The Breast Feeding Support Thread

Oh dear, you seem to have been given so much conflicting and incorrect advice in the hospital. Up to 10% birthweight loss is 'normal' so why the hell dint hospitals allow for this?

At the stage you're at now, I'd say contact your local la leche or cuidiu leader (Google friends of breast feeding as they have details for groups all over Ireland). The leaders are as qualified as private lactation consultants and they're free.

As the others said feed on demand so the best thing is to get into bed together naked and feed as soon as your baby mooches or roots. Also try taking hot baths regularly, as hot as you can bear, and immerse the breasts and vigorously massage towards the nipple. It will be sore but it'll be effective. Take ibuprofen for the inflammation, put heat onto the breast before feeding and an ice pack (wrapped in a towel) on your breasts after feeding .

Ideally with your inflammation you should be feeding a minimum of 24 times in 24 hours. This will reduce in the coming days but very frequent feeding, without any thought to routine, will help clear the blockage if you have one.

I'd say stop any formula and the pumping and just focus on feeding from the breast.

Good luck and well done for persisting through all this. I had mastitis on both of mine in the first week and I'll never forget the despair. But you can get through this if you get the right support.

Every three hours is the maximum gap between feeds - not sure I saw this in the first few weeks. Quite sure I remember a day where I barely left the couch for 8 hours. Agree with pp that you need to keep putting baby to breast, this is the best way to work on supply as nothing is as good as your baby at getting milk supply regulated. The amount you express doesn't represent the amount your baby is getting as babies can be very efficient,plus not everyone responds to a pump/expressing equally. It may be worth seeing a lactation consultant to ease your worries about the amount you're expressing and/or your technique. I do know though that I was advised to not express for six weeks, just to work with the baby.

weiland79 wrote: »

Thanks for the advise but when I pump there is nothing coming out from the breast so would be worried she wouldn't be getting enough, she is almost exclusively feeding formula at the moment, as she doesn't latch on most times to the breast or spits it out as it's like she is not getting anything from it,

Pumping won't show you what your supply is like and I found it disheartening to pump and get nothing for my trouble. Relax and feed non stop.

I agree with feeding more, my son fed for 2 hours every 2 hours when he was 4 days old, he was slightly premature and I had a section so I wasn't expected to be able to feed at all. He wasn't strictly feeding as in getting milk for those 2 hours but it encourages your body to realise the baby is suckling and to produce milk. Now at 5 weeks sometimes he has fed 30 minutes later, some days he goes 4 hours, the more you feed the more milk you make and the easier it is to feed. My son was in special care for 5 days, they would always let me feed him for as long as he wanted and then would top up with formula if necessary. When I expressed I got feck all really, only 5-10ml if I was doing well, but he has a great latch and put on 350g in 9 days so clearly he gets much more than I did! I was also warned by my gp when he was 2 weeks old that he'd have to have formula if he wasn't back to his birth weight the following week, I think this kind of threat/scare is unnecessary as breastfed babies don't put on weight as quickly as formula fed babies.

I didn't get the full feeling until he was 3 weeks old and then it was only really obvious for one day, I didn't even get the tingly feeling for about 10 days or more, the first week my breasts felt and looked exactly the same, but were producing milk, so I wouldn't let what they feel like put you off.

So definitely feed more, go to bed or the couch, set up camp, relax, and feed the baby whenever she wants. Relaxing is important so don't let this stress you, you're doing everything you can so just remember that and chill out and be lazy with her

Definitely get a private LC to call out. At this stage, 3 hours is the absolute max time between feedings and back when my baby was first born, we were feeding for an hour / 90 minutes every 2-2.5 hours! It was pretty much constant. In fact, in the hospital we fed for nearly 11 hours straight at night on/off, it was exhausting as at that stage I hadn't slept in over 48 hours.

Forget the pump - you're getting nothing from it. Call the LC, get baby checked out by LC and then you can ditch the formula. Also, eat oats for breakfast! I never (thank goodness) seemed to have supply issues and I always have granola / porridge for breakfast so I am attributing it to that.

Oh and to add to the above, bring a water bottle with a squeezey / sports cap top, not a screw cap! Perfect to handle with one hand!

Spottybananas - you have white on your nipples constantly? That sounds like a milk blister / bleb. Vasospasm a cause the nipple to turn white temporarily. I've had the *cough* pleasure of both at different times and there's different treatment for each:

Bleb: olive oil on cotton wool and keep pressed against nipple in between feeds (put it on inside your bra - wash off before feed. Apply a warm WET compress before and after feeds, take hot showers, try to hand express in shower - you basically need to soften the blister so the milk can get out through it again.

Vasospasm - keep nipple covered, cover immediately after a feed (the cold air makes it more sore) and apply a warm DRY compress to it - I got a mug of hot water and put a breast pad on the side of the mug to hear the pad up or you can buy those hot packs but no need - breast pad, mug and a kettle of hot water is all you need.

See here:
http://kellymom.com/bf/concerns/mother/nipple-blanching/

You were prescribed meds for it? Didn't realise meds were needed - mine just cleared up after a day or so with religiously putting on a dry compress.

Excuse my French but a vasospasm is so fckin PAINFUL! I hope I never have to endure that suffering ever again!

Ah, I wasn't sure from your previous post as it wasn't clear if you had the white mark all the time or just for a few seconds. And yeah I read the sentence about the medication wrong, sorry! Hopefully the vasospasm won't last long, it's horrendous!

cyning wrote: »

S hasn't fed in 36 hours so I think we are officially finished... Being sick hastened it. Small bit sad over it.

Spotty Vasospasms are awful: I ended up on anti inflammatories twice for them. Hope they pass soon for you

Sorry cyning, if you want to keep going it may not be the end. I had to go home recently for a family funeral so was 72 hours between feeds and I assumed she'd not be interests or I'd have no milk but 2 weeks later we're still going strong!

Though if you're happy to stop well done on getting this far, especially given everything

Please don't despair, pumping when they're so little is so difficult, hospitals are completely shíte at giving good breastfeeding information.
If you need to pump, feed her from one side and pump the other, feed her from the pumped side then, she'll get the hind milk which has lots of fat. then give her what you have pumped.
If you are pumping without feeding her, have some pictures of her or her blanket, it helps let down (probably the tingling you're feeling) and gets the milk flowing, drink lots of water, stop panicking, take to the couch and feed feed feed!
Tiny babies feed almost every hour, the pump will never represent what the baby can get herself.
I had a very stressful start with my little girl, she was in special care for 8 days, I got a huge coldsore on day 4 so I wasn't allowed in near her and they were going to stop her getting my milk at all. I fought them like you wouldn't believe, they decided to call Crumlin for advice and discovered I could express and hand it over!
I had weeks and weeks of her putting on one or two ounces, I had to get her weighed every week, she was doing everything she should but not gaining enough weight for the charts, finally we were bullied into having her checked out in hospital, such scare tactics they used. Talked about brain damage and everything.
We stayed one night, battled to get her out after that horrendous night ( they promised only one night!) blood tests that had all been done and clear were done again, they threatened barrium meals and iv tube feeding . We left with a feeding plan, high calorie formula and a very unhappy mammy and daddy.
I'll add here that the concern was she wasn't gaining, and she was tiny, no attention was paid to the fact that my other 4 babies were the same, and I was speaking from experience. There was nothing wrong with my baby she was just petite,
She'll be 6 months on Wednesday, I'm breastfeeding barr 2 bottles of lactose free formula, even this has given her 3 little eczema patches (all sibling have dairy or wheat issues) but she couldn't keep the dairy free one down. She's now just growing out of the 0-3 month clothes! She's sturdy, strong, pudgy and happy.
It's possible in spite of doctors to keep breastfeeding, rest relax and let baby dictate when to feed. The more she feeds the more milk you produce. Don't lose heart, it was boards ladies that kept me going!

If I have expressed milk stored in fridge can I take it with me at room temp to use in a few hours or do I bring it in a cooler pack and heat when needed? I know milk can stay at room temp for a few hours but is that just fresh milk, not milk expressed yesterday?

Just looking for advice. A red vein like line has developed on my breast, no hard lump, but tender. In now feeding more from that side, changing position of baby aiming nose towards the line. Feel OK otherwise.
Could it be mastitis? (I had cracking up 7/10 days ago but this has cleared up)

Snoopy could you call your PHN tomorrow?

I have a rather specific question for anyone with experience expressing, I'm baffled.

I'm using a Medela pump, and have kind of square small bottles that came with it (bought second hand) as opposed to the round bottles that are meant to be with it. I expressed what came to 100ml on the little square bottle, put it into a Lanisoh breastmilk storage bag, and it said that there was 80mls, I then put it in a Tommee Tippee 0-6 bottle and it said there was 50-60mls?? That happened twice with the same volume. The bottles are the ones I was given in the hospital too so surely they are the right volume if that's what the hospital go by?

Just now I expressed what appeared to be 70mls by the square bottle, it was 90ml on the bag, God knows what it will actually be in the bottle.

Has anyone any advice or even info as to which one to go by?

Yeah the measurements on bottles aren't really that reliable. But they don't have to be, they're just approximations. If you know roughly that the baby usually feels full after a full or 3/4 full square bottle, what does it matter how many ml it is? If you really want to be sure, use a digital scales. At least then it's only being poured from bottle to bag so you don't lose any more milk to a measuring jug. I wouldn't sweat it though.

Is there much of a quality difference between Medela storage bags &
Lanisoh? Lanisoh are so much cheaper, a box of 50 is similar price to a box of 20 from Medela. Thx in advance for your feedback.