Meghan Trainor and Daryl Sabara called in to Today to chat with Hoda Kotb about their baby boy, Riley. Riley, who is five and a a half months old now, had a scary start, if you remember. After he was delivered by C-section, he was whisked away to the NICU due to breathing issues. It took about five days before they could bring him home. Now Meghan’s talking about the fact that although she started pumping immediately, the combination of C-section and not nursing right away impacted her milk supply enough that breastfeeding didn’t work for her. Rather than driving herself crazy, she switched to bottle feeding and never looked back.
Meghan Trainor is opening up about life as a new mom and her decision to bottle-feed her baby boy.
On Thursday’s episode of Today, the “All About That Bass” singer, 27, and husband Daryl Sabara, 29, introduced their 5-month-old son Riley on television for the first time, telling co-host Hoda Kotb about their first few months of parenthood.
Trainor says she initially tried to breastfeed her baby boy but eventually came to the decision that bottle-feeding would be the best route for her and her son.
“I did a lot of research before of like why is breastfeeding so hard. Especially with a [Cesarean] section, my body wasn’t like, ‘Alright, time to make milk,’ ” she tells Kotb.
“I was pumping as soon as I got to my room after the C-section. I really struggled making milk. So finally, I was like, ‘I’m done!’ ” Trainor recalls, adding that she “never felt guilty” about her decision to switch to bottle-feeding.
“Everyone was like, ‘Good for you. I’m proud that you even tried,’ ” she shares.
I’m glad Meghan’s friends supported her out of the gate on this. I love her attitude as well, mainly because she’s right. She did everything she could, she wasn’t able to make enough milk to feed the baby, the bottle worked better so boom – decision made. There’s nothing to feel guilty about. I had not heard that C-sections affect milk production before, but I guess they can delay milk production. For what it’s worth to anyone expecting out there, the websites I checked said it usually comes eventually. It’s different for every mom. And when we talk about how information is not always made available, know that I took a breastfeeding class, had C-sections for both my babies and *still* did not know breastfeeding could be affected by it. (Obviously mine wasn’t, but no one mentioned it was a possibility ahead of time.)
Meghan seems to be eating her new motherhood up, which is wonderful. She’s always wanted to be a mom and have a big family. In the introduction, Hoda said Meghan was calling from their new home. When Daryl moved in with Meghan, she was living with her brothers, so they all lived together. I’d wondered if she and Daryl had gotten their own place but no, Hoda confirmed at the end of the clip that Meghan’s brother had moved with them. As Hoda pointed out, that does mean built in babysitters.
When describing who Riley looked more like, Hoda told Meghan she looked like she was holding her “husband in the dryer”. I have to agree, like at this little Daryl junior!
Photos via Instagram
There is so much pressure to breast feed. And when it doesn’t work, so much guilt. Good for her putting this out there – hopefully it helps some new moms.
She looks radiant! Very happy for them
Her baby her body her decision. This is a baby who had a birth scare, i would not force myself for milk with difficulty while the baby is hungry after he got back from the hospital 5 days after his birth. I would just feed my baby like meghan did and not feel guilty about it. The pressure and the lobbying is so strong on this issue.
I got induced, and my milk took 5 days to come in. In the meantime, we formula fed, because baby gotta eat. By the time my milk came in, she was so used to the bottle that she refused the breast. It’s common, it happens, and we just worked with it. Little miss is a picky eater to this day:-)
Good for her, she should not have felt an ounce of guilt. the whole topic of “how to feed your baby” is so…….I don’t know. Emotional? Touchy? I can’t think of a good word for it.
I BFed both my babies (and had two c-sections and my milk came in after a day or two with each one, which is normal), my first one I supplemented with formula and my second one only got BM and then both obviously got solids starting around 6 months.
Anyway, it’s difficult to navigate, when someone is talking to me about breastfeeding and asking for advice or telling me how hard it is and what did I do etc, I don’t want to be overly pushy in either direction. Like, I think many times new moms want to hear someone say, “honey, use the formula, its OKAY.” But sometimes they do want actual advice and tips etc and still want to try to make BFing work, and it can be hard to navigate in a conversation. I do tell my friends though to look at a playground and guess who was formula fed and who was breastfed. Surprise! You can’t tell. And I think the pro-breastfeeding movement has kind of convinced people that you can.
What a cute baby!
I’m glad she’s got a great support system.
The best way to feed a baby is whichever way works best for baby and momma.
Good for her. The Breast Feeding Mommies are terrifying & my cousin is one of them. It’s all she seems to speak about – well – breast feeding and how to put a child in a car seat.
😂😂
I am dying because I know so many moms like that – breastfeeding and how to put a child in a car seat are the two big hot topics. (And in case you were wondering, everything you are doing re: your child’s car seat is wrong.)
I couldn’t make enough to feed my greedy baby lol. We had her on rice the second month.
I did both however. Think of my breast as a snack. Almost always had to follow with a bottle. It was good to have some breast supply though for those early mornings I didn’t feel like getting up, and I could just latch her on and let her go back to sleep.
It’s whatever works for mommy. I never understand why it’s anyone else’s business
Her baby is fed and healthy. That’s all that matters.
It honestly saddens me a little because it seems that she felt she had to justify choosing to bottle feed. Hence the story. But maybe she really did want to breast feed first.
Like someone said above, her baby, her body, her choice.
My mom’s generation only bottle fed. At that time, it wasn’t “nice” to breast feed. So interesting that fashions and trends affect this, too, as they do everything else. But dumping guilt on moms is as old as the hills. Also, societal grabs at the autonomy of women. If the body is female, “My body, my choice” is never an absolute. It’s only absolute for those idiots refusing the Covid vaccination because of. . . “reasons.” Buy, hey, “My body, my choice. My freedom.”
We have got to get rid of this toxic breast is best narrative. I just had a friend who had awful hemorrhoids during pregnancy, and a day after delivery, one ruptured. She went through a surgery with a minimal amount of topical numbing cream, and that’s it. No painkillers. No anesthesia. She was in horrible pain for a week and couldn’t care for her baby, all because she didn’t want the drugs in her system. She was so panicked about not being able to breastfeed. It doesn’t help that she has a controlling (emotionally abusive, really) husband who shames her for her sometimes-low milk production. Her doctors were concerned, but said it’s her choice.
She repeated “breast is best” over and over, and was so scared to formula feed for a few days, that she was in excruciating pain for a week. She wasn’t able to care for her baby. Couldn’t do much of anything for her. When she could’ve been more comfortable pain-wise, and taken care of the child, just without breastfeeding. It was painful to watch.
Fed is best!!!!
Good. The best way to feed a baby is the way that will keep them nourished and healthy – boob or bottle, it doesn’t matter as long as the child isn’t going hungry. The breastfeeding brigade gets outta hand sometimes.
I had a c-section and the first week or so my milk supply was really low. I was really stressing out about it (to the point of tears), but luckily my husband and mother-in-law got me to calm down and give him a bottle of formula. I was told not to google anything about breastfeeding because all of those “advice” articles only stressed me out more! After I stopped stressing out about it, my milk supply increased. There really is a lot of pressure for moms to breastfeed their babies. I think there needs to be more info out there to let moms know it’s okay to bottle feed. My nephew was exclusively bottle fed and he’s a happy and healthy kid.
But I have to say that as a inherently lazy person, it was definitely easier to whip out a boob to feed my son (don’t have to mess with a bottle and can instantly feed) and cheaper. I was lucky enough that after I went back to work after my maternity leave, my office was still working remotely. If I had to pump at work, my son may have transitioned to being a bottle fed baby. While I never really had any discomfort with breastfeeding, pumping was always difficult for me.
Good for her, fed is best!
Also, there’s no scientific proof that breastfed is better than formula. There has been one study which *suggests* some small health/learning benefits, but does not control for socioeconomic factors. It’s unethical to conduct a double-blind study in which mothers are assigned whether or not to breastfeed, so here we are.
OK, so I assume NO ONE is taking this comment seriously but if anyone was even remotely thinking about it, just stop.
So she shouldn’t feel guilt because “she did everything she could” to breastfeed? I’d argue she could have done nothing to breastfeed, just decided to bottle feed off the bat, and still shouldn’t feel guilty. A mom doesnt have to prove she tried and failed to breastfeed to get a pass for not breastfeeding.