I need your current email address if you’re interested. I’m making some changes to my blog and am emailing my registered readers about them. thanks!

My sister has had a baby and is persisting with breastfeeding even though she does not enjoy the sensation of being fed from and she will be moving over to formula feeds in the near future for other more personal reasons. She stated it like this: “I do not enjoy breastfeeding, to be honest I would rather be bottle feeding, but at this stage I want to give my son the best nutrients available while I can.” She intends to continue for as long as she can, but it won’t be long. She’s a bright girl and knows her options but has also had to overcome the suggestion that she is somehow taking risks with her child or neglecting him by planning to move over to formula earlier than what is the norm.

The country where we live (Denmark) is very pro breastfeeding and women breastfeed in public with no problems and are expected to breastfeed, so my sister is probably experiencing what breastfeeding women do in countries that are not ‘au fait’ with boobs as feeders..that being, her being looked down on because she is breaking with convention and only planning to breastfeed for a brief time.

I found breastfeeding easy…it was easy for me to give myself over to the symbiotic relationship between mother and child..but it is not always the same for every woman, throughout the ages there have always been women who do not ‘get on’ with breastfeeding..and that is one reason why substitutes were developed. It is sad that these substitutes can be pushed on women who may be perfectly willing and able to embrace full breastfeeding - and I do not understand the way people sometimes market formula as making life easier on a practical level (all that messing about with sterilising things!

I’d never be able to do that). However, one compassionate thought I am trying to keep in mind when facing lifestyles different to my own is that ‘there but for the grace of God go I’, which leads me to be more patient with life choices others make about how to feed their children. Breast is best, we know this, but it is not always realistic.

And so, in Jordan’s case - I agree - it is clear that she has made an informed choice that she is comfortable with and that her baby is indeed turning out just fine. But then again, there will be an army of people ready to point the finger of arrogant judgmentalism at ‘Jordan and Pete’ if their babe grows up to be a sufferer of asthma or allergies

I am grateful to you for fighting so hard on the frontlines of these issues. It is thanks to these types of efforts that healthy coverage of these issues are becoming more promininent and that the sisterhood of women gains insight and understanding amongst ourselves and we can share with compassion and respect our individual experiences of how we reach a choice about how to feed our children.

I don’t regret getting my degree, though, because it has been useful in the old model of a liberal arts degree - it taught me to think. But if you don’t go to school you don’t need to re-learn how to think, because you never get dumbed down in the first place. So whether my kids go on to further study or not is not an issue for me - I want them to follow their passions, whatever they are, and I don’t value uni and formal education over and above any other path.

I liked your example about Tudor history. My husband is a re-enactor, so our kids are growing up around people who don’t just follow their passions, they dress up in them on the weekends and hang out with a whole bunch of other people with funny names who do the same thing *g* I think that if one is that way inclined, involvement in something like the SCA or other historical reenactment groups is infinitely more useful than any history degree, because it’s real and immersive - just like life, really… *g*

I feel strongly that formula companies shouldn’t be allowed to promote their products to the detriment of breast feeding but then I also believe it is a womans right to choose how to feed her baby. That choice should imo be guilt free, but it is so important that it is an informed choice and in an ideal world a well supported choice.

My two children both were born with medical conditions which were considered to contra indicate breast milk. First time round I listened to the paediatricans and abandoned the breats at almost two weeks Second time round I decided to trust my instincts and we are still going strong at 22 months save for the odd spate of biting incidents *rolls eyes*.

I can only speak for the area where I live and the experiences I have had but in my view there just isn’t enough information and support out there for women - particaulary for women like myself who possibly needed much more support, information and guidance in the early days due to complicating factors.

Rant over. I really shouldn’t talk about breast feeding. It’s a long time on but I guess I’m still upset and angry about first time round

I guess, as with everything in life/parenting, one must think about what might be the risks of both courses of action, and what might be the benefits, and which one outweighs the other. For us, because we take our children seriously, we ask their consent to write about them on the blog *most* of the time…but there is the odd occasion when I don’t ask them, the odd occasion when I need to write for myself. The benefit is that if they are being written about in this way, it is in an attempt to work something out in my head - why I’ve reacted in a certain way, how to deal with the situation better in the future. Either the writing itself helps me work it out, or the helpful comments I receive from other mothers who also take children seriously and don’t suggest I leave them to cry/send them to school etc. Therefore it does not just benefit myself to write about them, but makes me (I hope!) a better mother to them and benefits our whole family life. For us, at the moment, I feel that these benefits outweigh the fact that this might mean not taking them seriously enough on occasion. And I hope that, if they ever wish to read my blog in the future, they appreciate my honesty and do not feel any negativity about it.