Hilary Duff Felt Guilty For Not Continuing To Breastfeed Her Daughter, But She's Ignoring The "Mommy Warriors"
Every parent out there knows how difficult it can be to make certain choices for your baby. Mom guilt is a real thing — and Hilary Duff knows all too well what it feels like.
Hilary Duff became known around the world for her role as Disney's Lizzie McGuire, but today she's primarily a mother of three children who is heavily involved in her kids' lives. She opened up to Romper recently about what motherhood has been like while managing a career.
Hilary Duff Decided To Quit Breastfeeding Her Third Child
There always seems to be an unnecessarily petty war between breastfeeding moms and formula-feeding moms, and Hilary is one of the many moms who has witnessed it. Hilary's daughter Mae is her third child and she's 11 months old. She candidly admitted that she just couldn't breastfeed Mae for as long as her first two kids.
"With Luca and Banks, I got to seven months," she shared. "With Mae, I got to seven weeks, and I was like, ‘I’m done.’ I spent all my time in that chair in the corner either feeding her or pumping, and I wasn’t making enough milk, so I was also having to supplement, so the whole feeding process was so long."
It wasn't an easy decision for Hilary, especially because she breastfed her first two for an extended period of time. But she knew she couldn't keep forcing herself to breastfeed Mae when it just wasn't working for her and her baby.
"I was like, ‘What am I doing? The guilt is why I’m staying here,'" she admitted.
She shoved her guilt aside and decided to quit breastfeeding Mae. Hilary also talks about refusing to feel guilty for having an occasional glass of red wine in the third trimester of her pregnancy. "I don't want the mommy warriors to come after me," she said.
Hilary shared a "mommy warrior" incident when she was driving in her small, gated community from one house to the next with her daughter Banks in the backseat next to Banks' godmother Molly Bernard. A story came out claiming she was driving unsafely with her daughter unbuckled in the car.
"It’s not like I’m driving on the 405 with my kids in the backseat without a car seat," said. "You have no context. You don’t know where I am.”
“Do you know how many times I let my kids sit on my front seat once we get [close to our driveway] to pretend like they’re driving home?" Hilary continued. "You’re telling me you’ve never put your kid in the backseat to drive a block before with an adult back there? I’m like, ‘Happy new year to you, too.’”
But she doesn't let it get to her. She also jokes about how having a kid gives you the perfect excuse to get out of engagements you don't want to go to. Well, she's not wrong.