BF soapbox

My father and 4 of his siblings (all in their 70s) were breastfed (dad nursed till he was 3). A fifth sibling was born after a 12 year gap, and he was formula fed (Grandma was told formula was better). He (Uncle Raymond) was sickly, and died 8 years ago from complications of Ulcerative Colitis. His whole body just shut down eventually. The rest of the siblings are as healthy as can be.

My sisters and I were all fed the carnation milk/karo syrup mix. My mom says when her OB asked if she would breastfeed, dad said, "absolutly not! We can afford formula!" My oldest sister is 53, has high blood presure, and is borderline diabetic. My middle sister is 49 and is always sick. She has Ulcerative Colitis and seems to always have something else wrong as well. I have Crohn's disease and all the fun side-conditions that go with it. We all take meds for depression (mine for bi-polar), we all suffer from migraines, and we all battle a weight problem.

How much is because of what we were fed as babies? I guess we can't ever really know. But there sure are a lot of coincidences.

No one in our family knows how long Gregory nursed. They didn't see him nurse past the age of 3. By then he could understand waiting a while or going to another room. He was taught that a person has physical boundaries. And he was taught to ask. The last several months of nursing were just at bed time.

For the record, he self-weaned just past his 6th b-day.