The Breast Feeding Support Thread

rainbow kirby

We stopped at 15.5 months - I was 10 weeks pregnant and my milk had completely dried up. I replaced his 3 main feeds (morning, after nursery, bedtime) with a 200ml bottle of cows milk. Worked surprisingly well for us.

Neyite

My lad more or less self-weaned at 11 months. I was willing to keep going but he just had no interest.

Feeding for the first year is brilliant. That's double the average in this country. So if you want to wean off the breast, you should't feel a shred of guilt, especially if the baby is losing interest. While many women can and do breastfeed during a pregnancy, for some the milk just dries up. I often think it's mother natures way of weaning you so you reset back to the milk you produce for a newborn.

rainbow kirby

Oddly enough, I have a significant oversupply since my milk came in with #2. If I don't pump at least once a day I'm really quite uncomfortable. It almost feels like my boobs think they have to feed my toddler as well!

bee06

My little boy is 7 weeks today and it hit me this morning when I was feeding him how big he’s gotten! I’m in awe of the fact that our bodies can grow a baby for 9 months plus and then continue to give them everything they need to thrive after that. It’s pretty amazing!

Lainey_b01

bee06 wrote: »

My little boy is 7 weeks today and it hit me this morning when I was feeding him how big he’s gotten! I’m in awe of the fact that our bodies can grow a baby for 9 months plus and then continue to give them everything they need to thrive after that. It’s pretty amazing!

My wee man is a week behind you and totally agree it's so mad, mother nature rocks. Delighted I went with BF and it's working out. Go us!

Toots

My little girl slept for 6 hours last night, my boobs were fit to explode when she woke. They were so engorged she wouldn't latch on, so the OH had to comfort her while I pumped one side, then he fed her that while I pumped the other.

jlm29

Toots wrote: »

My little girl slept for 6 hours last night, my boobs were fit to explode when she woke. They were so engorged she wouldn't latch on, so the OH had to comfort her while I pumped one side, then he fed her that while I pumped the other.

Six hours! My eyes are positively green here!!! My nearly 8 month old hasn’t done a stretch like that in months!!
If that happens again, you could hand express off a small bit on each side to soften them out so she’ll be able to latch on!

the_sonandmoon

jlm29 wrote:

Six hours! My eyes are positively green here!!! My nearly 8 month old hasn’t done a stretch like that in months!! If that happens again, you could hand express off a small bit on each side to soften them out so she’ll be able to latch on!

Yes, it's handy to have a muslin or something to let off a little bit into, to allow them to match on.

Toots

jlm29 wrote: »

Six hours! My eyes are positively green here!!! My nearly 8 month old hasn’t done a stretch like that in months!!
If that happens again, you could hand express off a small bit on each side to soften them out so she’ll be able to latch on!

I nearly had a heart attack cos I thought something was wrong with her! My alarm went off at 6am to feed her and she was still sound asleep so I woke the hubby to ask what time she fed during the night. When he said she hasn't woken for one I was straight on the phone to the Laya nurse line:o apparently at this age it's grand for them to go 5-6 hours but any more than that they'd recommend lifting and feeding them.

Millem

We made it to 6 months. Am delighted I managed it! Still feeds every 2-3 hours even at night! Point blank still refusing bottles we have stopped trying. Hoping he might take to a cup of some description!

jlm29

Millem wrote: »

We made it to 6 months. Am delighted I managed it! Still feeds every 2-3 hours even at night! Point blank still refusing bottles we have stopped trying. Hoping he might take to a cup of some description!

Well done! My littler ones both took to straw cups no problem- the tommee tippee ones. My last boy would never take a bottle, but my current nursing guzzles them when he gets one. It’s gas how they’re all so different.

jlm29

Millem wrote: »

We made it to 6 months. Am delighted I managed it! Still feeds every 2-3 hours even at night! Point blank still refusing bottles we have stopped trying. Hoping he might take to a cup of some description!

Well done! My littler ones both took to straw cups no problem- the tommee tippee ones. My last boy would never take a bottle, but my current nursing guzzles them when he gets one. It’s gas how they’re all so different.

lazygal

Millem wrote: »

We made it to 6 months. Am delighted I managed it! Still feeds every 2-3 hours even at night! Point blank still refusing bottles we have stopped trying. Hoping he might take to a cup of some description!

Great! My second never took a bottle. But solids did make a bit of a difference, and he loved water in a sippy cup.

texas star

Millem wrote: »

We made it to 6 months. Am delighted I managed it! Still feeds every 2-3 hours even at night! Point blank still refusing bottles we have stopped trying. Hoping he might take to a cup of some description![/quote
My LO went from boob to Doidy cup highly recommend no bottle or sippy cup.

Toots

Congrats Millem!! My short term goal is to get to 3 months, and hopefully on from there.

scarepanda

Well! Iv been away for a while, I hope everyone's getting on good! We're still boobn away, heading on 19 months now. She was a sleepy boob monster tonight for the first time in a long long time for some reason!

catrionanic

Our beautiful BF journey has come to an end. 13 wonderful months. It really was his absolute favourite thing in the whole world, and I feel so sad to be stopping it, but I’m on antisickness meds for this new pregnancy and I shouldn’t be feeding on them. My heart is broken!

bee06

catrionanic wrote: »

Our beautiful BF journey has come to an end. 13 wonderful months. It really was his absolute favourite thing in the whole world, and I feel so sad to be stopping it, but I’m on antisickness meds for this new pregnancy and I shouldn’t be feeding on them. My heart is broken!

Have you double checked Lactmed to make sure you shouldn’t breastfeed? I’m part of a Facebook breastfeeding group and a lot of people have stories of being told they shouldn’t breastfeed on certain medications and they are actually fine. Worth a check anyway if you haven’t already.

https://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/newtoxnet/lactmed.htm

Toots

How would I know if I've got a blocked duct? I've got a pain in one breast, not in the nipple, actually in the breast itself, and it still hurts even when she's feeding, but I can't feel a lump or a hot patch or anything like that.

rainbow kirby

Do you see anything white on the nipple (a bleb)?

Millem

Toots wrote: »

How would I know if I've got a blocked duct? I've got a pain in one breast, not in the nipple, actually in the breast itself, and it still hurts even when she's feeding, but I can't feel a lump or a hot patch or anything like that.

I would get a lump and pain. Also it would feel full even after feeding.
I would feed or pump to unblock which sorted it.

Toots

rainbow kirby wrote: »

Do you see anything white on the nipple (a bleb)?

No, the nipple looks normal as far as I can tell.

Millem wrote: »

I would get a lump and pain. Also it would feel full even after feeding.
I would feed or pump to unblock which sorted it.

I've been trying to start every feed on that side today in the hopes that her harder sucking will unblock it. I wonder would it be better to just stick the pump on it at a higher level than I usually use and see will they suck it out?

Millem

Toots wrote: »

No, the nipple looks normal as far as I can tell.




I've been trying to start every feed on that side today in the hopes that her harder sucking will unblock it. I wonder would it be better to just stick the pump on it at a higher level than I usually use and see will they suck it out?

I never really had a pump until baby was over 3 months so I just got him to feed from that side. Change feeding positions too....google dangle feeding. The pain even turning in the bed was something else or if anyone or anything brushed off me
I rarely use the pump tbh but I would just put it on whatever I was comfortable with.

PhoenixParker

Try heat on the boob before a feed, dangle feeding and hand expressing (in the shower is usually easiest if you don't mind wasting some milk).

Toots

Ooh I actually got these microwavable boob heat packs along with the pump, so I'll give them a shot. I'm off to Google dangle feeding now, the name is conjuring up bizarre images :pac:

bee06

Here’s the advice on my favourite breastfeeding website

https://kellymom.com/bf/concerns/mother/mastitis/

PhoenixParker

Toots wrote: »

Ooh I actually got these microwavable boob heat packs along with the pump, so I'll give them a shot. I'm off to Google dangle feeding now, the name is conjuring up bizarre images :pac:

It felt bizarre and I'm sure it looks bizarre. Basically put baby under you and dangle your boob down into their mouth. I found it helped to prop baby up on a dense memory foam pillow to close the gap. Never really found it effective though.

Also lecithin is meant to be good for helping prevent blocked ducts. You can get granules which seem to be in the health food aisle of most shops or tablets which are in health food shops. I preferred the tablets but be warned, they're huge.

Millem

I used to put warm facecloth on it before feeding or shower. Apparently a nappy is meant to be brill....soak it in warm water.
Also massage it whilst feeding. Mine never really lasted more than a day but I did get the dreaded mastitis when baby was maybe 7 weeks. One word.....horrendous :eek:

Toots

God my fear is it'll turn into mastitis. It's easing slightly with the hot pack and I'm going to do a dangle feed next feed, so hopefully that'll help too. Honestly I had images of the baby bungee-ing off my boob :pac:

I had to use nappies as breast pads the first time the baba slept for 6 hours. I woke up so engorged she couldn't latch on and milk was literally running out of my boobs, so I ended up sticking one nappy on each side while I waited for the parts of the breast pump to finish in the steriliser.

scarepanda

catrionanic wrote: »

Our beautiful BF journey has come to an end. 13 wonderful months. It really was his absolute favourite thing in the whole world, and I feel so sad to be stopping it, but I’m on antisickness meds for this new pregnancy and I shouldn’t be feeding on them. My heart is broken!

Firstly congratulations on your pregnancy!

Secondly, 13 months is amazing! Don't feel bad for having to stop/stop earlier than you had planned, you've done such a good job.