Parent Diaries

Real parents tell us the truth about their bottle feeding experience.

Home truths, ugly truths, honest truths and naked truths. The truth is that after over 50 years of supporting parents all around the world, we've learned everyone's everyday is different. And that's okay.

Molly's Story

"The truth is that bottle feeding a child that you've adopted can be really rocky at first. Me and my son got off to quite a turbulent start. I suppose I was a stranger to him, and he didn't trust me at the start.

Caregiving responsibilities like bottle feeding had to be transferred over from his foster carer to me, his mum. It took us about a month to get into the swing of bottle feeding.

In the end, it was a positive, attachment building activity. Lots of eye contact helped us to build a trusting relationship."

Danielle's Story

"The truth is, bottle feeding never really happened for us. My son did a little bit of bottle feeding and breastfeeding, but my daughter has not been interested in a bottle at all. We've tried many times, but she's just not interested and will take a cup over a bottle any day! I think we'll end up skipping bottle feeding all together.

I think if breastfeeding doesn't work out for whatever reason, it's ok. If your baby accepts a bottle, go with it. As long as they're getting their milk from somewhere, that's what really matters."

Sarah and Laura's Story

"The truth is, bottle feeding allowed me to build a bond with our daughter. My wife breastfeeds her, and I take the opportunity every evening to feed her using a bottle to have some extra one-on-one time." - Sarah 

"The truth is that at first, I felt conflicted about bottle feeding. I was trying my hardest to breastfeed, but was really struggling with it and our paediatrician suggested that we use a bottle to top up with formula feeds.

I felt that my body should be able to breastfeed, and in my opinion, it wasn't doing it right. In the end, I'm really grateful for bottle feeding. Particularly because it reassures me that my baby is getting enough milk and it gives Sarah an opportunity to feed and build that special bond with her as well." - Laura

Jessa and Jaryd's Story

"As we were preparing for our infant feeding journey, we had been influenced by societal stigmas surrounding different feeding options. We decided that we wanted to learn about it more as part of our own journey.

The truth is that for us it was a mixed journey and we implemented both bottle and breast."

Gianni's Story

"The truth about bottle feeding, is that it's ok. Regardless of if you nurse directly, pump and feed using a bottle, or formula feed, it is ok. If your baby is healthy, growing and thriving, it is ok.

With my daughter Ellie, I was so dead set on not using formula, and I really struggled. I did a tone of 'power pumping' sessions and took a ton of supplements that I probably didn't even need.

This time around however, I had it in my mind that I wasn't going to overwork myself. I was going to do what I could when I could. If I needed to supplement with formula, that's what we'd do. My husband was very supportive, which I think allowed me to be a little more-hands off and continue to pump while I was at work.

I didn't consider any outside opinions because it was me. My body and my child, so I'm going to do what I see fit and what works best for my family."