breastfeeding vs. bottlefeeding

I have no idea what I was thinking when I found this, but I thought it was super funny, and quite accurate. I have been on both sides of the argument, but find this so anecdotal, that I had to share it. I even left a comment...at the very bottom.

http://wixx.savingadvice.com/2006/03/16/bottles-vs-breat-milkno-contest_6443/#comments
Or: http://wixx.savingadvice.com/
and search "Bottles vs. Breast milk...no contest."

It is about the general savings that can take place when you breast feed. Not just about the 1500 in formula, but other things as well.



Here is a copy of my response. I had to laugh at some of the others because they were so silly:

"Thank you for your humor. I for one can really appreciate it

I have 4 children. Two of them are Half-and-half babies. I was one who didn't know enough to get the right help with my first baby to successfully nurse. Wish I would have known. It was never easy with her. I felt like someone was rubbing 10 grit sandpaper on my chest. I pumped for her. It was more comfortable. She had milk for 4 months, formula for 8. She turned out pretty bright.

I couldn't keep up with little sister because of work. She had much less formula than oldest sister. Middlemost sister was exclusively breastfed for 13 months. I had milk to spare.

I plan to nurse baby as long as he wants. I have no problems with it. I also had to work with each one of them as babies and daddy had to give them bottles. I have no problem with that either.
I thought this was dead on. Having had to buy formula for our oldest was the hugest expense we ever had for any of our babies, other than getting baby boy here, (in which we both nearly died--he was born via emergency c-section and I still don't understand why they say c-section babies can't nurse...that's a boatload of b.s.)

I have had to pump for all my children. It takes up way too much time, but they all have had breast milk, they are all relatively in excellent health.

I can estimate that a can of Enfamil powder (12.9 oz.) lasts a new baby 5 days. Each can this size costs between 13 and 16 dollars. You buy more as the baby gets older and I do believe we reached an average of 12 cans/month. So it costed $117-192/month and over the course of 8 months, $936-1536 on powder alone to feed our first born. I never thought to calculate the savings of electricity and water

Don't get me wrong! there are benefits for both ways. When all you want to do is take a shower and brush your teeth, but baby wants to eat, most of the time, baby wins. with a bottle, and an older baby, you have about 20 minutes. And that time is golden. But sleep is golden also. It is wonderful to take baby to bed and go back to sleep and turn over and start again.

Even a nursing baby loses focus and looks around. We've sprayed as much as he's played while he's been eating.

And keeping with the tone of this post I will say that our savings have been phenomenal as we've given our babies breast milk. "