The Breast Feeding Support Thread

My little boy woke every 2-3 hours until he was 15 months. Then it was like a switch flipped in his brain and he started sleeping all night all of a sudden.

shhling wrote: »

Hi all, have woken up to a nasty bleb, just wondering if anyone had any quick tips to resolve it?

Get in a hot shower and try and hand express, the heat should help.

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this. We are 5 months in and in the last two weeks baby has cut his first tooth. He fussed an awful lot on the breast during this time and feeds became really short. Maybe ten minutes a time. He didn't appear to be hungry at any stage and often when I encouraged longer or more frequent feeds he ended up bringing back up the "extra" milk. He has been combination fed from the 8 week mark as I suffered repeated bouts of mastitis at the start and introducing bottles (suggested by the Rotunda as I had an oversupply) seemed to be the solution. That said the absolute max any day would be 14oz formula but usually less.

I started to wonder if he was getting lazy around the breast as he is still taking bottles ok or if it is just the teething. Now I'm paranoid the short feeds are reducing my supply and I'm getting into a bad loop!

Is it teething? Is he just a very efficient feeder and getting all he needs very quickly? Is he just too busy to be sitting on the breast for long? Morning feed and bedtime feed still strong most days but it's the daytime ones are the struggle. Still plenty of wet nappies and sleeping well other than typical teething disturbances.

Anyone advice/similar experience would be most welcome as I'm really fretting!

Hi all,
Just wondering if anyone had experience of 8 week baby become very frustrated at breast. Today he has refused feeding even though he was hungry. I've given ebm which is fine as had it collected due to haaka however this isn't sustainable as I really only collect when he's feeding. I use shields and he is refusing point blank without them. With them he will suck for few mins and then pulls off. He had been doing this earlier in the week and i thought my supply was down but this evening I've no supply issues.
I'm not sure what to do if I should think about getting a pump and and feeding all expressed.

There's both a growth spurt and a developmental leap due around 8 weeks. Both my girls started teething at 8/9 weeks. Anything like this can cause baby to get fussy and seem a bit out of sorts. My eldest used me like a doddie when she was 9 weeks for about a week, on and off constantly.

While I would agree with fits that seeking advice from a lactation consultant would be a good idea, if he's nursing it's more than likely a phase he's going through. Clear the next few days and nurse him on and off when he looks for it, he may nurse for shorter, but more often than normal. Is he getting any decent feeds in? It could be that he's getting more efficient at nursing so getting more in a shorter feed and the extra on and off nursing is for comfort. How is his form outside of the on and off nursing?

Is there any lactation group near you? La leche league and cuidiu are both breastfeeding support groups. You can also contact your PHN and get the number for the HSE lactation consultant in your area although you may need to travel further to them depending on where you are in the country.

As for the shield, have you looked into whether he's tongue/lip tied? I used a shield for 2 years with my first, no one could decide whether she was tied or not and I didn't realise you could self refer to a consultant. With my second she had a clear and obvious tie so we got it snipped when she was 9 days old. It took me till she was 4 months though to build up the courage to nurse her without a shield as I was terrified of the pain. The shields were the difference between me nursing my first or not, but it's so much handier when you don't have to use them, especially when out and about.

There is nothing wrong with continuing to use the shields if they are working for baby and you.

SmallgirlBigcity wrote: »

Baby has started rejecting the bottle - help!

I'm exclusively breastfeed and from about 6 weeks on, my boy would have my expressed milk in a bottle with no issues. But I got lazy and wasn't consistent with it and left it about 2 weeks and now he won't take a bottle at all. He is 3 and a half months old now.

He cries when I try to give it to him. When is the best time to keep trying, when he's relaxed and not that hungry or when he's really hungry? I hate seeing him bawling for a feed and give in and give him the breast. Any other tips on how to get him back on the bottle? Thanks in advance!

I EBF and used try and give a bottle! My LO didn’t take a bottle until 8.5 months and we tried 6 different bottles!


So I’m no expert but I did a lot of reading at the time about it! So they say give it when your LO isn’t too hungry as when they are starving they get frustrated easier! Have you tried giving different teat? You might be able to go up a level which is faster flowing now he’s 3.5 months old!

Lastly you are the last person to give bottle as you smell of milk! So if your partner or friend or someone else could give it that’s better!

Other than that best of luck! Very hard when they refuse bottles!
Also older they get the more they cop on so I would preserve if you can! Nothing worse!
Only thing is once 6 months hit they get food and start on sippy cups so you can be a lot more free!

Lastly they say formula is sweeter tasting than breast milk so if you were willing to try that that’s another option!

Best of luck

Honestly you may be fighting a loosing battle. My first took a notion to refuse bottles and was on strike for about 2 month's. A lot of people will advise to try different bottles and teats. That can be expensive though so I would weigh up why and how often you actually need him to take a bottle. For us I only needed her to take a bottle for a 2 hr window one evening a week, with a few exceptions, so it was easy to work around but meant that I couldn't delay when I was away jic, especially before she started solids. In our case we kept trying her with a bottle, and one day she just decided she was going to take it.

I wouldn't wait till he's hungry though coz he will just get frustrated at not being on the breast and then he will get cross and your on a downwards spiral once that happens.

Try a small amount maybe 1 or 2oz at a time when he's relaxed and not hungry. Also get someone else to try giving him the bottle. He will refuse the bottle with you quicker than anyone else.

Edit: I'm actually going to contradict myself about you not giving him the bottle. I've just remembered with no2, when she refused the bottles we got her to take a bottle by doing a switcheroo on her. She kept refusing the bottle off my husband. So I started nursing her with the bottle on hand and when she was comfortable and relaxed a stuck the bottle into her mouth and gently eased my breast away from her. It did the trick surprisingly.

https://www.facebook.com/DrJackNewman/posts/coronavirusthe-photos-below-show-how-when-a-mother-is-exposed-to-an-infection-he/1542520772565630/

wuffly wrote: »

Any advice for managing thrush? (Not medical)
I have daktarin cream for me & nystatin drops for baby, but the feeds are still horrendously painful. It’s been a week & not seeing much improvement.
I also have a small cut on each nipple & even with a good latch (checked by 2 LC’s) baby is still ‘lipsticking’ both. Has anyone had this and their nips just got used to it? Mind are shallow/short and I think the latch baby has is as good as if going to get. Also had tongue tie snipped last week & seen an osteopath.
This is my 2nd baby & I really want bf to work but this is so painful.

Wuffy I have never had thrush. I know you are super busy but le leche are doing zoom every week. You can join any meeting that suits you.
I really found them so fantastic on my last baby.

I can't help on the thrush.

But have you tried to use a nipple shield for the sore nipples? Even just for a few days it will give your nipples a chance to heal, and with the tongue tie done things should improve. My girl got her tongue tie done last year in clonmel and they gave me a cream/ointment to use to help things heal and it was brilliant. Ill see if I can find the tub to see what they called it. I also used multimam compress (I think that's what it was called) . They were decent as well, but expensive.

No experience with thrush but would highly highly recommend silver cups to help heal your nipples while you work on latch. They are miraculous! The latch may need to be rectified though to stop reoccurance. It might be helpful to speak to a qualified lactation consultant. Best of luck x

Thanks all, turns out there was a bacterial infection as well on antibiotics for that now. Still managing to feed but baby is slow to gain weight so I’m having to pump to top him up so my nipples are aren’t getting much of a break.
Cracks have healed but both nipples are very tender now. Any suggestions for something soothing to use between feeds? Would the multi mam compresses be good for that?

Millem wrote: »

Would you consider buying silver cups? They are expensive but meant to be great.

I actually have them, but my nipples are quiet short/flat never managed to get them to work, I just end up with breast milk everywhere as I have to put so much in for them to touch my nipples. Must try again