I had my baby girl on Sunday morning via emergency C-section. She latched brilliantly straight away.
By Tuesday shed lost 14%of her birth weight so the hosp insisted I give her "top-up" feeds of formula every 3hrs to make her gain weight again. So I did. I regret it now. She's latching but won't stay on! She won't such after the latch. But is screaming coz she's hungry!!

I have the health nurse coming on Saturday and I am terrified her weight will be down again.

What can I do?
I wanted to stop the top ups and just BF her.
I am in floods of tears coz she won't take my milk but drinks the bottle so easily!

firstly - congratulations on your new arrival! sorry to hear about your experience. I'm not sure what to suggest but didn't want to read and run.

maybe try expressing some milk to keep your supply up and help your milk come through? not sure what else to suggest, hopefully one of the BF champions will be able to give you some better advice. x

My LO started doing that too, I am calling it the "latch game" and it drives me insane.

First, I'd stop the bottles. You can spoon, syringe, or cup feed instead. Bottles can make babies "lazy".

When Kesslie is on her "latch game" kick, what seems to work best for us (so far!) is getting naked, skin to skin, and starting from scratch. If either of us starts getting frustrated on latching, I put her back on my chest for a few min, take a few deep breaths, and try again. The frustration cycle was causing major issues for us!

Once I started more skin to skin, got rid of her binky (she hasn't had a bottle, but she was still getting confused) and started backing off when one of us got frustrated, she started doing a bit better. We still sometimes take 7-10 tries to start sucking, but it's better than the 45 min to an hour it was starting to be!

Good luck.

I agree with stopping the bottles. I'd pump and then give her the milk by syringe. Babies will get used to the nipple on the bottle and try to refuse the breast. I'd also start off with breastfeeding and THEN syringe feed what you have pumped. This way, she wont get used to getting the milk "right away" and realize she does have to work for it. Try pumping every hour if the baby isn't eating but every 2-3hrs just to help your milk come in too. Hang in there. Breastfeeding can be difficult and DS lost a LOT of weight when I first started, but once my milk came in, he became a pro and we breastfed for 13mos. You can do it! Stay strong and determined!

I also agree to stopping the bottles It is normal for newborns to lose 10% body weight in the first week, so even though your LO lost 14%, do know that about 10% is considered normal or not unusual.

If your LO has lost weight and the health nurse insists on using formula, you may want to look at a supplemental system. I believe medela do one, but there are other brands. With one of these LO has to get on the breast and nurse and you get the comfort of knowing that LO is getting a decent amount of food and stimulating milk production all at the same time.

Otherwise, pack yourself into the corner of your couch with the remote control, cell phone, snacks and a large water bottle and settle in for the week with LO for a Bfing marathon using the great tips from Menelly!!

I had a c section and my baby lost 15%, exactly the same thing. I had to use formula to top up for about a day but at the same time they were getting me to pump, and anything I pumped I mixed with the formula, so if I could pump 30 I only had to top up with 30 formula. After about a day of this, with fenugreek and pumping, I was pumping enough to do the top ups myself. A week later she was back to her birth weight and strong enough to take the breast, and she was strong enough to latch and gain weight too. What bottles are you using? I found the tommee tippee ones good as she seemed to be able to take those without getting confused. It's sad that they didn't get you pumping or your supply will never increase as your body doesn't know you need more milk. I think you should buy a pump and try and do what I did, but don't give her less than what they said, so if you can't pump enough, top that up with some formula but KEEP PUMPING. Every 2 hours, including at night. Once she has regained her weight you'll have a bit more freedom about it and hopefully your supply will have caught up because of the pumping.
Another thing ALWAYS offer the breast first, even if she doesn't take much, offer it first but don't let her get too frustrated, if she gets frustrated just top her up and try again next time. Your goal is to regain her birth weight so she can get stronger and latch better.
Also, ask your HV for help with latching, or try calling your local LLL who may have someone near you that could come out. Once you're well enough try and go to a breastfeeding support session too. And remember -you're a good mum, you're doing your best and if you keep working at it your supply will catch up with her demand! Just make sure your body knows you need it by pumping at the moment and always give your baby her top ups on time to make sure she gains weight, it will help her get stronger. xxx

Ladies you are amazing!!
She's been feeding now for an hr on and off with no frustration. We have a doctors apt at 3 today and if her weight is up again then we can cut the top-ups to every other feed.... I'm going to talk to him
About syringing the top up...

Here's hoping!

Did you have a drip during labour? These can inflate a babies birth weight so it looks like they have lost lots of weight, when in fact they haven't really. Try not to panic, have lots of skin to skin, if you can, get into bed with lo in just a nappy and let her feed whenever she wants. Skin to skin will help her to relax and hopefully she will be able to latch on calmly.

I didn't go into labour at all. I had preeclampsia do they delivered her by section pretty quickly.

Did you receive any fluids during your c-section? They can artificially inflate a bavy's birthweight, and make weightloss appear much worse than it actually is. What's her nappy output doing?