With three new baby girl granddaughters, I am currently watching my children dealing with this decision. They seem to be using both the breast and the bottle, whichever is most convenient at the time.

My first observation is the extreme social and professional pressure that is now put on new mothers to breast feed. No doubt this is a reaction to the bad effects of the move away from it since the 1960s.

I remember that the breast just did not work for any of my three children. They lost weight, sleep, colic, regurgitated, and were very unhappy until they were put on a formula. We even had problems with the shop formulas until an old doctor gave us a recipe based on cans of evaporated milk: which worked well for all three of mine.

I accept the generalization that breast milk is best, but it is not the solution for everyone and we should not make the mother feel guilty for not doing it.