Haylie Duff has a parent peeve. “All my friends have tiny little babies right now and when you go to a birthday party, the dads will be like, ‘What a beautiful baby! Are you breast-feeding?’” the mom of 15-month-old daughter Ryan tells Us Weekly. “I’m like, ‘That’s not a normal question. That’s not an OK question.”’
The Real Girls Kitchen star, who is engaged to entrepreneur Matt Rosenberg, nursed Ryan exclusively for nearly seven months, until a bout with food poisoning wiped out her milk supply. “That was awful. It was really hard for me,” Duff reveals. “I finally gave her a bottle of [Similac] … and there was no turning back. You shouldn’t be ashamed to formula feed.”
She continued: “Moms do so much comparing. This one has a gluten-free kid and that one doesn’t. This one has a nanny and that one doesn’t. Everybody needs to lighten up. We’re all doing our best.”
The actress, whose sister is Younger star Hilary Duff, also opened up to Us about the guilt she felt while traveling the country for her new Cooking Channel series Haylie’s America (premieres Thursday, September 8, at 10 p.m.). “I couldn’t bring Ryan with me, and that was the hardest part,” she says. “But when I was sad … Matt would say to me, ‘Babe, you’re setting a good example as a woman that works. So that is what I tell myself when I’m leaving for the airport.”
Duff’s wisdom doesn’t end there. She shared her mommy must-haves with Us:
Zoli Sippy Cups “They have small straws that are perfect for tiny mouths that are learning to drink this way for the first time. And they’re BPA-free!”
JuJuBe Fuel Cell Snack Bag “It keeps Ryan’s snacks and drinks cold and it’s waterproof and easy to wash.”
Hydra Bebe Facial Cream by Mustela “I use this cream every night on Ryan’s sweet little face after her bath and it has kept her skin beautiful and healthy. My only complaint about the product is that it doesn’t come in a larger-size bottle.”
Ring Bath Baby Tub Seat by Keter “I love that baby has the freedom to play around in the bathroom and you have the comfort of knowing they won’t hurt themselves.
