Customer Reviews

Bottlefeeding Without Guilt: A Reassuring Guide for Loving Parents

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(34)

 

 

I ordered this book when my baby was 3 weeks old and I was crying constantly from severe pain as well as emotional distress at the thought of having to quit breastfeeding. I was seeing a lactation consultant but continued to have multiple problems. This was all very difficult especially after breastfeeding my first child easily. My baby is now 11 weeks old and I am continueing to breastfeed thanks, in part, to advice given in this book on how to treat sore nipples. I found this book very reassuring and supportive. Our problems with breastfeeding continue on much smaller scale but I now have peace about the fact I MIGHT have to quit nursing. I did find that the book spent too much time dealing with breast feeding militants who truely are a minority. After speaking with a few bottle feeding moms I have not found any who have had to deal with these fanantics.

I wanted to breastfeed, but my sone was born early and needed to be in NICU for a week, and by the time he was out, he wouldn't latch on, and despite pumping, pumping and trying everything (included LCs) to get him to latch on, it didn't happen for me. The guilt I experienced from this was horrible. I felt like a total failure as a mother because I couldn't even feed my son. Post-partum hormones do not help.

Reading this book really made me feel better about myself and the fact that bottle feeding was ok and I shouldn't beat myself up for it. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is having problems breastfeeding or for those who simply do not want to. It lets you know that it's OK!! You're still doing the best for your child, either way. Period.

I read this book after feeding my daughter (...) milk for the first year of her life. She is now 2 1/2 and healthy and active. I say feeding because i had to use a pump for that whole year. She never was able to latch properly. To say it was dehumanizing would be an understatment. But i was committed to giving her the best my body could offer. I was so convinced of the evils of formula that i put myself through a great deal of heartache. At one point i was waking myself every three hours round the clock to pump regardless of my baby being awake or not. I was bound by the clock. I was desperate to keep my milk supply up. And i did, but at a great cost to my mental health and my relationship with my husband and my baby. I believe breastfeeding is best. However after lactation consultants and LLC leaders cannot help you, you are left to make a choice. With my first child i chose using a pump. With my next child I may not. I am hopeful that i will be able to breastfeed. This book allowed me to see that formula isn't evil, its just not as good as breastmilk. Not all mothers have the choice to breastfeed. Instead of passing judgemnt on others, breastfeeding mothers should show some compassion. We all have our own road to walk. This book supports those of us who have hard choices to make.

The author spends more time attacking breastfeeding mothers than positively supporting mothers who choose not to breastfeed. I'm not sure where all those militant breastfeeders are -- I know that everywhere I go (the mall, playground, restaurants, etc.) I rarely see women breastfeeding, but I see lots of babies with bottles in their mouths. And while I've never heard of a bottle feeding mother being told that she can't feed her baby in public, there are plenty of cases of breastfeeders being told that.

So I think the author has a little bit of a persecution complex which prevents her from really doing what the book claims to do: support bottle feeding mothers. Rather, she tries to convince us all that the breastfeeders are out to get us, and by the end of the book I almost believed it and wanted to start a bottle feeding support group! Truthfully, I think her tactics are more akin to cult tactics than anything she describes in the book -- subtle, insidious, and dangerous. I would seriously advise anyone considering whether they should bottle feed to just buy a regular, mainstream baby book -- What to Expect When You're Expecting, for example. There, the pros and cons of different feeding choices are more objectively presented, the feeding information is accurate and you don't get poisoned with vitriol.

Bottlefeeding Without Guilt was of special interest to mebecause I have one child (adopted) who was bottlefed, and two I havebreastfed. I picked this book up expecting support and encouragement, and that is there . . . but it is so surrounded by negative comments about breastfeeding and breastfeeding advocates that the book loses any credibility.

I thought the book was tacky. I am certainly the first to advocate for understanding and acceptance for bottlefeeding mothers, but this book went about it the WRONG way.

I am reading this book for the second time just six weeks before my due date. I don't find that it is anti-breastfeeding at all. Peggy is just a woman pointing out her views and sharing information, much like all the women who share their views on breastfeeding in books and on the internet.If you don't agree with what she has to share, that is your business and you are entitled to air your displeasure with the views and information expressed in this book. I didn't find it was any more opinionated and judgmental than most of the breastfeeding advice books on the market today. I've read plenty of books on all topics of childcare over the past year and don't agree with them all- I pick and choose from the presented information and make up my own mind about what seems to suit our family. If you are against formula and bottlefeeding, why in the world would you even pick up this book? In all it is an excellent resource for people who know they want to use bottles at some point, whether filled with formula or expressed breast milk.

Sometimes I wonder if the people who review books on here actually read them first. I started out breastfeeding but had to be on a medication for which it would most likely not be safe for her and there was no alternative to help me. I reluctantly started formula and was feeling very guilty. I didn't think poorly of other bottlefeeding mothers but felt horrible that I failed even though it wasn't my fault.

This book picked up me up out of a rut and made me realize that I can be an awesome mom even if I can't nurse. That feeding my daughter is more important than how she is fed. Peggy Robin shows the main arguments for why breast is best and even why formula is evil and counteracts them with FACTS which most breastfeeding books do not. She does deny the pros of breastfeeding, just that breast is not best for EVERYONE.

From Robin: Breast is not best when the mother is on certain medications, undergoing chemotherapy, has an insufficient milk supply (she cites newspaper articles of babies dying because their mothers were told that women always have enough milk and not to feed a bottle) or has AIDS. Some women who have had breast surgery cannot breastfeed. Men cannot breastfeed.

One problem with the book is that Robin says that adoptive mothers cannot breastfeed and that it is virtually impossible for mothers of twins to nurse. This is not true; however; only a small amount of adoptive mothers can make enough milk to feed their babies their milk exclusively. Most have to supplement with formula in bottles or with an SNS. Also, while some mothers can feed twins and even triplets at the breast, not every mother has the luxury of spending all day every day feeding babies.

Overall however, this book showed me that my daughter is not doomed just because I bottlefeed. I highly recommend it to anyone who is or has bottlefed, especially those who tried to breastfeed but couldn't for whatever reason.

If this isn't the biggest book of misinformation, I don't know what is. This book is by no means a book to support mothers who have to bottlefeed, its the rantings of an angry mother who was unsuccessful in her nursing experience. This book contains the biggest load of breastfeeding fallacies I've ever seen and misrepresents the LLL, breastfeeding advocates and even average nursing families. The "facts" in this book are really fiction as this woman truly is uneducated in breastfeeding and lactation. She'd do better to write a book aimed to educate mothers since 2-3 percent of all new moms cannot breastfeed and many adopted babies or orphaned children might need to be bottlefed. Most "zealots" as the author calls breastfeeding mothers, are aware of instances where one must bottlefeed, but are not so bitter as to write a book of lies and mockery. Perhaps a book by an expert would suit a mom-to-be's needs rather than this all out attack on SAHM's, LLL members, LC's, cloth diaper users and anyone else who doesn't feel formula is just fabulous. I hope no mom to be takes any advice from this book. I do find the book comedic though, the author truly believes her paranoid assumption that nursing mothers belong to a "Militant Breastfeeding Cult" This book is a mass of sweeping generalizations based on questionable instances, the lumping together of breastfeeders as a group of anti-abortion, anti -working anti-male cult is laughable. In short, this book should be titled "A lame attempt to justify a choice I regret but instead blame the world for" or "Bashing Breastfeeding, a childish attack on nursing mothers" I'd recommend Dr. Sears, Sheila Kitzinger, Janet Tamaro or even Dr Seuss over this book.

What a nasty view of breastfeeding and breastfeeders. Yes, breastfeeders shouldn't condemn, either. Every situation IS different and of course there are those who cannot breast feed. But a world of variation does not change one simple fact: breast feeding, if possible, is best for the baby. Big-company formula recipes do not replicate eons of nature. One wants to ask the author "What exactly do you think breasts are for, and why do they produce milk? Are they the creation of a conspiracy?!" If you cannot breastfeed, take heart, be strong and forge ahead. But don't use this book to attain peace of mind. It's too negative.

My husband and I both read this book together. I was appalled at the poor research compiled by Ms. Robins, and amazed at how badly the book read. It was not informative, it was argumentative. The topics would start out in an informed manner, but then quickly collapse into either a rant about breastfeeding, or misinformation, or more frightening, incorrect information. My mild mannered husband was moved to shouting at the idiocity of her '38 reasons' since the vast majority of them put the mother's wants before the needs of the child. And that's selfish.

Don't waste your money on this book, that's my suggestion.