need help to go back to BF after FF

[tigereyes]

hi... my baby is almost 4 months old now... i BF him for almost 2 months after birth... but then due to certain reasons... i had to FF him... now i want to go back to BF.. i still find a few drops of milk in my breasts and thats my only hope.. i very well understand that its a demand n supply thing... and that the more he sucks the mor milk there will be... but the problem is that he is not ready to even try... he would cry n cry until i give him the bottle... and the guiltis killing me... people tell me that babies hav no love for the boob and y would he put in more effort to suck from there when he can easily eat from the bottle... but it is killing me... i cry like hell and dont know what to do and who to ask for help... maybe someone can help me out... shall i stop the bottle altogether.. let him cry n go hungry till he takes the breast?? plz help me..

 

[tekkitten]

Don't totally not give her formula, at this point she needs sustenance.

Is there a local lactation specialist you can see? The main thing I have heard to bring back supply is pumping and having baby at your breast. When I was in the hospital my OH accidentally let the baby drink almost half a small bottle of formula. This totally set back the progress we had made breastfeeding. We ended up using expressed milk and a feeding tube to get her back on the boob, and it worked. I think you for sure need to see a specialist for this, but I dont think its impossible to go back to breastfeeding. Best of luck!

 

[tigereyes]

thx a lot for the much needed support and comfort... i dont have a local lactation secialist.. i've already checked that... i think should buy an electric pump then... but he is almost 4 months old and it been almost two months of FF now..!! i will still try to get him on the breast but he rejects it totally and starts crying.... i've tried it when he was playing and in a happy mood and also when he was very hungry but he refuses and starts crying...
i hope some day it will work... twice it happened that in between his cries he sucked a little but that was it.. will he eventually learn??

 

[Calif]

Rent a hospital grade pump and get one of those supplementary feeding systems and some mothers milk tea and lactation cookies

 

[Brieanna]

kellymom has a lot of good info on re-lactating. It is definitely possible because women can even "learn' how to breastfeed adopted babies.
https://kellymom.com/ages/adopt-relactate/relactation-resources/#linksrelactation


this is good for the basics.
https://www.alisaikeda.com/Clients_Clips/Relactation/body_relactation.html

Also, there was a thread a while ago where someone else was trying to breastfeed again. there is probably some good info on that thread.

https://babyandbump.momtastic.com/breastfeeding/993981-relactating-gave-up-bf-3wks-she-latched-herself-morning.html

I think put lo to your breast as often as possible, when you do bottle feed use slow flow teats/nipples to more mimic your breast flow (maybe switch bottles to ones that are more breast-like too) so he gets used to it. Definitely pump as much as possible! Even if not much is coming out it is still stimulating milk production.

Good luck!

 

[tigereyes]

thx a lot dear... these links are really a sign of hope.. these days i'm very upset and depressed about all this... this is my baby's right and without any reason i just stopped it... this was killing me... i have been crying for days about this before asking or help here... and all thanks to God and u guyz that i feel a little bit of hope and am able to gather the couage to give it another try...