Does breast-feeding really save money?

Some of us believe that you should do what is right for your baby, not what is "cheapest".  After all, it is your child!  I work with many women who will tell you straight out that making money/advancing in their career is what is important to them, not hanging out with their children.  They also will tell you that going to work - at almost any job - is easier than taking care of a child (or two) all day.

While I do not advocate co-sleeping, nursing until four years old, or spending every second of every day with your child, raising your own child (if possible - instead of letting a day care worker raise them) and nursing are both very worthy endeavors.

This is unbelievable to me, comparing the health and raising of children with potential income loss. If you are unwilling to make sacrifices to give your children YOU, then...

Attachment parent isn't anything new and it doesn't mean that the children are waited on hand and foot, it means you are together! In fact in most cases I think you would find they have a better understanding of what Mom and Dad do in order to take care of them because they are there with you.

I can only say that choosing to formula feed to get back to making that $ and back to "your" life, seems to contradict becoming a parent in the first place.

I breast fed my daughter for her first 3 years and worked all but the first 3 months after she was born. It is a lot less expensive. We had a co-sleeper attached to our bed the first year. It was so much easier than washing bottles and buying formula. Took a breast pump to work everyday and gave the milk to the sitter when I picked her up for use the next day. We rarely had to substitute any formula.

The worst thing was the crap I got was from people thinking I was breast feeding too long. Why do people think that is their business?

By-the-way, my daughter is 14. Has straight A's and is ready for the IB (honors) program at HS. She plays club water polo with the boys now and is planning to play in HS. Guess that breast milk is good for their brains. So take that all you up tight people who are upset by breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding has some positive effects on infants--but the effects are minor.  On the other hand, having an adult spend every waking moment waiting on a child hand and foot has extemely negative ramifications.

Women have always worked--it is a fallacy to think that for many generations, young mothers spent all their time raising children. They did not--the infants were often fed by whichever female member of the family was handy or were strapped to a board or placed in a sling to make them easy to tote around with one's hands free. Young women who were strong would work in the fields and doing heavy work around the house--the little old auntie or grandma watched the children who were too young to work.  Once they were old enough to do chores, they spent the majority of their days doing chores.

It is only in the last 100 years that this ridiculous idea of "attachment parenting" has emerged--and the children who emerge from it are often the most ridiculously spoiled brats imaginable.  Presently, 50% of college graduates have no jobs--don't tell me that this has no relation to (even if it is not the sole result of) attachment parenting.

Even when children spend part of their weekday in daycare--their parents are still raising them.  It is silly to suggest otherwise.  While family members might make the best caregivers--as they might well  be better educated or at least more mature than the typical daycare worker--there is no need for the biological parents to be bound to the child.  If older family members with reduced incomes and younger family members with a need for daytime help were to get together, many issues could be resolved.