Erin Napier Defends Feeding Daughter Mae Formula: She’ll Be 'Strong'

‘Home Town’ star Erin Napier encouraged other moms who can’t breast-feed to stop feeling ‘belittled’ or ‘less than’ — details

No nursing? No problem! Erin Napier penned a supportive message to other moms who are unable to breast-feed their babies.

“Don’t let anyone make you feel less than or belittled because of it,” the Home Town star, 35, captioned a Thursday, June 3, Instagram photo with her 4-day-old daughter, Mae. “[My 3-year-old daughter,] Helen, was a formula baby and has no allergies, has always been a healthy weight, no big sicknesses, slept through the night by 6 weeks, smart as a whip and is just as in love with and attached to her mama as her breast-fed friends are to theirs.”

Erin Napier Defends Feeding Daughter Mae Formula: She’ll Be 'Strong' — Erin Napier and daughter Mae. Courtesy of Ben Napier/Instagram

The HGTV personality gushed that “formula is [a] friend” at her and Ben Napier’s home, writing, “Just watch as these little matchstick legs get chunky and strong.”

The couple announced their second child’s arrival in Sunday, May 30, Instagram posts. The following day, Erin explained how the infant’s name ended up in a recent episode of This Is Us.

“An Easter egg from our friend [Chris Sullivan],” the reality star wrote via Instagram on Monday, May 31. “Earlier this year on @nbcthisisus, Kate and Toby were at the hospital awaiting their baby. Our friend Chris, who plays Toby, was writing down ideas for the baby’s middle name and he snuck Mae (and her middle name!) in there to see if we would spot it when we watched the episode.”

While Erin didn’t specify her newborn’s middle name in the caption, she showed a picture of the list, which featured 13 other names — Rhonda, Louise, Maxine, Victoria, Nicole, Rachel, Darla, Fogelman, Olin, Phoebe, Roxy, Patti and Foggy.

Sullivan, 40, commented on the social media upload at the time: “CONGRATULATIONS NAPIER NATION! We are so happy for y’all. And we can wait to meet … well … all of you!” (The actor became a parent in July 2020 when he and wife Rachel Sullivan welcomed their son, Bear, now 10 months.)

Erin and Ben, 37, announced their pregnancy news one month ahead of Mae’s arrival. “In just a few weeks we will be adding another little face to our home videos and photo albums,” the then-pregnant star captioned a throwback Instagram photo from her eldest child’s birth. “Just like Helen did, her little sister has made it easy to keep her secret by being tiny even now, and I’m deeply thankful that we’ve had almost eight months of keeping this our news just for our family and close friends.”