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[wishingonastar]

tiggercats, if you PM me your postal details i'll post you a free sample sachet of lansinoh i have, you can try it then if its ok you can get it free on prescription from your doc (i'm guessing you have your maternity exemption card through)

definately get latch checked as if it had healed then is getting sore again it sounds like the positioning has changed...LO (and you!) are still learning for the first few weeks so you have to keep tabs on it, but by about 3 months you'll both be pro's

if you start developing acute pain in breasts along with flu like symptoms it's mastitis most likely so you need to see GP asap to get on top of it. your supply is still regulating though (takes 6-9 weeks) so its is likely because of that and the random feeding patterns.

have you got a nasal aspirator for LO's nose? tescos and kiddicare both sell a good one for about £3 that goes from newborn to toddler (make is 'summer') also making the bathroom steamy then sitting in it with LO prior to feeding will help with the stuffy nose as they get very distressed when trying to feed as they can't breathe at the same time when got a cold

you're doing just great so far hun

 

[tiggercats]

Me again, I'm sure this has been asked and answered several times, but I don't get enough time to search anymore, so i thought I'd ask the lovely champions.

My boobs no longer feel full, i generally only offer 1 boob per feed or i end up wearing the milk again afterwards so it is usually very obvious which boob is next, but it hasn't been the case the last couple of days. Have we just got to the point where supply and demand are equal? I think we might have hit the 6 week growth spurt today as Alex has fed every 3 hours instead of his normal 4 or 5 hourly feeds. He is still tiny and so far he has been growing well, but I'd hate to think he is hungry because he isn't getting enough. He also thrashes about on my boob sometimes which is quite uncomfortable, but I'm not sure if it means anything (rather like a dog shaking a toy in it's mouth). I'm so worried that I don't have enough milk for Alex

 

[TigerLady]

You have enough. Supply settles right about 6 weeks, so they won't feel full anymore. It was about that time I kept forgetting which bb I had offered last time as I couldn't tell as easily from feel. If it helps to remember, get a braclet that you can move back and forth on your wrist. Put in on the same wrist as the side he fed on. That way you know to start on the next side next time. Just don't forget to move the braclet. LOL

The thrashing is also normal. Especially if he is coming up on a growth spurt. Otter used to have boxing matches with mine and woud punch them. Ouch. Now he has pinching bouts with them and pinches hard enough to nearly bruise. Ouch again. LOL This especially happens after he has already drained most of it and the flow gets too slow for his liking.

If he doesn't seem satisfied, try offering just a little bit of the second boob. Don't let him finish it, so then he won't bring it back up from being overfull. But maybe just a tad more will satisfy him better. Start the next session with the boob that he stopped the last one on, but didn't finish. That way he gets the hindmilk from it at the next session. iykwim.

 

[wishingonastar]

hun, you need to start having more faith in your body isabel used to do the head thrashing...often with my nipple still attached often it seemed to be when she was a bit hacked off as my letdown wasn't happening quick enough for her liking...she'd attached and she wanted milk that second dammit!!!

once your supply has regulated your boobs rarely fill full at all... so long as alex continues to be content and alert between feeds and producing 5ish wet nappies a day you're fine

and yes it does sound like the 6 week growth spurt!

 

[im_mi]

^yep! these girlies said all the good stuff. Its never worth paying attention to how full your boobs feel, how much you can express or how much leaks as none of them are accurate supply indicators. just pay attention to your babies' wet nappies and weight gain youre doing really well honey keep going!

 

[tiggercats]

Thanks ladies it is so lovely to have this support. We have plenty of wet and dirty nappies so i'll try to relax about it. I'm trying to drink my 2L of water a day, but I'm not finding time to eat properly and I'm stressed. I guess I just worry about how everything affects my milk.

 

[TigerLady]

If you are having trouble eating, make sure you concentrate on things with protein when you can eat. A high protein diet will help keep your milk supply good. Drink protein shakes for snacks if you can (that's what I do!).

 

[florabean1981]

Tigerlady- interesting about the protein shakes, that would never've occurred to me. May I ask what kinda shakes would be safe to drink, or are they generally all ok? I a) dont drink enough & b) dont have a lot of protein in my diet coz I'm not a big fan of meat & try not to eat a whole lotta dairy coz of IBS, lol.

 

[im_mi]

On protein shakes: i have some, and it says on the box that they arent suitable for pregnant or breastfeeding mothers. Im sure there are some brands that are suitable. Egg protein is the best, whey protein has a tendency to mess with the immune system.

 

[TigerLady]

FB, sorry, just saw this.

I used meal replacement shakes (like slim fast but I use store brands). I didn't see anything that would be bad in them. I certainly never had a problem with them. They have a little less protein then true protein shakes, but still generally have 10g or so per shake. I had a couple of day as snacks.

I had to go off them because they are made with milk and I get severely lactose intolerant when I am pg. But I immediately started suffering with my milk supply. Now I buy soy protein powder and make my own. I use almond milk, soy powder, a banana, and another fruit (usually blueberries or strawberries.. have used kiwi, too), and ice. I blend all of that to make about a 32oz drink that has roughly 20-30g of soy protein.

There are mixed ideas about how safe protein powders are to use when bfing and/or pg. (As with everything! ) It seems the general idea is soy is probably safer than whey. It also seems that early reports of soy being problematic for boy fetuses and babies is not really true.

There is also a tiny bit of evidence that LARGE doses of soy protein can make it harder for an embryo to implant if you are TTC. But that evidence has only proven true with high doses in rat models.

But, as with anything, use it in moderation. I actually use it at the high end of "moderation" But I did notice a difference in my milk supply that I feel was related to getting more protein again.

If you are really concerned make sure you keep protein supplements to less than about 100mg/kg of body weight. That would be roughly 8-10g of protein for 150lbs of body weight. But that is being VERY careful and conservative. As you can see from what I do, I don't follow anywhere near that. I actually consume about 4x that amount in powdered protein on most days.

I'm going to ask my OB about it at my next appt just to be safe. I have a strong feeling that I will be told it is fine to eat as much as I am. If he says it isn't fine, I will let you know.

 

[TigerLady]

Oh, and keep in mind that there could be MANY reasons something like a protein or meal replacement shake would be labeled "not suitable for bfing or pg." I can imagine that would be a CYA label that could be related to discouraging women from dieting and using them INSTEAD of meals when bfing or pg (which would be BAD).

You'd have to research it to decide for yourself based on the ingredrients why such labels would be put in place. It might be that there really are unsuitable ingredients or processing... but it also just might be a way to prevent women from using them as a main nutrition source.

 

[xerinx]

Hi i thought i would post my situation in here.

My lo is 12 days old. When he was born he wouldnt latch on so was given bottle for 1st 2 days but then he seemed interested in boob so i bf him for a night and morning but as i was still in hospital and he was unsettled they took him and gave him a bottle.
The next day i was discharged and i said i wanted to keep trying to bf but give him bottle if he wont take to it. I was told that i needed to make a decision and stick to it before being discharged. And was advised he would be better ff.

So ive been ff'ing him since then. My hv came out today and said that as im still leaking that i can try to bf again. Even if its once a day at first.

So im thinking that i will try to bf him at bedtime and see how that goes. Im still unsure about bf'ing him tbh but i would like to do it at least once aday so i know he is getting whats good for him. If it goes good then i will try to introduce it more and more often.

I could do with support and advice for this as i dont have any support from family ect and i dont want to feel over whelmed ect if it doesnt work.

Thankyou for any help

 

[wishingonastar]

Hi i thought i would post my situation in here.

My lo is 12 days old. When he was born he wouldnt latch on so was given bottle for 1st 2 days but then he seemed interested in boob so i bf him for a night and morning but as i was still in hospital and he was unsettled they took him and gave him a bottle.
The next day i was discharged and i said i wanted to keep trying to bf but give him bottle if he wont take to it. I was told that i needed to make a decision and stick to it before being discharged. And was advised he would be better ff.

So ive been ff'ing him since then. My hv came out today and said that as im still leaking that i can try to bf again. Even if its once a day at first.

So im thinking that i will try to bf him at bedtime and see how that goes. Im still unsure about bf'ing him tbh but i would like to do it at least once aday so i know he is getting whats good for him. If it goes good then i will try to introduce it more and more often.

I could do with support and advice for this as i dont have any support from family ect and i dont want to feel over whelmed ect if it doesnt work.

Thankyou for any help

hey hun, congrats on your little bundle of fun
the way you need to see it is you're both learning a new skill and i think lots of medical peeps forget this and think if it doesn't go smoothly from straight off then its not gonna work...which isn't the case at all!

as its early days you should find it quite easy to increase your supply to match LO's demands...it takes your body 2-3 days to respond to milk demands so based on what you've put my strongest suggestion would be to put LO to breast everytime he asks for food (at his age this will be approx every 2 hours though they cluster feed for several hours once a day too...usually in the evening...and during this time they want to feed more frequently). Check he's swallowing (you should hear or see his throat moving rhymically), then you can always top him up with FF after if you feel its necessary, but i'd encourage you to switch to breastflow or closer to nature bottles as these are closer to BFing than another teat and they encourage LO to work the teat as if it was a breast and they don't release milk super fast like normal teats, so with a normal teat LO has to gulp the milk as it flows quick and people assume LO was starving when in fact often they were just trying to keep up with it! (hope i make sense!!)

Google 'hunger cues in newborn' and you'll see what to look out for as they display lots of hunger cues then crying is a last resort, so ideally you want to catch LO when he's first hungry and put him to breast so he's not trying to BF while he's starving

As much as poss in the day to skin to skin contact with LO and also when having a bath/shower massage your breasts and stimulate nipples to encourage milk flow/production

Also if poss, if you do FF then during or shortly after that feed express as much milk as you can get off (don't worry if its not much to begin with) as this will tell your body LO needed milk so it gives it the message to produce more

Also an important thing is to find support in RL locally...start by calling HV and/or local childrens centre and asking where nearest BFing group is, then make sure you go along and get your latch and so on checked...i know its daunting but i bit the bullet when i had problems in the early days and they were a tremendous help and definately a big part of why i succeeded

I'm sure others here can advise you more, but these are good starting points

 

[xerinx]

Hi i thought i would post my situation in here.

My lo is 12 days old. When he was born he wouldnt latch on so was given bottle for 1st 2 days but then he seemed interested in boob so i bf him for a night and morning but as i was still in hospital and he was unsettled they took him and gave him a bottle.
The next day i was discharged and i said i wanted to keep trying to bf but give him bottle if he wont take to it. I was told that i needed to make a decision and stick to it before being discharged. And was advised he would be better ff.

So ive been ff'ing him since then. My hv came out today and said that as im still leaking that i can try to bf again. Even if its once a day at first.

So im thinking that i will try to bf him at bedtime and see how that goes. Im still unsure about bf'ing him tbh but i would like to do it at least once aday so i know he is getting whats good for him. If it goes good then i will try to introduce it more and more often.

I could do with support and advice for this as i dont have any support from family ect and i dont want to feel over whelmed ect if it doesnt work.

Thankyou for any help

hey hun, congrats on your little bundle of fun
the way you need to see it is you're both learning a new skill and i think lots of medical peeps forget this and think if it doesn't go smoothly from straight off then its not gonna work...which isn't the case at all!

as its early days you should find it quite easy to increase your supply to match LO's demands...it takes your body 2-3 days to respond to milk demands so based on what you've put my strongest suggestion would be to put LO to breast everytime he asks for food (at his age this will be approx every 2 hours though they cluster feed for several hours once a day too...usually in the evening...and during this time they want to feed more frequently). Check he's swallowing (you should hear or see his throat moving rhymically), then you can always top him up with FF after if you feel its necessary, but i'd encourage you to switch to breastflow or closer to nature bottles as these are closer to BFing than another teat and they encourage LO to work the teat as if it was a breast and they don't release milk super fast like normal teats, so with a normal teat LO has to gulp the milk as it flows quick and people assume LO was starving when in fact often they were just trying to keep up with it! (hope i make sense!!)

Google 'hunger cues in newborn' and you'll see what to look out for as they display lots of hunger cues then crying is a last resort, so ideally you want to catch LO when he's first hungry and put him to breast so he's not trying to BF while he's starving

As much as poss in the day to skin to skin contact with LO and also when having a bath/shower massage your breasts and stimulate nipples to encourage milk flow/production

Also if poss, if you do FF then during or shortly after that feed express as much milk as you can get off (don't worry if its not much to begin with) as this will tell your body LO needed milk so it gives it the message to produce more

Also an important thing is to find support in RL locally...start by calling HV and/or local childrens centre and asking where nearest BFing group is, then make sure you go along and get your latch and so on checked...i know its daunting but i bit the bullet when i had problems in the early days and they were a tremendous help and definately a big part of why i succeeded

I'm sure others here can advise you more, but these are good starting points

Thankyou for the advise its much apprieciated

LO is due a feed soon so i will try to put him to breast 1st and then if he seems hungry after i will top him up with formula.

Fingers x'ed this works

 

[wishingonastar]

good luck and remember if it doesn't go smoothly to begin with it's not the end of the world and you can work through it

 

[TigerLady]

Wishing just gave great advice! I don't have anything to add that she hasn't said already. I strongly agree that you should try to BF every time LO is hungry and only top up with formula after.

Please don't get down or frustrated if it is hard going and even painful at first. It is for everyone and you are starting at an even tougher place. But you can totally do it! It will take time and effort, but be worth it.

If you have ANY questions, no matter how small or "silly" they seem... come ask! Even if you just need a boost. We are here to help! Good luck, hon!

 

[xerinx]

Well ive just fed logan. He had 10/15 mins on left boob but wont take my right one? When we were in hospital it was the same i just cant seem to latch him onto right one? I told them this and the just said feed with left!

Anyway after his 10mins or so i gave him a bottle he had 3oz so thats 1 oz less than normal so he must of been getting something from left one. He then went straight down and is fast asleep!! He has never slept upstairs as he wont settle for some reason but hes flat out in our room now I defo think bf helped with that as we spent an hour altogether reading a book and feeding in the dark and quiet. We dont normally spend that long feeding.

Its defo something i want to continue. It did make me sore after that time which is why i tried to put him on right one but as he wouldnt take it after 10 mins of trying i gave him the bottle.

 

[TigerLady]

That sound like a GREAT first try!!

Try a different nursing position with the bb he doesn't seem to want. That often helps. Are you familar with them? Often, if they like the cradle hold for one bb, they like the rugby hold for the other.

Also, it is normal for them to only eat from one bb when they are young. But you should alternate bbs between feeds. Which is a problem if he won't latch! Start with the one he wouldn't take next time... try a different position or two... if that doesn't work, go ahead and offer the other one before he gets too frustrated. Then try to express from the one he wouldn't take. One step at a time!

Also, if you are sore, get some lanisnoh cream. Slather it on after every feed and between feeds if it wears off. If you get really sore, you can put it on before a feed, too (it won't hurt him). I think you can get it on prescription in the UK? Wishing knows more about that.

 

[xerinx]

He likes cradle hold for the left one and he seems to try and latch better if hes laying up my belly on the right one (if that makes sense).

Ive just had a look on different positions now so next time i will try these on the right one thankyou.

And i will look into that cream if i get sore thankyou

 

[im_mi]

congratulations on your little man! And huge kudos to you for trying to start breastfeeding again all the advice given so far is fantastic, cant really add anything to it!

The important thing to remember is that where there is a breastfeeding problem there is a breastfeeding solution. There are very very few situations in which women cant actually breastfeed, most people will say they couldnt for whatever reason but if you actually look at the reason they stopped, there will usually be a solution to it. Breastfeeding is a lost art but its one that can be learned by mum and baby even if it takes time Remember that women have breastfed adopted children even though they have never been pregnant or lactated in the past. When you think of that you realise anything is possible with the right support and information.

Good luck!