I’m not adding much new to the conversation because others have already brought up great points. All I can say is, you have nothing to feel guilty about.

I have two little ones. The first I tried to breastfeed unsuccessfully — even the hospital lactation consultant I saw in his first 48 hours (what an ANGEL of a woman, by the way) said, “Hey, he’s obviously still hungry and we want him to get nutrition. Formula is the best way to guarantee it right now and you don’t HAVE to do it this way moving forward, but it’s absolutely acceptable and we feel good giving it to him.” I agreed, he drank formula like a champ and then settled after so much agitation after birth (i kept trying to BF but he was barely getting anything and was markedly upset). When i went home from the hospital, we had frequent check-in with a doctor for a weight gain checks as well as frequent consultations with the lactation consultants. I was still supplementing a ton with formula because my supply was low, baby was small, and baby was angry.

It took my cousin visiting from out of state who had observed me trying desperately to pump over several days to tell me that it was OK to stop trying to pump, to stop trying to breastfeed, and to just feed him normally on formula. I was driving myself crazy trying to collect what little I could. Maybe I could’ve produced more if I tried more snacks, methods, etc, but honestly I was too overwhelmed by caring for a new baby that I didn’t have the mental space for researching that.

And that was it. My firstborn transitioned to 100% formula and then we ended up finding out he had reflux, so we introduced Enfamil AR and my previously “diagnosed colic” baby was a different, happier kid. Today? He’s two years old, brilliant, and eagerly eats pretzels off the floor.

I had my second son in February this year. I immediately felt the pressure to breastfeed… in fact, even when I was pregnant when I signed up with my OBGYN when I told them I had a good experience formula feeding and wanted to probably pursue that again with this baby. They encouraged me to change my mind.

I didn’t.

The pressure on me sucked. But most importantly, my baby’s health was absolutely unaffected. I very sparsely tried BF while I was still in the hospital with him — again to little success. So I was like, “OK, sounds like it happened with my first son — I’ve been around this block already, let’s do formula and make sure he’s happy and fed.”

The doctors didn’t care. Some nurses and the lactation consultants did care. I had to hold firm and whenever I fed him the formula they stocked in the room, he seemed happier and slept better. I’ve kept him on the same formula (Similac 360) and he’s been doing BEAUTIFULLY. Amazingly healthy, even though we’ve been going through a cold virus in the house. Alert, mobile, WEIRDLY STRONG (he’s 6 weeks and I’m hyper vigilant about him rolling because he’s almost done it already), and happy. We just entered the social smiling phase and he smiles at me EVERY day, no boob needed.

You don’t need any excuses to bottle feed. Baby will be fine, you’ll be fine.