The Breast Feeding Support Thread

LegacyUser

Yellow hen I recommend the nuk soothers mine wa 6 weeks when I gave it, spat it out once and has taken it ever since

Aveen

Hey ladies,
Have you thought about craniosacral-therapy? Sometimes their wee muscles are so tight that it cause latch problems and wind. Been a physio myself I did a bit of release though massage but the craniosacral therapy work brilliant with my first (one session needed) and I'll be taking my second due to his posterior tongue tie & wind (he's only 10days at mo so leaving it for a few weeks to let mucus clear).

Well done on breastfeeding ladies, it's very hard, I'm expressing to wean to the bottle with my second

LegacyUser

I actually have done two sessions with mine Aveen, for reflux.It's improved, but there wasn't much help with the wind.She said she couldn't find much wrong with the baby either, on any front.Her head and neck are pretty much perfect (hers and the doctor's words).Possibly due to a fairly short natural labour and the fact that she was born en caul.Which is nice, but doesn't solve the grunting problem for me!! :-) She jist thought it was probably a coordination issue that will imrpove with time.It's much better than it was but still....

Marz66

Lucuma, sounds like you've really checked the latch and you're happy with it. I have read though that breast fed babies should not have as many problems with wind and your comment that you think your supply might be just about enough could point to a small issue with the latch. Would you consider a lactation consultant one more time to look at the latch to set your mind at ease. They normally stay at least an hour and answer questions by phone/email so you get your money's worth.

If it's not the latch I've heard wonders about the cranial sacral therapy even though I had never heard of it before having a baby.

Aveen well done on getting this far. Every feed makes a difference as they say.

Lucuma

Marz66 wrote: »

I have read though that breast fed babies should not have as many problems with wind

i'm coming to the conclusion that this is a myth. i went to la leche league meeting and most of the mothers i spoke to there had had issues with wind in the early days. one woman there told me when her baby was small she slept on a recliner with the baby on her chest for a fortnight coz of wind!
and a good friend of mine that has breastfed her 2 babies up til 6-8 months each had bad problems with wind on both of them as well (she has been giving me advice) Perhaps overall bottle fed babies have more issues with wind but breast fed certainly don't seem to be immune to it unfortunately.

Yeah i suppose you'd get more out of a private lactatino consulatant alright, with the public one you only get a 10 -15 minute slot as there's such a long queue to see them. It was supply issues i discussed with her the day i did go - she showed me how to improve the latch to get more milk into the baby. but the 2 positions she recommended for the best latch were cross cradle and rugby hold - whereas i have to feed my baby with the baby sitting up due to wind.
Aveen i've taken this baby for 3 sessinos now with cranio sacral osteopath and chiropractor today - 3 different therapists/companies that's more to do with the fact i live in 2 different cities and the cranio sacral going on a 2 week holiday however! it's a good way to relieve yourself of nearly a hundred euro at a time. The chiropractor today told me i'm feeding the baby for too long at each session and that's why she has wind. he said cut her off after 20 minutes. i always feed til she falls asleep and delatches herself so she could be 30-45 mins at the boob - used to be nearly an hour when she was younger. how about the rest of ye ladies, how long do ye feed for at one sitting?
busy izzy after reading your post you inspired me to try a new move - last night i cut out lying down feeds altogether (after 8 weeks of doing only lying down feeding at night) and as you described i propped myself up with pillows in the bed! i said it's worth a try, the nights couldn't get any worse.
i fed her in rugby hold but a sloped version so she was kinda upright. once she fell asleep i slumped down a bit and fell asleep in that position - semi sitting up. she slept slumped on my chest also semi-sitting up. she woke every 2 hours to feed. i feel so much better today after having had a few hours sleep. btw it's just mean coming in to the bf thread and taunting us bf mothers with talk of your bottle feeding 8pm - 4/5am stretches! :-)

IvyTheTerrible

Is anyone else's hair falling out?
I had forgotten this from my first baby, and in the last 10 days it's started again with a vengeance. It's coming out almost in clumps!
(Baby is 3 months old). Can anyone tell me how long this lasts? (I can't remember how long it went on for my firt).

LegacyUser

Haha Lucuma....she was sleeping 9-3 by 5 weeks, with breastfeeds!! (does that still count as taunting?!) She's a good little sleeper at night and always has been but the day time is a total disaster. She won't sleep in her bed at all during the day - she's currently asleep in a sling on my chest and didn't sleep at all yesterday!!!! Nightmare.Made worse because she goes into the bed like a lamb at night....

For what it's worth, I'm actually feeding her more with the bottle than the breast, it seems to run right through her, which is totally contrary to anything I've been told but hey.I am, however, working on building my supply back up right now, because I want to combination feed, so I'm in the throes of pumping and throwing back litres of fennel tea.

Plenty of people in my breastfeeding group are having wind problems. Mainly small babies, but exclusively breast fed, combination fed and bottle fed are all having a similar problem. I'm putting it down to nature. Well done on finally getting a night's sleep Lucuma - the only thing about sleeping sitting up is that it gets quite hard on your lower back after a few nights of it!!But if it gets you a stretch of sleep in desperation, it's worth it. I had about 5 pillows on the go to achieve some amount of sleep and she slept propped like that too. Hang in there, it will get better.

Ivy, my hair has started to fall out. If I'm honest, it kept falling out for nearly a year on my first! my hairdresser told me it was normal. I hated it.

spottybananas

Babies just have wind problems, breast or bottle fed. It's just their digestive system adjusting to functioning, some do ok others not so much. My son is exclusively breastfed since day 2 (14 months now) and he had a few bad weeks of wind problems from 1-5ish weeks, maybe longer.

tinkerbell

Ivy, my hair was falling out well over a year! Not sure exactly when it mostly stopped but it was well past the one year mark anyway.

Lucuma

BusyIzzy wrote: »

Haha Lucuma....she was sleeping 9-3 by 5 weeks, with breastfeeds!! (does that still count as taunting?!) She's a good little sleeper at night and always has been but the day time is a total disaster. She won't sleep in her bed at all during the day - she's currently asleep in a sling on my chest and didn't sleep at all yesterday!!!! Nightmare.

Count yourself lucky there! imagine having one that won't sleep in her bed EVER - day or night! That's been my life for the last 2 months. At least during the day it's not an issue coz I just put her sleeping in the swinging musical chair, a car seat during a journey or else a sling if I'm walking around. But those are no use at night time. Also if you can get sleep at night you can cope with anything during the day I think.....plus I don't know if you're a working mother but eventually their daytime behaviour will be the childminder's problem but the nights will always be ours! So I'd pick a good night sleeper and bad daytime hands down over the other way around.

BusyIzzy wrote: »

Plenty of people in my breastfeeding group are having wind problems. Mainly small babies, but exclusively breast fed, combination fed and bottle fed are all having a similar problem.

This comment does kinda beg the question as to what the 3rd group you mention are doing in a breastfeeding group :P

BusyIzzy wrote: »

For what it's worth, if you can get help to consider bottles at night and bf during the day, that might be the way to go. I do have friends who have done that and it's very successful. The challenge is implementing it and bringing your supply down at night. That was my mistake, I should have got help at the point myself.

I've decided to adopt this approach. Last night was the first night of it. Went to bed at midnight, was awake 4am - 5am feeding her formula and pumping myself to ease the pressure, still woke up soaked at 8:30am - more than usual like -sheet, duvet, my nightie everything completely soaked. Only got 1oz when I pumped as well but it was more of a token pump. I threw it into the bottle I was giving her.

BusyIzzy wrote: »

If you do plan to combo feed, have a good plam as to what and how you are going to do it.I intended to, but really, I probably didn"t have enough of a structure about it, so it hasnt really worked

After 2 months exclusive breastfeeding I've decided to combo feed but have no plan at all, just bumbling along. My only plan is to stop bf'ing at night coz I'm getting no sleep. Wish it wasn't the case but after 2 months I don't think it's going to improve and I need some sleep!!!!! I've actually been delerious from lack of sleep this week til last night which was her first night ever not being breastfed to sleep throughout the night and not sleeping with me. It went really well so gives me hope. Imagine if I made such a major change and there was no improvement, that is my worst fear!

In what way did combo not work for you - I'm specifically wondering what you meant about how you made a mistake re bringing your supply down at night? Thanks for all your advice :cool:

tinkerbell

Lucuma, if your only reason for combi feeding is lack of sleep then don't do it. Research has shown that breastfeeding mothers get the most sleep and combination feeders get the least. So it's not really a solution, I'm afraid. Can you just feed baby at night as normal but get your OH to say do nappy changes etc, if needed so you don't have to get out of the bed.

Lucuma

tinkerbell wrote: »

Lucuma, if your only reason for combi feeding is lack of sleep then don't do it. Research has shown that breastfeeding mothers get the most sleep and combination feeders get the least. So it's not really a solution, I'm afraid. Can you just feed baby at night as normal but get your OH to say do nappy changes etc, if needed so you don't have to get out of the bed.

She can't do lying down feeding position coz it fills her up with wind. So she has to be kept upright during a feed, this is fine during the day but no good at night I'm afraid! She needs a few hours winding during the night with breastfeeding. So I am getting no sleep. Unfortunately the research doesn't help me to sleep :P

LegacyUser

A fair point Lucuma I will be a working mother in a few months, unfortunately. And your'e right, a night's sleep let's you cope with anything (though I'm teetering on the edge today!)

As for the breastfeeding group, it's very inclusive! Actually, as a side point, it's a huge support to have just as a mother, to be able to go to groups like that. It's a bit isolating in a way when you bottle feed, that there doesn't seem to be any groups like that just to reassure you that you're not going mad.

What I mean by the combo not working for me is that I just sort of tried the bedtime feed from a bottle for a week or two (I hoped to use expressed milk, but couldn't seem to pump enough - was hoping it would improve with time). She took it fine but I woke up drenched by 2am every morning and she wasn't looking for a feed til about 4am (as in she was dead asleep). I pumped one night and got about an ounce which just made me want to cry, I was so sore!!I ended up hand expressing down the basin every night to relieve the pressure, which annoyed me and everything was soaked - sheets, pjs, quilt, the works. Plus on top of it, when she did feed, the milk came out with such force (even after hand expressing) that she was gulping and her wind was desperate afterwards. I sort of just thought the supply would adjust after a couple of weeks but it never did, so I ended up going back to b'feeding at bedtime. Maybe if I'd got a bit of help I might have been more successful. I suppose I was just bumbling through as well with no real idea so it didn't work out. Not that I minded the breastfeeding, but I just wanted to be able to let someone else feed her even just once a day so that I could spend a bit of time with my toddler for a little while.

Hey, I know for next time I guess...

We've had a nightmare 3 days and nights of wind, turns out she has a bit of constipation. I'm just taking deep calming breaths at this stage.

Lucuma

BusyIzzy wrote: »

I woke up drenched by 2am every morning and she wasn't looking for a feed til about 4am (as in she was dead asleep). I pumped one night and got about an ounce which just made me want to cry, I was so sore!!I ended up hand expressing down the basin every night to relieve the pressure, which annoyed me and everything was soaked - sheets, pjs, quilt, the works.

Do you consider an ounce very little? That's kind of all I ever get when I pump! And I get nothing at all out of my left breast when I pump. The baby's able to get something out of it alright (not much).

Interesting that your supply never adjusted to not breastfeed at night. Looks like a middle-of-the-night pump is unavoidable with combination feeding so! Would be very annoying alright to have to pump at 2am if baby doesn't wake til 4am! Defeats the whole purpose of giving formula at night to get a longer stretch of sleep!

Cuidiu in Cork do a monthly mother& baby meetup which is for bottle-feeding and bf'ing mothers. You're right though there's more options for bf mothers alright. Some 'mother & toddler' playgroups are suitable for mother & baby though, and water babies or baby massage classes are other ways to meet other mothers if you're bottle feeding .

Hope your baby is getting on better now? I was thinking we'll be easy to spot as mothers of windy babies. .. we're the ones with the toned biceps! :-D

Digs

Hi ladies, just looking for a bit of advice. My daughter is four days old now and feeding so far has been going well. Her latch has been fine, easier on the right breast than the left from the start. However I woke up this morning engorged, my breasts are huge and full, hot and a wee bit sore. She can latch on the right but no matter what I try I can't get her onto the left breast. I've softened the nipple using reverse pressure softening but she still won't latch afterwards. She gets quite agitated trying to.

I've read not to pump and it causes a vicious cycle with oversupply so have hand expressed a bit but they're still engorged. I have nipple shields but not sure if they're OK to use yet?

I've seen a particular lactation consultant twice, once while pregnant and once yesterday while everything was still going well but can't get to speak to her.

I rang a lovely lady in cuidiu earlier who was so helpful and suggested the reverse pressure etc but don't want to be hassling these people day and night!

Thanks a mill for any advice

bovril

Congratulations. I've a 16 day old at home and in the first few days I had similar experiences. I'd hand express a little bit to stop the breast being too full and tried either rugby ball hold or laid back feeding. Both of these encourage a deeper latch. I had a c section so I was putting it down to stiffness in the baby's neck on one side. My go to position was lying down side by side in bed and baby seemed to have trouble getting into position to latch on one side. Try to be as relaxed as you can be too no matter how agitated baby gets. Easier said than done but relaxed Mum should pass on to baby too. Hope this might help. YouTube should have videos of the positions I've mentioned.

Lucuma

Digs even with rugby hold she won't go onto the left boob?
Cabbage leaves are meant to be good for engorgement. Dark green ones , remove outermost leaves as u would when eating it. Crumple the leaf & put it in your bra.

If nipple shield works to get her to latch on might be worth a go as short term measure just to empty that left breast & prevent mastitis? As bovril said going forward maybe a bit of cranio-sacral therapy is needed to get her to latch onto the left.
I'm seeing good results with the cranio sacral myself on my newborn. Get a recommendation for one if you can, I went to 3 but one is really excellent so am sticking with her.

Digs

Bovril and lucuma can't thank ye enough. Rugby hold has done it! The consultant told me to stick with the cross body clutch hold but that was when things were fine so didn't think to change it. I had cold compresses on too which have helped! Thanks again to both of ye.

I don't think I was helping really, I have lingering pgp from pregnancy and have also developed a lovely cyst on my tailbone so cannot get myself comfortable and I'd say it was having an effect on her! We were in getting her heel prick this morning so I went to casualty while I was there and they've given me difene so hopefully things will start improving!

You're right thigh bovril, calm mammy is so important. I had awful trouble feeding my first and was determind to take a different approach this time and so far so good. Really enjoying feeding her and have no intention stopping anytime soon. Whatever obstacles are thrown at us!

bovril

Digs wrote:

You're right thigh bovril, calm mammy is so important. I had awful trouble feeding my first and was determind to take a different approach this time and so far so good. Really enjoying feeding her and have no intention stopping anytime soon. Whatever obstacles are thrown at us!

Good work Digs. I'm the same. I had trouble with my first but this time around I'm a million times more relaxed and finding feeding so much easier and baby is so chilled and gaining weight by the day. It's a lovely experience. Long may it last.

IvyTheTerrible

bovril wrote: »

Good work Digs. I'm the same. I had trouble with my first but this time around I'm a million times more relaxed and finding feeding so much easier and baby is so chilled and gaining weight by the day. It's a lovely experience. Long may it last.

I'm the same. Breastfeeding my second has been a breeze since the very first moment I put her on my boob. I actually didn't realise how hard it was with my first until now!

Cunning Stunt

Have any of you co-slept with your babies, and if so, do you have any tips for weaning a baby off the boob at night? My little one is over 8 months now and eats fine during the day, and nurses to sleep - so I don't think she needs to feed during the night, but she still wakes a few times for the boob anyway.

I know the obvious answer is probably going to be 'put her in her own bed' but we enjoy sleeping together!

Did any of you introduce a soother at such a late stage or would that be mad?

Thanks

tinkerbell

Cunning, it's totally normal for a baby to wake at night and they do actually need those breastfeeds at night. I know it's probably not what you want to hear but I found that it's a lot easier to accept the night wakings once you know it's the norm rather than not the norm. My LO still wakes at night for boob.

Kaylami

Cunning Stunt wrote: »

Have any of you co-slept with your babies, and if so, do you have any tips for weaning a baby off the boob at night? My little one is over 8 months now and eats fine during the day, and nurses to sleep - so I don't think she needs to feed during the night, but she still wakes a few times for the boob anyway.

I know the obvious answer is probably going to be 'put her in her own bed' but we enjoy sleeping together!

Did any of you introduce a soother at such a late stage or would that be mad?

Thanks

My little one has a soother. We co - sleep and she wakes for boob. She'll spit the soother the full length of the room if she wants boob.
10 months now and still wakes 3 or 4 times a night.

It's tough with being back at work but at least all I have to do is get the boob out and go back to sleep

Cunning Stunt

Thanks for the responses. I thought she should be sleeping through by now, but perhaps that's not the case then... Will have to bin that baby sleep book!

spottybananas

Cunning Stunt wrote: »

Thanks for the responses. I thought she should be sleeping through by now, but perhaps that's not the case then... Will have to bin that baby sleep book!

Eh my 15 month old wakes every 1-3 hours, his cousins up to age 5 still wake 1-3 times a night. All babies/humans wake up during the night, some babies are able to get themselves back to sleep like us adults do, other babies aren't. Totally normal for them to wake, particularly breastfed babies as they aren't as super full and sleepy trying to digest formula. Sleeping through is just classed as 5-6 hours straight anyway, not as long as many people think it means.

annamarie2013

Kaylami PM sent

Digs

Ladies any miracle remedy for sore cracked nipples?? I'm working on my latch, to me it "looks" right in that she opens wide and I see more of the aerola on top than bottom, she seems to have a good steady suck and I can hear her swallowing etc I'm not sure if my problem is leftovers form engorgement and one nipple being overworked. She's also a week old today so is there a chance this is normal irritation that will settle?

I've been icing them, putting lanolin on and literally sitting around the house with my boobs hanging out. I'll get caught short by the postman one of these days.

spottybananas

Isn't the whole areola supposed to be in their mouth? Although I never understood that if someone has very large areolas.

I would say nipple shields but I think they're not advised so early on or something. Have you had her latch checked by an lc or similar?

Digs

My boobs are huge, from what I've been told and videos I've looked at I should be seeing a bit of the aerola on top, like you say I haven't a clue how I'd fit the whole lot in her mouth!

The latch was checked by an LC and a very good PHN who fed two kids herself, the problems just started in the last day or two, since seeing them both. My LC is hard to get hold of but the PHN runs a breastfeeding clinic on Thursdays so I might try get up there and have them take a look.

spottybananas

Yeah the latch can change for whatever reason so might be worth doing. For example my 15 month old's latch has changed this week (I think due to teething) and is now agony after over a year of painless bf! I have no idea what to do ha, thought I'd dodged all all this!