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I Hate Breastfeeding – Now What?
Considerations Before You Quit
By Shel Franco
To Baby: While you're bound to hear stories like Melissa's where Baby never "skips a beat," changing from breast milk to formula can cause problems in some babies.
"Your baby will have to adjust to a different food that is deficient in many nutrients and much harder to digest," says Calandro. "Formula-fed babies smell like formula, have more difficulty with rashes, allergies and constipation. Many mothers tell me that within two weeks of stopping breastfeeding that their babies began a cycle of ear infections, cold and viral illnesses. They no longer have protection from the antibodies in the breast milk."
If it sounds like Calandro is trying to keep you breastfeeding, that's because she is – and she makes no excuses for it. While you might not like breastfeeding, the real question is can you live with it – temporarily?
"Personally, I would have felt guilty if I stopped because I didn't like it, knowing that her health depended on my milk," says Calandro. "Stopping due to true milk insufficiency is a whole different story. You may not enjoy being pregnant either. However, you don't go in and have the baby taken out early for that reason. It just isn't healthy for the baby. Some mothers convince their doctors to do so, and they have babies that have a lot harder time for the first few weeks. The healthiest babies spend nine months in the womb and 12 months or more on the breast."
That being said, only you know the circumstances surrounding your decision to quit. Neither Melissa N. nor Albert, who stopped while still in the hospital, regretted their choices. "I felt better about myself, and I was really able to bond with Audrey, ecause she wasn't constantly crying," says Albert.
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