The Breast Feeding Support Thread

scarepanda

Hey! Just wondering if anyone had any advice for giving 11 week old baby bottle of expressed breast milk? She used to take the odd bottle without any hassle, as recently as last Saturday, but she has point blank refused bottles on three occasions this week.

rainbow kirby

Just keep at it - warm the milk to body temperature, use bottles with a soft slow flow teat and try when baby is definitely hungry.

jlm29

Often they can turn down one bottle in favour of another. Mine refuses anything but a latex teat, they're softer and squishier. A lot of breastfed babies seem to prefer them!

scarepanda

Thanks ladies! She was getting awful distraught this morning when my OH was trying to give her the bottle, and when I tried she made what I would describe as a gagging type face. I wasn't here last night so I don't know how exactly she refused it, but she was a happy smiley baby when i got back, but had a good feed as soon as I put her on me.
We're using Avent everything here. The packaging was thrown out, but I think the teats are silicon.
At 11 weeks, what size teat should we be using?

bovril

scarepanda wrote:

At 11 weeks, what size teat should we be using?

I'd go with size 1. Baby will have to work at the breast and size one is the smallest size teat so the flow will be more manageable for them.

rainbow kirby

I'd agree re size 1 at 11 weeks - my son is 7 months and we use size 2 for EBM.

scarepanda

bovril wrote:

I'd go with size 1. Baby will have to work at the breast and size one is the smallest size teat so the flow will be more manageable for them.

Cheers! That's what we've been using. We accidentally used a size 2 the first time this week she refused the bottle and I thought that might have been the issue, but we've used size 1s yesterday and today.

hollymartins

When I was trying to give my baby the bottle we initially tried Tommee Tippee but that didn't work so we then used Nuk, it took some coaxing but he started feeding. At first he would only 4-5oz so I would have to breastfeed a few hours later but he's 7 months and he's been taking a full bottle for some time now and sleeping through (we've moved up to the larger teat a month ago). Best of luck.

rainbow kirby

Out of curiosity - is anyone else running or participating in any other endurance activity while still nursing?

I've been back running since my son was 5 weeks old, my son is 7 months old now and it's frustratingly slow trying to build strength and endurance. I've only just got the long run up to 8 ish miles after all that time, after having run through my first 6 months of pregnancy.

bovril

I wouldn't class it as endurance but I go swimming once a week and swim a distance of 1-1.25km. I managed to get up to the 1km mark at around 8wks after birth. I did see a member of a breastfeeding Facebook group who was running the marathon yesterday. Hopefully you'll get someone along who can give advice. I'm in awe of 8km. I can't even run 1km.

rainbow kirby

I do swim as well - was stuck at around 1km for a while but broke through and pushed on when my son was around 5 months old and did the mile at Swim Serpentine when he was 6 months. Running seems slower to build though.

Saw that with the lady doing DCM while still feeding, her kid was close to 3 though so a little different. I have a place in the London Marathon in April so need to be building up soon!

hollymartins

I gave my baby his last breastfeed yesterday, I was weaning him off the breast gradually for the last month (feed in the morning and afternoon) which affected my supply so in the last week I could tell he was getting very frustrated when I nursed him. He's on bottles now, happy to have reached 7.5 months even though there were lots of ups and downs. I'm drinking sage tea as I type in the hope that it will help reduce my milk and ease my discomfort.

Teeley

My LO is 4 months and is absolutely refusing the bottle. I don't want to stop BFing but would the option of having the odd evening out. We're quite reluctant and find it very very hard to let her get hungry and giving her no choice but to take bottle.
Has anyone any advice or suggestions?!
Will it be easier to introduce when she starts solids?

Teeley

My LO is 4 months and is absolutely refusing the bottle. I don't want to stop BFing but would the option of having the odd evening out. We're quite reluctant and find it very very hard to let her get hungry and giving her no choice but to take bottle.
Has anyone any advice or suggestions?!
Will it be easier to introduce when she starts solids?

bovril

Teeley wrote:

My LO is 4 months and is absolutely refusing the bottle. I don't want to stop BFing but would the option of having the odd evening out. We're quite reluctant and find it very very hard to let her get hungry and giving her no choice but to take bottle. Has anyone any advice or suggestions?! Will it be easier to introduce when she starts solids?

I wouldn't have thought it would be easier to introduce a bottle with solids. You could try giving the expressed milk in a sippy cup around the time she's getting solids as you may be giving her water then with meals. I've heard the doidy type cup works for some people.

hollymartins

Teeley wrote: »

My LO is 4 months and is absolutely refusing the bottle. I don't want to stop BFing but would the option of having the odd evening out. We're quite reluctant and find it very very hard to let her get hungry and giving her no choice but to take bottle.
Has anyone any advice or suggestions?!
Will it be easier to introduce when she starts solids?

Have you tried different brands of bottles? We didn't have success with tommee tippee but he eventually took to a Nuk bottle. When we started with the bottle he would outright refuse it so myself or my husband would just cradle him, rub his nose with the teat, he would finally open his mouth so then we would let the teat rest in his mouth without trying to feed him. We would just move the teat in and out of his mouth, teasing him and eventually he started feeding.

It took a lot of patience and multiple failed attempts.

Teeley

hollymartins wrote: »

Have you tried different brands of bottles? We didn't have success with tommee tippee but he eventually took to a Nuk bottle. When we started with the bottle he would outright refuse it so myself or my husband would just cradle him, rub his nose with the teat, he would finally open his mouth so then we would let the teat rest in his mouth without trying to feed him. We would just move the teat in and out of his mouth, teasing him and eventually he started feeding.

It took a lot of patience and multiple failed attempts.

We've tried a couple of different bottles but not the NUK. Someone else actually recommended it to me at the weekend so will try it.
Your approach to introducing the test etc sounds good..will try that too.
When you were introducing bottle did your LO get upset during the attempts? My LO can do and I'm not sure if this is normal?? Maybe I'm very naive.

hollymartins

Yes there were definitely tears so I can recall a few times where we gave up and I breastfed him to settle him. My husband found it hard, he really wanted to take some pressure off me by doing some feeds so he was pretty disappointed when our baby refused. I had to remind him not to take it personally I'm not going to say it clicked straight away, even when he did start taking the bottle it would still be a bit of struggle to take it the next day but I'm so glad we kept at it. The first evening when my husband was able to feed him it felt like a weight was lifted, just to have a little break from the feeding demands.

I hope it works out for you

Lucuma

Try Mam bottles, some babies like the shape of the teat

scarepanda

Has anyone got any good recommendations for supplements/'pick-me-ups' that are safe while breastfeeding?

Teeley

hollymartins wrote: »

Yes there were definitely tears so I can recall a few times where we gave up and I breastfed him to settle him. My husband found it hard, he really wanted to take some pressure off me by doing some feeds so he was pretty disappointed when our baby refused. I had to remind him not to take it personally I'm not going to say it clicked straight away, even when he did start taking the bottle it would still be a bit of struggle to take it the next day but I'm so glad we kept at it. The first evening when my husband was able to feed him it felt like a weight was lifted, just to have a little break from the feeding demands.

I hope it works out for you

Thanks for your honesty! I'm totally torn between getting her to take the odd bottle (which I feel will benefit us all!) and not upsetting her..or us. We'll persevere and hopefully get there!

fro9etb8j5qsl2

scarepanda wrote: »

Has anyone got any good recommendations for supplements/'pick-me-ups' that are safe while breastfeeding?

I took the boots breastfeeding support tablets for the 18 months I breastfed and found them great and reasonably priced (compared to the pregnacare ones). I was having regular blood tests for an unrelated issue but all of my levels were always perfect, even my calcium which I was worried about as I was on a restricted no dairy diet.

Kathy22

Teeley, my little guy (5 months) won't take a bottle either, lots of tears, screams and stress over the course of a few weeks. We were doing it so we could attend a wedding. In the end he would not even take it when left with my mam and was starving. She fed him with a dessert spoon. We tried NUK, MAM, Dr Brown, Medula, Tommee tipee and a sippee cup and nothing worked. From speaking to the PHN she was saying she doesn't think its the teeth but to pick one and stick with it and give it to him at the same time each night. Make it part of the routine. We didn't do that cause we were so close to the wedding at that stage and I can't face doing it again. Others at my breastfeeding group recommended the doidy cup, available in boots apparently, haven't tried one yet as wasn't able to find it but I am safe in the knowledge he will at least drink from a spoon. Oh and just wanted to post to let you know that he may not actually take it and you might have better luck looking at alternative methods.

Teeley

Kathy22 wrote: »

Teeley, my little guy (5 months) won't take a bottle either, lots of tears, screams and stress over the course of a few weeks. We were doing it so we could attend a wedding. In the end he would not even take it when left with my mam and was starving. She fed him with a dessert spoon. We tried NUK, MAM, Dr Brown, Medula, Tommee tipee and a sippee cup and nothing worked. From speaking to the PHN she was saying she doesn't think its the teeth but to pick one and stick with it and give it to him at the same time each night. Make it part of the routine. We didn't do that cause we were so close to the wedding at that stage and I can't face doing it again. Others at my breastfeeding group recommended the doidy cup, available in boots apparently, haven't tried one yet as wasn't able to find it but I am safe in the knowledge he will at least drink from a spoon. Oh and just wanted to post to let you know that he may not actually take it and you might have better luck looking at alternative methods.

My sister-in-law suggested going straight to the cup too. That's what she had to do with her daughter.
Think we'll give the bottle a go for another month..incorporated into a routine..and after that try the cup.
I'm kinda shocked at the situation we're in..never imagined this would happen!..but it's comforting to know that we're not the only ones.
Thanks for the reply and your advice.

Neyite

Hi all,

We have a mini-AMA here on Parenting that might be of interest to you about the science of infant milk. Please click on the link for more information and to ask any questions you might have

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057666905

donnapuppy

Out of curiosity is this infant feeding specialist affiliated with any formula companies?

Neyite

donnapuppy wrote: »

Out of curiosity is this infant feeding specialist affiliated with any formula companies?

Nope. No affiliation or funding whatsoever at any stage of her research from any formula company.

The research focused on the anti-cancer properties of breast milk so any knowledge of formula the person gained along the way was for comparison purposes in the study. So their area of expertise is primarily breast milk but they might be able to answer questions on formula if posters have questions.

It's a person who I'd consider a friend and who just happens to know a sh!tload of amazing facts about breast milk and also knows a bit about formula and I asked her if she would be willing to chat about what she knows here.

donnapuppy

Neyite wrote: »

Nope. No affiliation or funding whatsoever at any stage of her research from any formula company.

The research focused on the anti-cancer properties of breast milk so any knowledge of formula the person gained along the way was for comparison purposes in the study. So their area of expertise is primarily breast milk but they might be able to answer questions on formula if posters have questions.

It's a person who I'd consider a friend and who just happens to know a sh!tload of amazing facts about breast milk and also knows a bit about formula and I asked her if she would be willing to chat about what she knows here.

Great thanks

yellow hen

Ok, I'm in desperate need of advice. My problem isn't strictly about breastfeeding but I think it's arisen as a result of breastfeeding so I thought it belonged in this forum. Please bear with me as these are the ramblings of a very sleep deprived mammy

I'm still bfeeding my 7 month old baby girl. She's weaned almost 2 months now and has a lessening interest in breastfeeding during the day but I still offer her breast regularly to ensure she is getting enough fluid (I give her water in a beaker too but most of it ends up on her). Until a month ago she was sleeping in her cot in our room. I just had removed one side of it and pushed it against our bed as a form of co-sleeping. I moved her out of her room as she had started to wake very frequently and could only be settled by boob and I thought moving her to her own room and away from the smell of me might help. It hasn't. In fact it's worse. She wakes within 2 hrs of going to bed and is inconsolable until she gets a boob. I should say that she's no problem going to sleep in her cot twice a day and I put on white noise and she falls off to sleep now bother. At night the white noise doesn't work though. When she wakes at night I lift her and feed her the first time she wakes but it is then nigh on impossible to get her back into the cot. I'm like a ninja creeping around trying to get her back in without wakening. So every night she ends up sleeping in our bed and nuzzling around looking for a boob. She can semi waje looking for boob about 10 times a night so I'm getting feck all sleep. I cannot get a night out, even to the cinema, as my husband can't settle her. He hasn't slept in our bed in over a month either as she is in it every night and I wouldn't feel safe with us all know the one bed. I desperately need advice on what to do.I fear that it's time for tough love now but I just want to see what other people did.

jlm29

yellow hen wrote: »

Ok, I'm in desperate need of advice. My problem isn't strictly about breastfeeding but I think it's arisen as a result of breastfeeding so I thought it belonged in this forum. Please bear with me as these are the ramblings of a very sleep deprived mammy

I'm still bfeeding my 7 month old baby girl. She's weaned almost 2 months now and has a lessening interest in breastfeeding during the day but I still offer her breast regularly to ensure she is getting enough fluid (I give her water in a beaker too but most of it ends up on her). Until a month ago she was sleeping in her cot in our room. I just had removed one side of it and pushed it against our bed as a form of co-sleeping. I moved her out of her room as she had started to wake very frequently and could only be settled by boob and I thought moving her to her own room and away from the smell of me might help. It hasn't. In fact it's worse. She wakes within 2 hrs of going to bed and is inconsolable until she gets a boob. I should say that she's no problem going to sleep in her cot twice a day and I put on white noise and she falls off to sleep now bother. At night the white noise doesn't work though. When she wakes at night I lift her and feed her the first time she wakes but it is then nigh on impossible to get her back into the cot. I'm like a ninja creeping around trying to get her back in without wakening. So every night she ends up sleeping in our bed and nuzzling around looking for a boob. She can semi waje looking for boob about 10 times a night so I'm getting feck all sleep. I cannot get a night out, even to the cinema, as my husband can't settle her. He hasn't slept in our bed in over a month either as she is in it every night and I wouldn't feel safe with us all know the one bed. I desperately need advice on what to do.I fear that it's time for tough love now but I just want to see what other people did.

I'm in a similar situation, though we're at 11 months. Every now and again he has one or two great nights, and that pulls me back from the edge, but then he will have a run of bad nights. I keep being told to leave him cry it out, but I haven't the heart. Our room isn't big enough to move in his big cot with one side off it, otherwise that's what I'd do. We don't have a spare room either at the moment, otherwise I'd be in there with him. I have considered just buying a single bed for baby's room and setting up the cot as a cosleeper in there.