I love breastfeeding. I breastfed all my children until they were at least a year old, and at almost nine months old, Daniel is showing no signs of stopping.
I am well versed in all the health benefits of breastfeeding, both for baby and me, but one aspect I hadn’t thought of was the cost.
According to this study I have already saved myself at least $567.42 just by breastfeeding Daniel. If you take Rachel and Jake into the equation also, I have saved myself approximately $2000 on formula milk since my children have been born.
As many of you will know I am the bargain queen, and I am so chuffed that I have been saving myself money for the last four years without even knowing it! Good for me.
Breastfeeding. I got your back on that one. Who can reasonably argue that? I’d guess, no one.
I’m all about breastfeeding (my son L is 2 1/2 and he is still “a nurser” as he calls it). But I have to say that pumping was like another part-time job in itself. There were times when I thought if time was money it would be cheaper to buy formula. Luckily I was able to pump on the clock at work, but if my boss hadn’t been a mother of young children, I don’t know if I would have been able to work as many hours.
I am lucky that I work from home, therefore I manage to keep the pumping to a minimum. I remember the hassle of constantly expressing from my first daughter, since then i have tried to avoid doing it regularly.
Well done for keeping going for 2 1/2 years. All mine seemed to get sick of it by the time they were about 14 months.
Lucky for me, there’s a law in CA that says they have to give you time to pump during work. Otherwise, I might be nervous…
On the other hand, I’m not sure I saved money with my son and breastffeding. I had to visit the lactation consultant several times, and got thrush a lot (which cost $$ in various creams), plus the price of the pump, the bags to store milk in, etc. etc.. I probably did come out ahead, but I’m hoping this next time we’ll come out even further ahead! (And hey, I’d do it anyway even if it cost more… there’s nothing like seeing the happy milk drunk look on an infant
)
I have to say I saved a fortune by buying my pump etc from eBay. You can get all your breastfeeding equipment for a fraction of the price, and then sell it on again when you are finished with it!
I’m right there with you! I was all set to extended-nurse my son, who is my third child, but he weaned himself at 13 months. One day, nursing. The next day, he looked at my boob like “What am I supposed to do with THAT thing?” and didn’t touch it again. Talk about pain!!! I was disappointed, too, he was going to be our last and I had weaned the girls at 12 and 13 months, I was going to let him go as long as he wanted. But now, we may be thinking about a fourth . . .
gem, that sounds like our family to a T. Daniel is now 9 months and is already cutting down on his feeds. i just know I have another 3-4 months of feedign at the most. i would love to feed him for a bit longer!