monthly theme, august 2013: feeding your child

In honor of World Breastfeeding Week (Aug 1-7) and National Breastfeeding Awareness Month (in the United States), we thought we would use the idea of “Feeding Your Child” for the August Monthly Theme.

Back in March of 2012, the very first Monthly Theme for PAIL was “Breastfeeding,” back when PAIL was a brand new idea and hosted on a personal website. Here is a list of the participating entries from that month’s theme. I’m sure that much has changed for people in the past 18 months though, so we are excited to see what people have to say about things now!

We realize that not everyone can breastfeed, and beyond that, not everyone chooses to breastfeed, but everyone does feed their child, and we’d love to hear about your experience!

Suggested Prompts:

• How did you feed your baby? Breastmilk from the breast? Breastmilk from pumping? Formula? A combination of the three?
• If you exclusively breastfed your child, how long did you do it? Did you have a “goal” for length of time, or did you just wing it?
• If you breastfed + supplemented with formula, how long did you nurse in any amount?
• If you formula fed, how did you choose the formula brand? What are your suggestions for finding the best brand for your child?
• Did you research breastfeeding prior to your child(ren)’s birth?
• Did your method of feeding your chlid(ren) differ from what you had hoped/planned to do? How did that make you feel?
• If you worked outside the home during the first year, how did that affect your decision?
• What would you tell an expectant mom about the realities of breastfeeding & formula feeding? Is there something you wish you’d have been told?
• If you’re pregnant, how do you hope/plan to feed your child?
• Do you feel your “preferred” method to feed your child was affected by how those around you feed their babies?
• How much (in your estimation) did you spend on feeding your child for his/her first year of life? (pumping supplies / formula cost / lactation consultants / etc)

As always, if you don’t have a blog we welcome your comments on the topic below and we’ll link your comment in the post listing.

Also, if you’ve written a post on this topic in the past, feel free to submit that post instead of having to write a new one (unless you want to).

Entries for this month’s theme are due next Wednesday, August 21 at midnight, EST. The full list of links will go live on Thursday, August 22nd.

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