Advantages of Formula Feeding

The advantages of formula feeding are often ignored. People often wonder why would you ever want to replace your breasts with baby bottles? And by that I don't mean using expressed breast milk in a baby bottle, but to replace it completely with formula milk. You may be surprised to know that there are many instances in which formula feeding actually becomes the perfect choice. Believe it or not, no matter how excellent and irreplaceable breast milk is, there are instances in which bottle feeding (also referred to as top-feeding) may not just become an option, but the best option.

8 Advantages of Formula Feeding

Some of the many advantages of formula feeding are:

You can leave your baby with your partner or nanny and go out, without worrying about the baby’s feed.
Feeding a baby in public is a lot easier with the bottle, than breastfeeding. As sad as may sound, people are quite okay with a woman with cleavage but when it comes to breastfeeding in public, you may see some eyebrows raising.
It is very easy to keep track of your baby's milk intake when you are using the bottle.
If your baby is lactose intolerant, you can find many types of alternate milk that do not contain lactose.
No sore nipples. You do not have to worry about a biting-baby when your baby starts to pop-out his/ her teeth.
You can eat anything you like. Since breast-milk is affected by what the mother eats and there are some foods that breastfeeding moms should avoid or eat; you do not have to worry about this if you are bottle feeding.
Formula milk will provide your baby with the right amount of proteins, minerals, vitamins, sugars, fats and almost everything that breast milk could have. Although breast milk still has a lot of complex yet useful entities that scientists and doctors cannot find in formula milk, still the formula-milk available in the market today is the closest option we have.
There are some cases when you should not or cannot breastfeed your baby. Formula feeding then becomes the only option - and a great one too.

Advantages of Formula Feeding for Preemies

If you have a premature newborn, different types of special preemie formula milk are available in the market with all the necessary nutrients that help your infant develop and catch up with the early arrival. My article on bottle feeding a premature baby will guide you through.

This reminded me of a true story...

A dear friend of mine gave birth to a cute and cuddly baby daughter few years ago and in her pregnancy she always planned to breastfeed her. There was never any bottle, formula milk or bottle sterilizer in her baby’s shopping list. But right after the birth, she realized that she was struggling with breastfeeding. No matter how hard she tried, her daughter was unable to latch on – the newborn was empty stomached most of the time, hence was crying and being sleepless all the time. Baby bottles hence came to the rescue!

Still not giving up hope, my friend tried different breastfeeding positions, ate a lot of things that a breastfeeding mom was supposed to eat to get the milk flow right, but still ended up with a hungry baby and a frustrated self! To make the situation worse, too much trying and unable to produce adequate milk, she suffered from sore and bleeding nipples – not to mention the guilt of not being a useful mom. Holding on tight to the rope of hope, she got a breast-pump and breast-shield.

Guess what... still no luck!

So the moral of the story here is: Sometimes you just cannot breast-feed – you want to, but you just can't. Why? That, she found out a year later when she got diagnosed with “a-year-old severe” Prolactin issue in her body.

Breastfeeding vs Advantages of Formula Feeding

If you are wondering why formula feeding is not respected much among doctors, make sure you understand the benefits of breastfeeding and the challenges of formula-milk. If you feel that bottle-feeding is the only option left for you, don’t be disheartened. The friend of mine we talked about earlier switched to formula feeding her daughter, who is 13 years old now and is considered as the brightest kid in her school. With so many advantages of formula feeding we can undoubtedly say that formula feeding is a true blessing!