Well said (I mean by you…not so much the nurse’s response). I nursed for 16 mos. And in the beginning it was exceedingly stressful with a HN baby. I tortured myself (I was so convinced something I was eating caused her fussiness. Even did the total elimination diet for 10 days. But saw no change.). Would I do it again? Probably. But I always apprecated how supportive our pedi was–encouraged me to pump and try formula for 48 hours just to see if there was a difference (he is a man with years of wisdom–and knew from the beginning that I simply had a very spirited babe). I never did that though. I was too scared! Breast feeding is a huge commitment as it is, and when you toss a HN baby into the mix, it is so stressful. I support breast feeding but more so support moms doing whatever works best for them. I am 100% certain that babies turn out fine either way!

I generally agree with your article, if the response is simply “breast is best” and/or said in the tone of the nurse above, that is just terrible! There is nothing loving or supportive about that. Tone and presentation makes such a huge difference. Mothers need information, most importantly ACCURATE information about BOTH bfing and ffing so that THEY can make the best decision for their own family.
That being said, I feel I need to share a little of my story. I entered motherhood with a strong commitment to bfing, little did I know how hard it would be. Do you know what made it 10x harder? The fact that I received NO support from anyone other than my mother. I PRAYED for a bfing nazi, lol. I absolutely support a mother’s right to make the decision to bf or ff, but I fear that far too often it is swayed by a lack of support or MIS-information by pediatricians (many of who are require to have little to no bfing expertise…yet who do we go to for support?). Here is a list of reasons my pediatrician recommended I “supplement” (this started on my dd’s 2nd day of life), dehydration, jaundice, unexplained fussiness, reflux (which she did not have), not satisfied by bfing (fed “too long” at the breast)…the list goes on. Most of the advice they gave me on the how to’s of bfing were false, and if I had followed their instructions would have “failed” miserably. I cried nearly every time I left the pediatrician’s office because I felt like a terrible mother who was making my child this miserable, only to do research on my own to find that I was doing the right thing.
I do not have a problem with mothers using formula, I don’t think it is the end of the world, and I hate that mothers feel guilty for their choices (on BOTH sides of the fence). BUT, again I have a HUGE problem with medical professionals who hand out false information.
For ME, bfing was the best possible option for my HN baby. One of the only things that would calm her was the breast (not that we didn’t have horrible battles), she spent HOURS at the breast for both nourishment and comfort. If I had switched to the bottle (breast milk or formula) I would not have been able to comfort feed (a baby at the breast cannot be overfed). The extra time, effort and expense of bottle feeding was just not something I could afford as the mother of a HN baby.
I hope to never be seen as a bfing “nazi”, I hope I don’t come across that way. I guess because my bfing experience was so different that you are describing, I wanted to share. Blessings to all you mommas out there, please make the decision that YOU can live with.

Wow, I wrote a book! So sorry, haha! Holly, thanks for all you do!

Great article first of all! And good on your husband for pushing you to do that. As a first time mummy myself with a “high needs” baby or colicky at least for the first 4 months I had nothing but nil support from health care professionals, even now to the point i dont bother with taking my daughter to a doctor unless absolutely neccesary. I was a pro bfing mum before my daughter was born, and two weeks later I lost a large percentage of my milk supply, and had to suppliment. I didnlt give up without a fight though. At two months i called it quits because at $50 a pop for a lactation consultant that only bashed me basically for supplementing, and a ped that cost me $200 – $300 a pop, we could not survive. Not to mention all the potions in the world they put me on that I mostly had side affects to my health was down the drown, along with a baby that could hardly latch, very sore boobs with no milk, my daughter frustrated to no end with mummy’s lack of liquad “gold” i was losing my mind! Lol. So, we made the switch and it just so happened in the end after i hounded my ped that she had severe gerd (she stayed awake almost constantly!) and chuck protein intolerance into the mix and there was the colic. Although after 6 weeks of treatments the “colic” left, my high needs baby did not. She is still fussy, but i wish so much RN’s, lact consultants, ped’s and doctors would really “listen” to us mothers, as we really do know best. So, I believe if bfing isn’t working and its only making the family more frustrated and you choose to switch – why feel slack for it? Your doing what you know is BEST for your child! I do wish I was able to breastfeed, and I will try again with the next, but until then im happy with my DD progress, she’s a healthy girl to say the least and has an extremely healthy diet and is reaching every milestone early so am I a happy ffing mum? You bet I am! It saved my sanity