The Breast Feeding Support Thread

Digs

Ah ok, that could be it! I changed feeding position because I couldn't latch her with the engorgement and since then my nipples have lost the run of themselves.

15 months in? That's super!! I'm living week to week at the moment but enjoying it, the sore nipples I could live without though

spottybananas

I had a bit of soreness in the first week, he was in scbu so I expressed feeds I missed which I think saved me from more painful nipples while they adjusted. His latch has always gone to crap on my right when he's teething but now it's the left that's mainly affected with a milk bleb too, not fun.

Take it day by day or week by week, whatever works/helps

rainbow kirby

My son's latch appears to have changed in the last couple of weeks - ever since he really discovered putting his hands in his mouth and sucking his thumb his latch seems to be a bit shallower. Right boob is being a bit temperamental at the moment - it hurts when he latches and at a whole bunch of random other times, even when he's on lefty and letdown triggers.

It's not helping the fact that I'm feeling a bit crap about the whole thing, the cluster-feeding has eased but he's still a very frequent flyer. He's sleeping great at the moment and he's thriving so I'm reluctant to change anything, but I think my mental side of things is just broken.

spottybananas

What bits are you feeling crap about? If he's sleeping great and doing great enjoy it, my son is the world's worst sleeper, wakes crying every hour or two between his ridiculous late bedtime of 10pm and 8am We can be broken together.

rainbow kirby

He still won't go more than two waking hours without a feed and it's still roughly every hour generally, which is very draining. My nursing boobs are enormous and it's starting to really put strain on my back. I'm hungry all the time and I end up eating loads of crap for quick energy. I'm feeling "touched out" nearly all the time and I'm struggling with the fact that my body still isn't my own again.

spottybananas

How old is he? I didn't mind the similar almost constant feeding but it's very difficult to eat well when you're so hungry. I found it best to just keep healthy handy snacks in the house and then I didn't have the crap to eat it, and felt better for it really. Must be difficult if you want your body "back", they are pretty attached/all up in your face for the first year or so alright. Or possibly year or two in my son's case! Thank god I like all the snuggles, cuddles and cosleeping, I like an extraordinary level of physical contact myself but I know many others feel touched out. I feel that when he clings onto my legs whining.

Can you express to get some time away?

jlm29

If you can make a bit of time to do something like go for a swim or a walk by yourself, it might help with your mental health. I'd say my baby is older than yours, but I've done this a few times lately, and it's amazing. To be honest, I think I'd find sitting in the car reading a book by myself to be quite the holiday!
The feeds do spread out- I realised the other day that I'm generally only feeding my boy once, or maybe twice between 8 and 5 the last few days- he started on solids a month ago, and although he was slow to start, he's getting a bit in now, and his feeds are definitely spacing out.
I feel a bit guilty when I say this, but it's my 4 yr old who is draining me (mentally) the most these days!

rainbow kirby

He's 14 weeks. I can express, and he does take a bottle, but isn't entirely happy about it - he was a bottle refuser until around 9-10 weeks. I do get out running a few times a weeK while my husband looks after him.

bovril

Digs wrote:

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.

Have you tried multimam compresses? They are little gel strips that are great. I'd try get to the breastfeeding clinic if I was you. It's possible the latch is not perfect or that during the feed the baby is changing ever so slightly. Having said that it does take a few days for a crack to heal. I found different positions were ever so slightly less painful when I had a crack so i stuck with them until it healed.

spottybananas

Ok, this bleb is fecking agony now when feeding. It's there since Friday, is that normal? Any advice to help the pain/help it heal?

LegacyUser

I'm just dropping in because I've stopped bf, but Rainbowkirby, you're so right on the 'touched out' thing.I found that hard.Even now, I'm bottle feeding and I'll be there with baba on my lap, trying to keep a hold and keep bottle in, and my toddler is banging against me, or leaning against my legs or pulling out of me and I just want to scream.Bedtime at night is godsend because I feel I actually get some personal space back for a while.Unfortunately my two year old is very full on, which doesn't help.
So glad to hear it's not just me.

Digs

bovril wrote: »

Have you tried multimam compresses? They are little gel strips that are great. I'd try get to the breastfeeding clinic if I was you. It's possible the latch is not perfect or that during the feed the baby is changing ever so slightly. Having said that it does take a few days for a crack to heal. I found different positions were ever so slightly less painful when I had a crack so i stuck with them until it healed.

I got the compresses yesterday thanks bovril, hopefully they made a difference! Took myself out to a cuidiu group last night as feeding was so so sore yesterday evening. LC felt a slight tongue tie and as my nipple is coming out compressed suggested referring her for a snip. Waiting on an apt now and relieved hopefully we can fix it.

She again said the latch is good etc so it must be the tongue. It's so strange, feeding her now is fine but the next one could be extremely sore. My poor nipples are battered. Hoping paracetemol and the compresses get us through until she's seen.

Doesn't help she's feeding like a maniac for the last day!!

bovril

Digs wrote:

I got the compresses yesterday thanks bovril, hopefully they made a difference! Took myself out to a cuidiu group last night as feeding was so so sore yesterday evening. LC felt a slight tongue tie and as my nipple is coming out compressed suggested referring her for a snip. Waiting on an apt now and relieved hopefully we can fix it.

Hope you don't have to wait too long. I've friends who had their baby's tongue tie snipped and it made a big big difference.

rainbow kirby

At the GP's this morning, mastitis in righty. Feels like karma for me bitching about bf'ing... :pac:

IvyTheTerrible

Ah jeepers you poor thing, no wonder you were having pain! Get well soon.

For some reason, my supply seems to have increased all of a sudden (maybe because the weather is so hot here and I'm drinking lots?). Let down is dramatic - I actually SPRAYED the baby this morning. I had been phasing out breastpads, but that's not going to happen now.

spottybananas

Rainbow kirby maybe that was partly why you didn't feel great about it all, mastitis is rotten and affects people in strange ways. Hope you're better soon.

Lucuma

Hope you feel better soon rainbow kirby, I'd say it's not fun
Digs hope you don't have to wait too long to get the tongue tie snipped.

The cranio scaral therapist I'm taking my baby too thinks she has a posterior tongue tie (if that's the right word) one that's at the back not the front. Funnily enough since she started going to the cs therapist, she's sticking her tongue out further than ever before and doing it more often! She has been doing a lot of work on her neck, back and her head.

Aveen

Oh PHN advised CS for my baby posterior txt, delighted to hear your getting good results. Must book an book next week for him.

Well fines ladies, keep up the good work, you're doing amazing

rainbow kirby

6 days into my course of antibiotics and still not right at all. Righty still temperamental, it now feels like it's stinging like crazy from the inside after every feed and I still can't comfortably use a sling or put a bag cross-body. Very frustrating!

Lucuma

I had that stinging from the inside (with my right boob as well) a week of daktarin seemed to sort it out. It was never so bad I couldn't wear a sling tho but I'm not well endowed :-)

Cunning Stunt

8 and a half months and I am still going! Can't believe it! This thread has been great support!
Anyway, I am currently only using one boob to feed baby and just want to know if there is any downside to this that I should be aware of (apart from looking lopsided with one big and one small boob!)? I don't mind that the other one doesnt seem to produce now that it's not being used. I am happy enough to continue as-is, but perhaps there is something I should know? Has anyone else tried this? Thanks!

dorito92

anyone know how to start weaning the baby off the boob lol mine is 6 months now and will be starting solids soon, hoping to have him weaned off breastmilk by the time he is 1

RentDayBlues

dorito92 wrote: »

anyone know how to start weaning the baby off the boob lol mine is 6 months now and will be starting solids soon, hoping to have him weaned off breastmilk by the time he is 1

I did BLW with both of mine, by 12 months they were done to 2 feeds per day, just morning and night. I assume you mean to replace with formula or milk? If so, gradual introduction over the course of a few weeks in order to avoid engorgement for you. I weaned both at 18 months and introduced normal milk from 12 months (they had it in food from 6 months).

jlm29

dorito92 wrote: »

anyone know how to start weaning the baby off the boob lol mine is 6 months now and will be starting solids soon, hoping to have him weaned off breastmilk by the time he is 1

With my first boy, I introduced a bottle of formula in the evenings when he was 6months. In hindsight, I should have held off a couple of months- with the introduction of solids and formula at the same time, he got very constipated. I think it was all a bit much for his system. as well as that, with introducing one formula bottle and solids at the same time, I think my supply dipped a lot- he very quickly started getting very frustrated - though maybe it was just that it wasn't coming fast enough for him.
Anyhow. He weaned awfully quickly once it started (within a couple of weeks).

So: take your time, and be wary of constipation, and it might not take as long as you think!

dorito92

thanks for the advice did ye wean with a bottle or a cup? it would be great if we could avoid bottles altogether lol

jlm29

dorito92 wrote: »

thanks for the advice did ye wean with a bottle or a cup? it would be great if we could avoid bottles altogether lol

We weaned to bottles last time around. This time I'm aiming to avoid formula altogether, but am giving the occasional bottle of expressed milk.

hollymartins

I'm wondering when I should stop breastfeeding. My boy is four months and we are doing combination feeding (one bottle of formula with EBM before bed) while I nurse him during the day. He will go into creche when he is 7/8 months and I'm wondering should I start dropping feeds when he's 6 months. The reason I'm considering that is at the moment we're doing paced bottle feeding for his evening bottle but when he goes to creche I can't imagine they'll do that as it's quite time consuming. Anytime he has been fed by relatives who are babysitting I notice he is a ball of frustration the next day when I try to feed him (whinging and crying on the breast) and I can only imagine it's because he's been allowed to guzzle down his bottle the evening before (even though I've shown them how to feed him more slowly).

So if he goes to creche and he's used to getting the bottle like that or is even holding the bottle at that stage I think breastfeeding would be frustrating for both of us if he is used to a faster flow. Has anyone had any experience of this?

jlm29

I don't have any experience of what you're asking about, but a lot of people have told me that once their baby was more than 6mths after they went back to work, they would be fine on solids and water for the day. My boy is 7 mths, and he's not eating much at all yet, but I notice a drop in how much I'm feeding him during the day already. He will be 9 mths when I go back to work, so I'm hoping he will start eating a bit more!

holding

Yes, what jlm29 said, at 7/8 months your baby will be taking solids and water too, and should be fine without milk or a milk substitute during the creche day. He will make up for it by having a feed from you in the morning, and a few in the evening instead.

hollymartins

That's great to know, I wasn't sure what he would have bottlewise when he was in creche, of course it makes sense he will need less once he's on solids. It's funny after a tough first 6 weeks I am so comfortable with breastfeeding but now I have to face weaning!