Possible nipple confusion? HELP!

[KatO79]

So my 3 week old son has been getting breast milk from me and then getting supplemented with formula as he wasn't gaining enough weight (he has breast milk jaundice). The formula we've been giving him for the past 2 days in a bottle (stupid me!). Suddenly today he still will latch on my breast but it's like he's not creating much of a vacuum anymore and is also becoming fussy at the breast. I fear he may not be getting much milk because of this.

Is this nipple confusion and what can I do to fix this ASAP? I'm just so upset if it means I have to stop breastfeeding

 

[laura11111]

He's still young and learning how to drink. My second latched right away for the first week and then it was a struggle for the next few. There is so much going on with your hormones right now which messes with your supply as well as let-down. I wouldn't worry too much. I know it's frustrating when they don't latch and drink easily, but keep trying and breastfeed as much as you can between bottles. You two will get the hang of it


Just editing this to add another point: My sister was determined to breastfeed with her first, but he didn't latch AT ALL for the first three months so she pumped all day and all night. It was awful , but she stuck with it and truly enjoyed breastfeeding after that. She breastfed until he was 18 months. My point is, if you don't want to give it up, you don't have to. Stick it out and it will pay off. Good luck.

 

[KatO79]

He's still young and learning how to drink. My second latched right away for the first week and then it was a struggle for the next few. There is so much going on with your hormones right now which messes with your supply as well as let-down. I wouldn't worry too much. I know it's frustrating when they don't latch and drink easily, but keep trying and breastfeed as much as you can between bottles. You two will get the hang of it


Just editing this to add another point: My sister was determined to breastfeed with her first, but he didn't latch AT ALL for the first three months so she pumped all day and all night. It was awful , but she stuck with it and truly enjoyed breastfeeding after that. She breastfed until he was 18 months. My point is, if you don't want to give it up, you don't have to. Stick it out and it will pay off. Good luck.

Thanks for your reply laura

I think the thing is just yesterday he was doing so well with latching and sucking the milk out and today sometime in the early afternoon he suddenly changed and it's been a struggle getting him to latch and then to suck properly with vacuum. It's been upsetting really and I'm hoping this is only a temporary thing and he's not going to end up rejecting my breasts. I did manage just now to get him to latch on and suck properly for a few minutes from both breasts so guess that's progress but it took me pressing some drops of milk out each time so he could taste that there's milk coming out of them. So ended it on a positive note and gave him over to DH that gave him some formula from a cup (as bottles are now banned in case it's confusing him!) to make sure he's gotten enough to eat, especially as the health care provider said we need to top him off with formula to make sure he gains weight.

So amazing of your sister! I didn't even know that a baby could learn to latch later on as I thought they had to start learning from the very beginning or else it was almost impossible. I don't know how I'd deal with pumping so often, especially at night as I'm already sleep deprived from feeding my son every 3-3½ hours at night (while I'm making sure he feeds at least every 2-2½ hours during the day)

 

[swimmyj1]

Advise the lactation specalist gave me that I loved - breast feeding is the most natural yet un-natural thing us moms do. Babies don't get nipple confusion they get lazy lol. Why work hard on a nipple when they can get a bottle and it just drips in. haha sooo true (at least for me). It helped squeezing some milk out like laura suggested so baby knows milk is there she just has to work for it.

My daughter had a really hard time getting a good latch for the first 8 weeks. she just couldn't get a good seal and would get fussy and wasn't gaining weight correctly. We did supplement and of course she liked the easy bottle haha but now shes 12 weeks old and doing much better. it just took time for her to learn how to go back and forth. Babies can learn to re-latch to a breast that is for sure! It's really hard, give yourself some credit. -- also there are nipples medela makes that babies have to get the correct vacuum suck to get any milk from. they are really great if you need to supplement.

Hang in there hung i know its hard, I cried a lot those first 8 weeks.

 

[KatO79]

Advise the lactation specalist gave me that I loved - breast feeding is the most natural yet un-natural thing us moms do. Babies don't get nipple confusion they get lazy lol. Why work hard on a nipple when they can get a bottle and it just drips in. haha sooo true (at least for me). It helped squeezing some milk out like laura suggested so baby knows milk is there she just has to work for it.

My daughter had a really hard time getting a good latch for the first 8 weeks. she just couldn't get a good seal and would get fussy and wasn't gaining weight correctly. We did supplement and of course she liked the easy bottle haha but now shes 12 weeks old and doing much better. it just took time for her to learn how to go back and forth. Babies can learn to re-latch to a breast that is for sure! It's really hard, give yourself some credit. -- also there are nipples medela makes that babies have to get the correct vacuum suck to get any milk from. they are really great if you need to supplement.

Hang in there hung i know its hard, I cried a lot those first 8 weeks.

Thanks swimmy Sorry you've also had bf'ing issues, I can imagine how frustrating that would be But glad that it all worked out in the end and your daughter can now easily switch between breast and bottle.

Alexander has always had a good latch, just that he suddenly seemed to be getting confused between the bottle and my nipples. We ditched those bottles and gave him formula via a cup which seems to also have helped as he's now back to sucking the way he should at my breast Think we'll first try again with bottles after 6 weeks and hope he'll be better able to figure out that he needs to switch between the 2 techniques

 

[dragonfly26]

sorry posted to wrong thread

 

[swimmyj1]

hang in there the cup method is a good way to go