The Breast Feeding Support Thread

Sligo1 wrote: »

Hiya... I really don't envy you. I had an awful time trying to get my little girl to take a bottle of EBM. She took a bottle of
EBM at night for the first couple weeks of her life and then I stopped giving her the bottle altogether. When we went to try her again at around 3 months it was extremely hard, upsetting and frustrating.

Apparently the little ones learn how to assert themselves in their second month of life... I put the refusal of bottles down to this. And apparently as you have said, you'd need to be getting them used to a bottle before this phase. I found the MAM bottles finally worked for us with A LOT of perseverance... Everyday.... For a couple of months and then she finally took it. My girl was very stubborn and it can be very stressful. Here's a thread with some tips from parents who have gone through the same thing. Best of luck.

http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057216333/1/#post90530337

Thanks so much Sligo, I'll have a good read through that thread. Glad your perseverance paid off but goodness yes, it's stressful.

Lola I haven't tried the cup yet as wasn't sure if it should be a sippy cup or like the little cups that come with medicine. I'll have to pick up both next time I'm in town.

My poor baby is almost 8 weeks and was in hospital with a chest infection. We wanted to give her a dummy to comfort her and the nurses had boxes of these little glucose dips to dip the dummy in. The nurse said it helps newer babies suck the dummy. Maybe you can get them somewhere. Good luck!

FurBabyMomma wrote: »

Hi Margo, I've tried the switch and at the end of a feed but all she does is hold it in her mouth, swirl it around and look at me as if I'm crazy - better than screaming though lol. I haven't ever heard about glucose though, can you explain a bit more?

A strange question: is it ok or not for a baby other than your own to drink your breast milk? A friend is exclusively pumping as her baby won't latch. He won't take formula. Her stash of frozen milk is very low and she can't build it up. I have a freezer full of my breast milk and I'm still producing more than I need as I'm pumping to keep supply up as I'm back to work. Would it be weird/inappropriate/icky/wrong/insensitive of me to offer her some of my surplus? Thanks.

Edit to say I meant to offer my pumped, frozen milk. Not straight from the boob!!

Some people may feel it's weird or icky but it's a very generous and kind offer to make. If I were in your friend position I'd definitely use another woman's breastmilk over formula.

Hi congratulations I'm sure there will be lots of other much more experienced mama's who will post great advise - I'm a first time mama so have a limited experience. Firstly, its great that you want to research first! Try reading this whole thread if you can from page 1 - I did this during the first few weeks of breastfeeding (that's one great thing about breastfeeding, you have one hand free for surfing the net!!) and I found it to be the best resource of all Another good site is kellymom.com

I'm sorry you are getting negative feedback from your family with regards to your intention to breastfeed. Unfortunately this can be quite common amongst the older generation I feel Formula feeding was the only way to go in those days and it can be hard for them to get their head around the idea of breastfeeding. Maybe you could look up your local ciudiu meetings before your baby is born - they can offer you great support and its good to have their number in your mobile if you do run into problems in the early days. Advise from the midwives in the hospital when you give birth can vary but don't be afraid to keep asking for help in getting breastfeeding established - most midwives do want you to succeed! Breastfed babies can lose up to 10% of their body weight in the first few days so don't be alarmed! Also, milk can be slower in coming in if you have a C-section - these are things I wish I had known at the time:rolleyes::rolleyes:

Other than that, do lots & lots of skin on skin with baby and forget about schedules etc just feed whenever baby demands it. It can be tiring but then having a baby is very tiring and as I have never bottle fed I can't compare! Try to have lots of food frozen in the fridge for the first few weeks. Stock up on multi mam balm and compresses and a nice comfy v shaped pillow. Sorry for the essay I'm sure you will get lots of great advise from the other mamas :)

Hi I'm just wondering if anyone can help. My baby is a few days old and have decided to bottle feed. My breasts are now big and tender and need to relieve this and stop milk production, I am wondering how to do this?

er1983 wrote: »

Hi I'm just wondering if anyone can help. My baby is a few days old and have decided to bottle feed. My breasts are now big and tender and need to relieve this and stop milk production, I am wondering how to do this?

As far as I know, and I might be wrong but cold things will help stop your milk. Try cutting a new nappy open and put ice cubes inside it and place this on your breasts. In the shower stand with your back to the water and avoid hot water straight on your breasts.

You might need to stop feeding gradually or else hand express a bit to stop engorgement. I'm not too familiar with this so maybe someone else can help. I just remember reading about cold things helping to stop milk production.

Ro2015 wrote: »

Hi everyone, hope I'm posting this in the right place. I'm just curious to see if anyone here has experienced the same thing as me. I'm 22 weeks pregnant with my first and I've none from the very start that I want to breast feed! I really am determined but I feel very overwhelmed! I'm fairly young and thought I'd be able to get a lot of advice/ support from my family and in laws.

Congratulations and well done for wanting to breastfeed, it's a really beautiful experience (once you get the hang of it!) and is the best food you can give your baby

I read the book Breastfeeding Made Simple - Seven Natural Laws for Nursing Mothers by Nancy Mohrbacher and Kathleen Kendall-Tackett and found it to be so informative. It'll arm you with all the facts that you will need, especially when you have no support.

I would highly recommend that you go to a specific breast-feeding class while pregnant by a lactation consultant. That way, you have made contact with one so if you need help after the birth, you at least know somebody. Don't rely on the hospital helping you out. I found some midwives good but others awful and made my life miserable while I was in hospital as they were pro-formula. In my case I was really determined to breastfeed so I kept on going but they really were awful.

Don't buy bottles, any of that stuff. You can get it if needs be after the birth but in my opinion, don't assume you will fail and need a back up plan. Assume you will be able to do it and if it works out, great. If not, well then you can go buy some bottles etc. then. No point spending money that may be unnecessary.

Ignore your family with their lack of support rubbish. If they are giving you grief tell them to back off and you're not interested unless they have supportive things to say. The reason I say this is that the first six weeks are very very very hard. Most likely you'll have your family pushing formula then and it's very easy then to just quit. But the first 6 weeks are meant to be hard as baby is learning and so are you and baby is trying to establish your milk supply for their needs. That time flies by and before you know it, it'll be a doddle. But I highly recommend getting a lactation consultant to help you at home for the first day or so. Good luck!

Congratulations on your pregnancy! Sooky as posted some very good advice. I'm a first time mum and also found the older generation very adverse to bf - particularly my parents. But now my mum sees how calm and easy going my baby is and how little she cries she's crediting the bf and thinks it's some kind of miracle lol. I dunno whether it is or not but all I know is my baby is content and happy.

Except with the bottle of expressed breast milk we're now on the sippy cup and it's not much better. It's weird, she won't swallow any milk that gets in her mouth, just gargles and spits it out.

bovril wrote: »

Quick question for those of you that pump. Baby is 8 weeks old and I would like to start pumping for the odd late evening feed or for the odd time I need to head out by myself for a few hours. I know it's recommended to pump early morning. I have a medela swing and freezer bags at the ready. I'm just wondering do I need to pump every morning at the same time once I start. Also if I'm not giving the expressed bottle every day and pumping will my supply be all over the place?

I pumped almost every day when feeding my daughter. From my experience morning was indeed the best time and I always got most then. For that reason I tried to do it in and around the same time every day. It was easier to build it into my routine that way too. I found if I left it too late I either wouldn't get much or anything at all. That said there will be times when you can't so don't stress if you can't the odd day. Generally speaking though, I think you are better off doing everyday because your supply will be up and down otherwise. You'll have enough changes when the baby goes through growth spurts etc so best to try keep it consistent. Try to slot it in to a time when you know you're home and the baby might be sleeping. For me that was after her first feed if the day when she was settled in the cot and I could pump in bed beside her them go back asleep if you don't think you'll use it- freeze it. It'll give you great flexibility once you get up and running

Congrats on your pregnancy Ro2015! I can echo what other posters here have said. Its not that unusual for women of that generation to be against breastfeeding or find it weird or not enough for baby or whatever. God knows what they were told to think that. You have my sympathies, having to listen to them! But if you are not getting support from them, there are lots of good people and places to get support and advice from and they can help a lot. All the groups that were mentioned by other posters here. Do check them out well before your due date so that you know where they are and even have a few names/phone numbers/emails/facebook of supportive people to contact for after you give birth and are starting out. Going to a group before birth is a good idea. My guy arrived early so I'd planned to but I missed going to a group before he was born. I wish I had, as it took me a good few weeks to actually go to a breastfeeding group meeting after he was born. I think if I'd gone before birth it would have been easier for me to go.

Aside from advice, it is so good to have others to talk to about all the little things who know what it is like to go through it. Seriously, so many odd things happen your body that it is great to hear from someone else 'oh, same for me' and then you know you're not the only one and that it is normal and you can stop going crazy about it

I'm a new mum and my guy is 4 months now. Breastfeeding was tough for the first couple of weeks or so, I will admit it, you are wrecked tired anyway and emotions are all over the place and then you are trying to feed this little baby and neither of you have much clue what to do! But then when it starts working it is so great. I am so glad I did it. It is easy now! If he's hungry I can feed him in 5min. Sooo much easier than dealing with bottles 24/7, I'm sleep deprived enough without having to worry about cleaning bottles, making up formula, bringing bottles out with us etc. I'm back at work now so I'm pumping and the few bottles a day he does take show me the difference in work involved.

Although, pumping is great for freeing you. So if someone says that breastfeeding means you'll be stuck on the baby 24/7 for months on end and have no life and not able to go anywhere by yourself or drink or that no one else will be able to feed the baby, or that you're being *selfish* hogging all the baby-feeding (or some other crap), just know that once you've got yourself all going with breastfeeding, you can pump and someone else can feed baby There is also good advice in these pages here on pumping.

For me, the best advice I got was 1) it isn't a walk in the park, it is a learning curve for you, baby and your boobs. Expect that it'll take a bit of time for all three to get the hang of it but it will work. 2) Day 3 to day 7ish are awful but hang in there, you will get through them and it gets much much better.

congrats again and come post and read here, I've found these threads to be a great help!

Finished pumping at work just now and spilled half the bag all down myself... what's that they say about crying over spilled milk?