I think a big part of the problem is that moms who want to breastfeed have so little help and education on common problems and solutions. Breastfeeding is not as easy as we think it will be. I had the help of a lactation consultant TEAM as we were in the hospital for a while. Even after we went home I could still call them with questions or schedule a check-up. I know there were lots of times I was stuck and needed their assistance. Most breastfeeding moms don't have that, I would imagine.

My CHOICE, and yes its a choice, to breastfeed or not is nobody else's business but me and my husband's - so why does everyone care so much? Start worrying about things that are much more harmful to kids nowadays like lack of outdoor play and low independence. I'm so over this whole "debate".

People should mind their own business and stop telling women what to do with their bodies.

Yes, I agree, breastfeeding is the ideal choice for babies, but formula is not the anti-christ and its not like women are shoving cigarettes and liquor down the child's throat.

(This feedback is not directed at the author, but this whole issue in general)

I breastfeed and I give my daughter formula.  I work during the day, and had to return to work when she was 7 weeks old.  I don't have the kind of job where I can take a million breaks during the day to pump to keep my supply up, so although I nurse right before I go to work, pump twice here, and then nurse as soon as I get home, I do produce less at work than what she needs to continue to be a vital, growing baby.  So I supplement with formula.  Am I doing a bad thing by not risking my job to take more breaks to pump more (which would, I understand, stimulate my body to produce more milk)?  I've taken every herbal supplement which is safe to take, and I've even dedicated weekends to "nursing vacations" but still, I physically cannot produce enough breastmilk at work to sustain a breastfed only baby.

You can blame society for making a world in which women have to go back to work after having a child, you can blame me for making a choice to go back to work after having a child (although I think my daughter rather likes having a roof over her head so I doubt she'll complain too much herself), you can blame whomever you want to and paint women who occasionally use or 100% use formula as bad parents, but get a grip.

Life is more complicated than just one issue.  I'm sure that there are absolutely NO mothers who breastfed and are guilty of abusing their children, right?  Because what we do in one siloed area of our life must absolutely determine our proclivity in other areas, no?  I get the whole argument of doing whatever you can that is best for the baby, but I agree with Lin--formula is not the antichrist.  There are a hell of a lot of things in life that are far, far worse than not breastfeeding your child.

I just don't get how this is an either or discussion, most of the Moms I know breastfed and would occasionally, when the need arose supplement with formula. I think most mothers don't talk about it, because of the all or nothing lactation zealots. No one likes being lectured.

We practically had to BEG for formula samples when we left the hospital, which we only wanted "just in case"... and it turned out that those samples were desperately needed.  My daughter couldn't nurse, and she was starving and rapidly losing weight.  We used those samples to get some calories into our poor hungry girl until we figured out what was going wrong, and then we continued to use purchased formula as a supplement until my supply caught up with her demand (at about 2 months old... and she's been exclusively breastmilk-fed ever since).

I don't know what we would have done without those samples, and I'm actually quite annoyed that we had to work so hard to get them.  My hospital made me feel horrible for even asking, because BREAST IS BEST!  Yeah, unless your supply is low and your baby is starving.

Women need both education AND options.

To be clear, when I say I couldn't breastfeed I mean this:  My body refused to produce more than a trickle a day.  I tried the herbs, I tried the drugs, I tried overhydrating, I tried oatmeal, beer, 'breastfeeding vacations', pumping between feedings.  I tried everything my OB, my lacatation consultants (four women at two different hospitals), my pediatrician, and other low-supply mothers suggested.  At most, my body produced about 4 ounces a day (at which point, she was four months old).  And I strapped a supplementer to my body at every feeding four five months so that my daughter could get whatever meager amount of milk my body would pony up.   So when I say I couldn't produce, I mean that I. Couldn't. Produce.

And again I ask, how many other circumstances did the study control for?  Were their other commonalities within that 39%?  Did they return to work?  Were their socio-economic circumstances different in some way from the other 61%.?  A correlation is NOT causation.   This sort of thing makes me so irritated at the way people talk about results.  

And yes, it actually is if not sanctimonious, then incredibly insulting to imply that women are just too flighty to commit to breastfeeding when there's that whooping eight servings worth or so of formula in a bag from the hospital.  As opposed to the free stuff most women's bodies produce.

I would have loved to have been physically able to breastfeed my child.  Like every living being in the country, I know breast is best.  And yes, I'm really tired of being told that my daughter is doomed to be dumb, sick, or otherwise disadvantaged.   There are any number of perfectly valid reasons to go with formula.    And there are so many other issues that affect your child's overall health.  Breastmilk is great, but it's not the be-all end-all of child development.

I'm sorry you have such trouble breastfeeding, MsC and Carrie.  But the fact is, your issues are the reason we HAVE formula.  Formula companies should not be blanketing every new mother with formula on the hopes she'll switch while claiming they're merely reaching out to the proportionately fewer women who literally cannot produce milk.  Let me repeat, they're not giving out those bags for the women who have no choice.  They're giving out those bags so women who HAVE options CHOOSE formula.  

To Caillou's point:  I agree, but I also say that women who choose formula are no more terrible than I am.  It's not ideal, but it's not poison either.  I'm not suggesting that Enfamil is doing it out of the goodness of their hearts, I'm just saying that I really don't believe those free samples are the sole reason 40% of those women stopped breastfeeding.

I breastfed my daughter until she weaned herself at 14 months. But I'm so glad the hospital sent me home with formula. When I got sick--really, really sick--and could neither hold her nor produce breastmilk during that time, I was so relieved to have a can of formula in the pantry. The last thing we would have needed at that time was to have to run out and get formula in a panic. The decision to use formula was difficult and last-minute, and the right one. We went back to breastfeeding when I was healthy again, and gave away the extra sample cans to other moms, but they were great insurance.

I just want to give the majority of the commenters on this post big high fives.  I'd love to let the lactation nazis have newborn triplets and see how long their sole breastfeeding lasts.  I'm not arguing the benefits, but a lot of us have other issues, and don't need to be made to feel like we've screwed up our children from day one.

I'm a statistics teacher, and there are a number of things we need to know about this study before we can conclude that the 39% increase of those who cease to exclusively breastfeed among those given formula is in fact meaningful.  

*We need to know the size of the sample that was surveyed.  It's likely that this was sufficiently large - most studies get this right.

*We need to know how those in the two groups were selected.  If the study was randomized (i.e. mothers were assigned whether they were given formula or not based on random chance alone) then I would be convinced that this was a meaningful result - i.e. giving formula samples *causes* a reduction in the rate of exclusive breastfeeding.  If it was not random, well... you can't really conclude anything.  Why did some mothers get the formula and others didn't?  Maybe the mothers who chose the health providers that don't give out formula samples share other common traits.  For instance, maybe low-income women are more likely to get formula samples because of the hospitals they end up in - and they are also more likely to have lower access to support and increased likelihood of having to go back to work quickly.  Or, perhaps a woman might choose a health provider that doesn't give formula samples because she sought out a provider that is in line with her committment to a natural birth process - and that committment to natural birth makes her more likely to choose exclusive breastfeeding.

Why, as women who are always fighting the battle for CHOICE, are we fighting with each other over something so personal?  I made a committment to myself when I was pregnant that if breast feeding worked for me, I would do it and if it didn't, I would use formula.  I promised I would not beat myself up over the outcome.  I STRUGGLED at the beginning, I refused to give her formlua and I cried when I had to give her one of the sample bottles from the hospital before our first dr. appintment (advice from a lactation consultant fearing we would be underweight and end up back in the hospital).  Things worked out and she's thriving on breastmilk.  BUT...i'm back at work, and like Renee I can't produce enough in my daily pumping sessions to sustain the little one, so I'm supplementing.  She gets 2 feedings from me, 3 bottles of mixed breastmilk and formlua and an extra of all formula incase of emergency.  I'm on my last can of "free" formlua (enfamil), and today i'll buy my first and guess what, i'm NOT buying enfamil.  I'm CHOOSING to buy Earth's First because I feel it's better for baby and it's my choice.

Please, ladies, let's respect each other and remember that if we can't give each other the respect to make our own choices, how can we expect the Government and others to respect us enough to give us the CHOICEs we so rightly deserve.

Let's all take a deep breath and remember that we're mothers who love our children, we're lucky to have them and we're only going to do what we think is best for them in each of our own situations.  Let's not judge, let's accept each other's choices and move on to more important things...

There's no doubt that breast is best, but you are citing some really old data, some of which has been refuted / corrected / adjusted for context over the years. I expect such irresponsible information to be slung around in the comments section, but not from vetted authors on this site. In particular the IQ numbers have been evaluated and it was seen that parents with higher IQs are more likely to BOTH breast feed AND to have children with above average IQs. This speaks more of  education, privilege i.e. the freedom and time to breast feed (or pump at work), the nurturing environment the parents provide and genetics than can be ignored.

Cite your sources on the cancer stats, and they had better be more recent than 1992! And thanks a million for your Google produced "stat" that only 1-3% of all women can not breast feed. My OB and my daughter's pediatrician would beg to differ.

I was hell bent on breast feeding, but like MsC above never produced more than 4oz per day. Would I prefer to feed my daughter breast milk? Absolutely. Do I think she is going to be harmed by the organic formula we feed her? No. She is in perfect health. She's the perfect size and I'll doubt that her intellect will not be affected in any way. I am an upper middle class parent with two Ivy league degrees -- I'll wager any day that she has more of a leg up than most kids, breast fed or not. The stats are blind when cited without their circumstances.

I really object to the style of your argument more its central point regarding samples. You've done a better job of shaming women and frightening them with your shallow research and analysis here than anything else.

For those of us who have to go back to work at 6 or 8 weeks (I had both scenarios) exclusive breastfeeding is simply not a workable, attractive option. Formula is FINE for most babies -- a generation or several have thrived on it.

The issue isn't whether formula is poison or whether women should have choices, but whether hospitals should promote formula-feeding by giving it out with the diapers and bibs. If you want to buy a can of formula to have in the cabinet, go ahead, and feel free to use it whether you can't breastfeed or just don't feel like it. But as a health-promoting institution, I think the hospital should not be passing it out. And they should all be supporting breastfeeding with the lactation support mcglory described. (As for my personal bias, I'll just say my adopted daughter who had no breast milk ever is the healthiest person in my family.)

Sorry, Amy.  Anyone who says giving formula to babies is BAD is a liar, and quite possibly a jerk.  No, it isn't.  It may not be the absolute optimal food for a newborn, but it is not in any way harmful.  In fact, it actually -- can you believe it? -- works to nourish and grow babies.

I don't come to your house and pull the chicken nuggets out of your kid's hands, so can you leave my poor baby's dinner alone, already?  Enough with this crap, jeez.

i had planned to breastfeed exclusively but my little one had different ideas. i tried every day, multiple times a day for 3 months and i only got her to latch on twice (and did meet with lactation consultants twice). every tim eshe saw the breast she would scream like she was in pain and get hysterical, so i pumped for as long as i could and we fed her formula. am i sad not ot have breastfed? yeah of course. but am i guilty? hell no.if there is one life lesson everyone but especially parents needs to learn early on is that even the best laid plans fall apart.

oh and my daughter is 8mo old and has never been sick and has always been very advanced on all her milestones.

Maybe we should change the slogan from "Breast is Best" to "Breast is Best, But It's None of Your Damn Business"

I don't understand why it should be a problem for hospitals to both provide lactation consultants and formula samples.  I was happy to have that free can in my cupboard, just in case something went wrong, and I was equally happy not to have to pay for it, in addition to the many other things I did have to purchase.  I appreciated being advised of BOTH options and feeling like both were validated.

I am sick of people trying to tell others what to do.  And I'm tired of people focusing on formula, when there are more dire predicaments facing us, like the toxins we're probably eating and inhaling which are passed on in our breastmilk.

Breast is best.  We all know that.  I believe everyone should at least give it a try.  

Like I said before, I couldn't.  Three frigging times I tried.  Really. I spent a ton of money on pumps, nursing bras and tops, stuff for      ed       s.  I went to the lactation consultant (who told me my son's latching on was perfect), LaLeche meetings, I purchased 5 breastfeeding books.  No milk.  I kept waiting to feel engorged.  It didn't happen.  I kept myself hydrated.  I didn't even think to use the samples I was given in the hospital.  

It is easy to cite stats.  But there are people behind those stats.  Most of the bloggers on this site are very pro-choice.  Isn't this a choice???  Really, do you want the government to dictate what you feed your baby???  I know I don't.