Topic: survey BC survivors breastfed vs/bottlefed

Hi!  This is a great thread and something I have always wondered about myself. 

I am 52 and was diagnosed last July with IDC.  I was bottle-fed, have two adult children and bottle-fed them, and my mom is 80 years old and never had a breast cancer diagnosis.  My daughter is breast-feeding her baby currently, and just recently had a benign breast lump aspirated (that was a scare!).  My sister who is 62 was probably bottle-fed (never thought to ask that question) and she has never had a breast cancer diagnosis.

 I have often wondered too if breastfeeding my children would have prevented my BC.  But since there are so many ladies who did breastfeed and have also been diagnosed with BC, I don't put a lot of faith in the statistics.  Though I'm sure breastfeeding is great for babies, my grandson doesn't seem to be growing at the rate my children did when they were infants, and they were never overweight.  Just my own thoughts on the subject.

Thanks!

Mary Jo 

I was breastfed for 6 months.

I breastfed 3 kids for a total of over 6 years of nursing.

Diagnosed at age 48 with IDC.

(Oh, and the kids had ear infections, needed orthodonture, and aren't as tall as I expected our kids would be looking at dh and me.)

Group statistics are just that, reflections of large groups, not necessarily of individual experience.

I was breast Fed & Breast fed both of my Kids.  One for only 6 wks (collicky!)  And one for 6 Months.  Had kids at 25 & 27 yrs.

I was breast-fed for 4 months, and I breast-fed my 3 children, each at least 12 months.   Diagnosed when I was 39.  This subject is interesting; I've never thought about it before.

- I was breast fed for 1 year.
- I breast fed both my children (I was 34 and 37 at the time) ...both for at least 1 yr, then weaned.
- There is no family history of breastcancer.
So ...I got BC anyway too!

I wasn't breast fed, but I did breast feed my three sons for over six months each..

I was DX'd at 58, almost eight years ago... 

I was a bottle baby...I was allergic to formula so I was given canned milk and Karo syrup...gag! I breastfed all 4 of my kids, my two daughters for well over two years, each. I was diagnosed the first time at 47 and the second time at 48. Must have been the Karo syrup!

Linda

In this study the odds ratio was 0.83, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18379425

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odds_ratio - so the effect isn't very big.  (An odds ratio of 1 would mean there was no difference between the groups.)

I was bottle fed. 

I am 53, dx with IDC at 50 (metastatic now).  I was breastfed, and I had four children and breastfed each of them for fifteen months.  I'm triple negative, though, and supposedly breastfeeding children makes a difference in hormone positive cancers because it reduces the time your body is producing estrogen.

Analemma, I hate bc.  I do hope you are well.

Linda..my mother made some crazy evaporated milk  formula up too..I was born in 1942 and my mother said there was no pre made formula then...

2 sisters and myself were all bottlefed.  We've all breast fed out children. Me (50) with one child. 53 y/o sister had 3 she breast fed and no BC. 48 y/o sister with 8 children she breast fed and no BC.  Guess I should have had more children :( 

My mother and her sisters were breastfed.  Their mother got Paget's in the 1950s.  My mother and her older sister both got BC -- IDC for my aunt (in her 60s) and DCIS for my mother at 81.  My aunt died at 87 of Alzheimer's; my mom will be 88 in November and is completely NED after lumpectomy, rads and 5 years of tamoxifen.  The youngest sister died at 80 of lung cancer.

My mother couldn't breastfeed us (inverted nipples), so I was a cow's milk baby (violently allergic to formula).  I was dx'd with DCIS last year, 2 weeks before my 50th birthday.  I have had no children, so obviously I didn't breastfeed!   My father died of liver cancer at 53; my older brother died 2 years ago at 57 of lung cancer; two other siblings are currently cancer-free.  I'm BRCA neg.

Interesting thread ..

Layne

I was exclusively formula fed, as i was adopted. I breast fed my girls, first one for just over a year, second for about 10 months. Due to the adoption matter, I can't tell my family history. Waiting on BRAC test.

I was bottle fed as a baby and my mother was breast fed.  I breast fed both of my children for a full year. My mom's family has no history of breast cancer.  My dad sister had breast cancer late in life.  She died from unrelated causes.