I breastfed my baby until she was 5 1/2 months old and then I started having problems with my milk supply.  So I bought a fancy pump and a bunch of herbs and vitamins and tried to get it back up.  Later a doctor told me that it was nearly impossible to re-create your milk supply when it's almost gone.  But I tried for almost two months and then gave up.  I was only producing 3 ounces a day.  Then for a month or so I breastfed every morning until she refused.  When I finally switched to formula it was like she was a completely different baby...happy, content, even more energetic.  I almost wish I had switched sooner, I felt like I had been starving her by forcing her to breastfeed.  Some women just can't keep up supply like others.  With my next baby I'll breastfeed again and be more careful about pumping extra to keep my supply up, but there's nothing wrong with using formula if breastfeeding is impossible.  They haven't been adding sugar to formulas in 30 years or so, so the nutritional value is pretty good.  Not as good as breastmilk because of the antibodies, but close.

@mommyofchloe@xanga - Every mom has a right to decide what she wants to feed her baby.  However, it is not fair to say that breastmilk and formula are equal.  Yes, babies raised on formula will turn out fine, it is still perfectly acceptable food.  BUT there are many many documented health benefits to babies who take in breast milk, and those cannot be denied (there are also many health benefits to the mom as well).   Formula is not "bad" but it is not equal to breast milk.  Research has shown this over and over again.  

No one is saying that because a particular baby is fed formula they will be fat.  Instead we are looking at correlations and risk.  The data says that babies who feed on formula tend to have a higher risk of being overweight.  That could have nothing to do with the formula.  However it is reasonable to think that the type of food babies eat when they're so little could have an influence on how their bodies process foods later in life, and for some reason breastmilk vs formula may make a difference (there is also some new evidence that mom's diet while pregnant may influence how baby metabolizes food as an adult). 

Breastfeeding is rare because I think longer term breastfeeding corresponds to higher income, more highly educated women. Partially, more education means these women recognize the benefits and make the effort to either breastfeed or pump if they have to go back to work and higher income means they are probably married and have a spouse to help share the burden of childcare and they may have the luxury of being a stay-at-home mom.  Plus, with government assistance in purchasing formula to lower-income women, I think bottle-feeding ends up being easier.

The biggest thing we as a nation could do to help is make it mandatory for employers to provide a place for women to express breastmilk, and enough breaks in which to do it.  And last I heard, they have!  Even the military is on the ball, as they have now enabled a woman who exclusively breastfeeds her child to not be eligible for deployment. I think we can expect to see the number of breastfeeders rise.

Also, my husband was exclusively bottlefed, and he's one of the skinniest guys I've ever met, he and his family.  Perhaps some people's genetics react worse with formula than others?

my son is almost 14 months old & i breastfed exclusively for 12-1/2 months.  he still has 1 nursing a day, which i plan to wean him off of soon.

@evagarringer@xanga - i'm sorry but I have do disagree with you here.  low-income does not always mean low-education.  My husband and I are considered low-income and I have a flippin masters degree.  My husband's cousin has a high school education and she's a multi millionaire.  Go figure.  I hate stereotypes. 

@MelodicPuppy@xanga - 

I really wasn't asserting that they are low income because they are less-educated, but there are abundant statistics that support the correlation between education and income.

Here is a link to the U.S. department of labor statistics:

http://www.bls.gov/emp/emptab7.htm

According to 2007 data, in general, persons with more educational attainment earn more than people with less. For example an individual with a B.S. degree earns 2.3 times as much per week as someone who didn't finish high school.

What I was trying to get at is that lack of support for breastfeeding is one more disadvantage of being poor in America.

Here is a link to a Wikipedia article with information from studies that show correlations of less breastfeeding with both income levels and education levels. It specifically references the fact that qualifying for WIC is associated with being less likely to breastfeed.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breastfeeding#Sociological_factors_with_breastfeeding

My basic point was that lack of education (in general and about breastfeeding specifically) and low income (associated with lack of education, less-friendly-to-pumping work environment/hours and government assistance in purchasing formula) contribute to women's choices to not breast feed.

@mommyofchloe@xanga - I understand that your response is not about me or what I said, as the points you are bringing up have nothing to do with the comment I wrote to you.  I never called you a bad mother.  I do not think you are a bad mother.  I understand that there's many difficulties to breastfeeding if you do not have the luxury to stay home and must instead work and find the time to pump, etc.  I have myself been tempted to give up breastfeeding when it's gotten tough. 

My comment was about the straight comparison of breastmilk vs formula.  Maybe in future studies we will find that the differences have gotten smaller and smaller, to the point of being negligible.  I'm just working on current research, that says that the 2 are not equivalent. 

Again-- not calling you a bad mother at all.  I don't think your child will be harmed by having formula.  Obviously the majority of people these days, and for a few generations, have been formula-fed and have come out just fine.  There are many reasons to go either way.  Yes, I'd love for more women to breastfeed, but sometimes that's just not possible.  My main objection when I replied to you was your statement that formula and breastmilk are no different, that their values are the same, nutritionally, etc.  That is simply not true, if you look at the data.  I'm being a bit nitpicky here, but I tend to object when I see people saying things that aren't quite true.  It's not a value judgement on anyone or their abilities as a mother, just looking at the evidence and research made which has said over and over again that while formula is great, breastmilk is also better.