastfeeding, but I didn’t know anyone who had done it. I went into his birth assuming that since it was the natural thing to do, I’d just know what I was doing. Oh boy, was I wrong! My birth took three days and by the time he was born I was exhausted and my body also wasn’t too happy with everything it had been through. Back then they also didn’t keep babies in the room with you after a cesarean, so I didn’t even get to hold my baby for about three hours after he was born. Breastfeeding was not off to a good start!

When he was two days old the nurses started telling me he was losing too much weight and that I didn’t have an option but to give him formula (there are other options but that’s a post for a different day!). I was also told that since he was such a big boy (9 lbs 12 oz at birth and over 10lbs at a week old) that I’d never make enough milk to make him happy. We got home and I was still determined to give him formula until we went to see our (now former) family doctor on day four. He said I had a lump and needed to immediately stop breastfeeding with no discussion or further testing. So the decision was made for me, formula it was. 

Baby #2- Arianna, 12 years old

When I was pregnant with Arianna I made the decision right away that I did not want to breastfeed. After everything with Austin, I was 100% sure that breastfeeding wasn’t for me. She never had a drop of breastmilk but formula feeding wasn’t easy! While Austin was on the same formula the entire time, Arianna’s belly didn’t agree with most formulas and even if she seemed ok for a bit, soon she would start getting a lot of gas and discomfort. On the advice of our doctor, we switched formulas on a regular basis and just tried to keep her happy. When she was 6 years old we found out that her discomfort was actually caused by fructose intolerance. Yep, she’s sensitive to the natural sugars in fruit and the sweetener used in many processed foods, including formula!

Baby #3- Jace, 9 years old

By the time Jace was born, things had changed a bit for me. The biggest had been Facebook groups becoming part of my life. Due to some of these groups, I now knew where to turn for support and decided that I definitely wanted to try breastfeeding again. There’s nothing much to say when it comes to breastfeeding Jace. It was relatively easy and when I needed support with little things, like an oversupply, I knew where to turn. Unlike what they said for Austin, I had more than enough milk. So much milk that I actually managed to donate about 1000 ounces!! 

Purees vs. baby led weaning

This too changed depending on the kids and the knowledge I had. With Austin, I mostly did jars of food, closely following the ages on the jars. Started with cereal and then onto veggies and fruit, and eventually added meat and dairy. With Arianna I still did purees, but I made more of them and switched to little pieces of food and whatever we were eating much sooner. Jace, on the other hand, was different. When I offered him cereal, he refused. He was not interested, not one bit! So I offered him veggies, nope! Surely he will like fruit, right? Not a chance! So I assumed he wasn’t ready for food and stuck with breastfeeding. Then one day out of the blue he stole the crust that I was saving to dip in my soup! From then on, we did baby-led weaning, which for us was basically giving him what we had cut into appropriately sized pieces. 

When it comes to feeding your baby, I’m a big supporter of finding what works for your family, even if it isn't what you had originally planned. There is no wrong way to feed your baby. Don’t let anyone convince you there is.