The Breast Feeding Support Thread

23-06-2021 11:42pm

Vaquita wrote: »

Not quite breastfeeding related, but milk drinking related so hope this is ok to post.

My 1 yr old is breastfed when I am home and would have 2 x bottles with expressed milk when I am at work. Until last week. She is now refusing milk in her old baby bottle, in her straw cup, in an open cup. Just not interested and will even gag according to her childminder.

Is it ok to just rely on yoghurts, cheese, other calcium sources during the day and for her to drink water? She'd have full fat cows milky porridge most mornings and loves yoghurt. She still feeds from me really well at night or in the day at weekends.

I would be very happy to drop my midday work pump so if she's not drinking it, will stopping that pump affect my supply overall?

Thank you!

Highly unlikely at this stage in your breastfeeding journey. Your supply is established.
I used to pump for my baby at work, that got tiring. I could have worked any 3 days in the week or a couple of nights and if I wanted to feed all day any day my supply was there.
It shouldn't effect your supply, I stopped feeding there in January at 22 months and the milk didn't dry up for a long time after!

ucsie · 24-06-2021 7:58am

For those of you who pumped at work, can I ask how that worked? Did you just go somewhere at lunchtime to pump? Was that somewhere in the workspace?

I'm not returning to work for a few months but I'm curious about the logistics of pumping if I'm still breastfeeding when I go back and I want to continue.

fits · 24-06-2021 12:57pm

ucsie wrote: »

For those of you who pumped at work, can I ask how that worked? Did you just go somewhere at lunchtime to pump? Was that somewhere in the workspace?

I'm not returning to work for a few months but I'm curious about the logistics of pumping if I'm still breastfeeding when I go back and I want to continue.

The workplace should provide you with somewhere private to pump. In my case it was a resting/medical room that was available. And I discussed it with my manager and could take pumping breaks whenever I needed to. A lot of big and public sector companies would have guidelines.

bee06 · 24-06-2021 5:24pm

With my first I used our first aid room. We have a dedicated pumping/BF room now with comfy chairs etc

GBX · 29-08-2022 9:53pm

Posting on behalf of my wife. Would anybody know of any meet up breastfeeding/new moms groups around Citywest/Rathcoole/Clondalkin ?

Ladybird25 · 12-08-2023 10:47pm

Hi guys,

I have a baby girl 12weeks old, breastfeeding has been an struggle from the beginning. We had to introduce formula on day 5 and since then I tried to reduce. However because of this I always have the doubt if she's hungry or cluster feeding or clingy...

She has always went to sleep quite well but 4 days ago that changed. It's almost impossible to get her to sleep, sometimes I completely give up and just lie in bed with her. But I wonder is this the 3 months crisis or is she just hungry? How do you know? She falls sleep in the breast but then wakes up 5 minutes later crying so much...

Minier81 · 14-08-2023 8:40pm

It's is such typical baby behaviour for them to be clingy at this age. And also at 3 months (and again at 4 months, sorry!) there is a developmental leap. My only way of describing developmental leaps is that they are periods of unexplained clinginess while there brains are undergoing growth. For these leaps just do whatever you need to in order to survive and maximise your sanity, if that means sleep beside them do it, if it's means netflix on the couch with them on the boob for ages then do it. They can last for a week or two.

Unless she is not gaining weight I would not assume she is not getting enough.

Is she a good motion napper? Would walk in the buggy at sleep time to help for the odd nap??

Have you looked up any la lache league or cuidui groups near you? They have no easy answers but sometimes hearing and meeting other mammies with similar struggles can help with sanity.

This too shall pass.

DaveyDave · 20-11-2023 3:22pm

Looking for a bit of advice here. The Coombe are suggesting we rent their pump for €100 as the baby isn't latching after 4 days. The issue is my girlfriend hasn't had a chance to feed as she has constantly had blood pressure monitoring, drips and blood transfusions since her c section, I've had to take the baby off the breast to feed as nurses come and do their thing regardless of what you're doing and one of them is training so anything they do is a painfully slow process, plus the usual hospital stuff where they show up with a tray or drip stand getting ready to do something then disappear for half an hour.

On day 1 the baby wasn't feeding, they were quick to suggest we rent their pump for €100 but it was down to being full of mucus. That night the baby was screaming due to a milk supply issue so they gave us bottles and noted the issue. Over the weekend nobody came by to offer any advice or anything. Apparently someone came to the ward demanding everyone breastfeed but that was it? We're happy to keep latching where we can but it was almost impossible with nurses hovering all day.

Now she's due to come home today they're saying she can't go home until the baby latches and to rent the pump. We have a double electric pump at home, happy to keep trying and there's a great lactation specialist in our area but not sure if the hospital pump is necessary or not?

Minier81 · 20-11-2023 11:41pm

So sorry to hear you guys are getting such poor support in the hospital. A lactation consultant is exactly what you need and the sooner the better. If you have a pump there is no need to rent their one. Also what you want in the long term is baby on the boobs and not the double work of pumping then having to give the baby a bottle of pumped milk.

I hope you got home today, please book a lactation consultant ASAP. If you are still in hopsital they should have a lactation consultant to come to your room, unfortunately this is usually just mon-fri 9 to 5.

In the meantime encourage your girlfriend to feed feed feed. Ignore the clock and just keep the baby with her as much as possible, you do everything else to support this - make tea, make dinner, feed her, change nappies, do laundry. This phase won't last long but if baby had the chance to feed as you said then a few days of focusing on just feeding will do all the world of good.

drodgers · 23-04-2024 11:20am

I'm currently EBF a 5 month old. Hes thriving and gaining weight and I'm past all the hurdles like latch issues etc which I had at the beginning. Only issue now is that he is presenting with eczema since hes 3 months. A steroid cream cleared it up but it came back again. I'm moisturising him with epaderm 3 times a day and bathing him in aveeno baby twice a week (and slathering him with emollient straight after).

Nothing I do seems to have any effect. The eczema seems to fluctuate randomly. The mid wives at my breast feeding support group are suggesting a referral to a dietician from my GP to start eliminating things from my own diet to see if it could improve the eczema. Last time I suggested to my GP she made a comment like "you dont want to go down that rabbit hole". I was reading into it and the studies on impact of maternal diet on infant conditions like eczema dont seem to be conclusive.

I am wondering if anyone has gone through similar and could advise on whether maternal diet changes could work? or have a routine or product that was really good.

I've tried below

Double-base emollient gel

Avene

Aveeno dermexa

Epaderm

The Breast Feeding Support Thread

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