There Is No 'One Right Way' to Feed Your Baby

I feed my baby from a tube with a syringe. Sometimes.

And sometimes I feed her from a bottle.

I used to feed her straight from the breast.

I’ve used breast milk straight from the boob. I’ve used breast milk pumped. I’ve used regular formula from the grocery shelf. I’ve used elemental formula. I now use organic, goats milk formula.

All forms of feeding.

All kinds of milk.

I’ve learned one thing from it all and it all amounts to the same: Baby needs to be fed.

That’s it.

 

We get so wrapped up in methods and rules and ideas and points of view — even in the simplest act of feeding a baby. We might think we know it all. We might think we have all the right ideas and all the right ways. My ways are best. My ways matter most. I am right. Pride. Pride. Pride.

Is it really about our opinions? Since when did it become about us? All along it has been, and should be, about the baby and our baby’s nourishment to survive — however that nourishment comes about and however it is needed.

Without my breast, without my pump, without my bottle, without my formula, without my tube, my tiny baby would not have received the nourishment she needed. Take away any one of those forms of feeding and she might not even be here today.

Imagine that.

All forms of feeding — I needed them all for my baby to thrive. Not one way was right, not one way was the answer to all.

Fed is Best.

Love is Best.

Follow this journey at A Beautiful Alarm.

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