Most demanding 1st birthday invite ever is posted online

[Ms. Toad]

51. Nope. If you're committed to breastfeeding

you don't supplement with formula, or water, because it sabotages your ability to produce enough. Absent a disease process, women's bodies work on a supply & demand. The demand for more, produces more. If baby isn't demanding because the baby is full of formula or water, mom slows down production.

Unfortunately, far too many women have mothers who were told it was icky to breast feed, so they discourage it - or believe baby is not getting enough from mom because they can't quantify it; Doctors who are tied in with formula companies and, depending on when they were trained, don't necessarily believe breastfeeding is important. All these factors encourage women to supplement with formula or water, both of which sabotage the efforts to breast feed exclusively.

Both my doctors, my mother, and my mother-in-law - in the guise of helping - encouraged or insisted on behavior which made it harder for me to be successful. I rejected them, with the exception of one supplemental water feeding I was too naive to counter with real information before my daughter left the hospital. That was the one and only non-breast milk meal she had for 9 months.