I was born in 1952 in middle class America. Of course I was a bottle baby; that was the only option.
Breast all the way up until the my little sister came along, although when my mum went back to work my Stay At Home Papa bottle fed me too. I think it was the best of both worlds.
My mom has always thought breastfeeding was disgusting and something only “those people” did, so I was definitely bottle fed. She wasn’t happy at all when I breastfed my own kids and tried to convince me not to do so several times.
Same here, what was in that bottle mom? COndensed milk whole milk and karo syrup i think.
This is another loony dentist claim I’ve heard this year. My dentist claimed I must have african american or native american ancestry because of the number of teeth in my mouth. :dubious:
Thanks! I’ll add you to my contact list. Expect a PM from me when little Celeste is born. My due date is June 1st, but my doctor thinks I may go a few weeks early. My twins were 7 weeks early, and this one is already almost 3 lbs at 24 weeks, so we will see. Thanks again 
Female, assume I was probably breast-fed because my brother was, but I guess I don’t know for sure.
I was born in 1977, and my mother (East Coast, upper middle class, parents both had graduate degrees) primarily breast-fed all her children. She did not exclusively breast-feed though.
When I moved to the Midwest, I learned that most of my peers’ parents held the opinion that “only poor people and dirty hippies did that then.” Well, my Dad worked on Wall Street and my parents are both Republicans. Mom says, by that time in the NYC area, it was commonly accepted amongst her peer group that “breast was best.”
Breast-fed until I was 1 1/2, and then bottle fed.
I actually had an aunt who continued breast-feeding her children until they were 6. The rest of us thought it was a bit strange.
Both, probably. I’m sure my mom breastfed me in 1970s India - not like they had much money. But she wasn’t around as much as she needed to be, and I know I had to wean early.
I thought this was a fairly straight-forward statement. I just would think any mother who had nursed her baby would have mentioned that fact to them.
At the time my sisters and I were born, breastfeeding wasn’t popular in the US but our mother was German, where it was pretty much expected that a mother would breastfeed if at all possible.
It’s something I’ve never discussed with my Mom (But really, what guy does? Just to confirm the point Brynda makes). But I know for a fact that I had to be bottle fed.
My mom was very business oriented. You could not keep this woman away from work. I’d be surprized if she took off for more than a week after she had me.
I would think that breastfeeding, if seen as normal and par for the course, wouldn’t be something a mother would feel the need to mention to her children. It just happens. Like changing diapers and giving baths. It may come up in conversation, but a mother isn’t going to make a big deal about it like her kids owe her something for breastfeeding them or not. It isn’t anymore likely to be mentioned than any other common mothering practice.
Breastfed, ended up with decent teeth and plenty of space in my mouth. My younger sister was bottle-fed due to complications after birth (breech birth, cord wrapped around neck, emergency c-section, and additional health issues with mom that necessitated a brief hospitalization). So she *had *to be bottle-fed at the beginning, and never developed a good latch afterward. She also ended up with horrible crowding in her mouth and had to get braces. Of course, there’s no reason to assume that this is the ONLY reason for the difference in our teeth. But I’m sure it was a big factor.
This makes it sound like you think that nursing is somehow superior or more difficult than bottle feeding, and deserves more respect or acknowledgement. While I agree that in my culture at least, employers and social situations do not make breastfeeding convenient, bottles are just as difficult to manage though not as physically demanding. Motherhood in general is hard, time consuming, and physically and mentally demanding, I don’t think breastfeeding gets a special mention in the whole scheme of child raising, at least not for this mother. If I can breastfeed, I will be happy I am personally nourishing my baby and saving money on formula, but I won’t beat myself up over it if I can’t and I am not planning on making my kids feel obligated to thank me for breastfeeding or not. That just sounds silly.
Now I could be missing the intent of your statement, so I apologize if I have completely missed your point.
I think what you’re missing is that when most of us were infants, 30 and 40 or more years ago, breastfeeding was not normalized, and so it was indeed something worth mentioning. Either because you wanted to make sure your daughter knows you support it and think it would be a great thing for her to do, or because you think it’s disgusting and low class, and think it would be a shameful thing to do, or because you’re embarrassed and guilty that you thought it was shameful and now wish you had done it.
There were lots of opinions about breastfeeding in the 20th century, but blase indifference was very rarely one of them.
Ah, got ya. Different generation, different emphasis on breastfeeding. It is so normalized amongst my peers that breastfeeding isn’t that big of a deal, and plenty of us also bottle feed so we don’t really make a big deal either way. For me personally it would be a big deal since I was unable to do so with my twins, but if I have to end up using the bottle then I won’t be too upset about it.
Female. Breastfed for about eight months, when I suddenly lost interest and went briefly to bottles then cups. I intended to breastfeed my daughter, and my mother and I had a couple of self-satisfied talks about how great that was while I was pregnant.
My mom was in the house during the second week of my daughter’s life, when we were doing 90-minute nursing sessions that made my toes curl with pain and taking the baby in for a weight check every two days–and she wasn’t gaining weight. She was there the night I broke down because I just couldn’t do it anymore. Mom says it was like the breastfeeding consultants were torturing me, and she and I both learned a lesson about how sometimes, breastfeeding really isn’t an option.
My mom breast fed me for a day or two, then had a seizure and they told her to stop because of the medication she had to be on. She has always been sad about it.
Anyway, as much as I’m a breastfeeding booster, I don’t think you can make blanket statements about dental arches and so forth. Yes, over the population, breastfeeding improves jaw development. However, both my kids have high narrow palates and will probably need braces, despite being exclusively breastfed till 6 months and breastfed beyond one. Thumb sucking trumps any benefit they got from nursing, unfortunately.
Both my current and last job had a room set aside so that mothers could pump. I wonder if that’s more prevalent now. Certainly takes away one small burden (of many) for working mothers.
Breast for the first two weeks, during which I lost over a pound in weight, so bottles from there on, by suggestion of the health worker. So far as I’m aware (and there are photos) I latched fine, just there wasn’t much milk.
Same situation with my bro, but without such a drastic weight loss.
Yes, I’m female- I bet the bro didn’t get so much detail…