Struggling to establish breastfeeding

[Poorah]

Hi all,
I've been in transitional care for five days already to try and establish bf. So
So far she has dropped a ton of weight and gotten cold when they made me make her go cold turkey on the tube feeding. Now we are topping up most feeds and I'm so close to knocking it all on the head and giving her a bottle.
She was 6 weeks actual, 36+3 gestation when we started exclusively bfing. Does anyone hve any words of advice on how to get through this? I'm worried that I'm trying to bf for my sake and not hers. She'll be getting breast milk regardless so why put her through this?

 

[25weeker]

Is she latching ok? I had to use nipple shields to establish breast feeding at the beginning. My lo lost weight as well when she began breast feeding. Its because they now have to work for their food and it takes them a while to adjust.

If you really want to breastfeed then I think you should try for a bit longer as you may regret it. I don't think I would have been able to express and look after my lo once at home so had I not established bf then I would have had to formula feed.

Regardless what you decide as long as your baby has food in its tummy and lots of cuddles she will be happy so try not to feel guilty.

Good luck xx

 

[Poorah]

We now seem to be in a routine where I have to wake herfor a feed, and then she fusses for between 15 minutes to an hour and then feeds beautifully or goes to sleep and gets a rube feed. Only once have we been able to feed on demand and she latched sraight away and nursed for 25 minutes. Every other time I have to wake her and although she seems interested shes either too sleepy or too wound up. The hospital advice has veen somewhat mixed.

 

[kimandbump]

Firstly massive hugs hun, I know exactly how you feel! What hospital are you in? I am also in Glasgow and we also had the problem with babies getting cold in transitional care, my LO ended up back in the main ward on a heated mattress one night which delayed our discharge!

When in SCBU we really struggled with BF, Alana never even latched on and it was getting to the stage where the only thing keeping us in hospital was the feeding. I spent a full week close to tears, agonising over what to do regarding bottles. Like you the advice I was being given was very mixed, some midwifes could tell that it was really getting to me and were quite supportive of me giving a bottle of expressed milk, others were very pro BF and would make me feel terrible convincing me to carry on and saying that if I went home with my baby taking bottles I would not be able to express milk long term and would end up formula feeding.

In the end I did what I thought was best, I continued to try to BF and used bottles of EBM to top up. This continued when Alana came home. Exclusively expressing once home was very difficult and I don't think I would have been able to keep it up long term, luckily for me when Alana was around 7 weeks old things just clicked with the BF and she was exclusively BF by the time she was 10 or 11 weeks old.

I believe for me using the bottles short term was the best solution and giving the bottle had no negative impact at all on Alana's ability to BF. I'm not saying that this is what you should do, your situation is different to mine and only you can make a decision on what is right for you. I just wanted to share my experience, when I was your situation I thought that giving a bottle would be the worst thing in the world and that if I did it I would never be able to breast feed, however I still exclusively BF 5 months on.

 

[chockie]

Hi
I have a 7 week old baby born at 35 weeks. our experience was that he was tube fed for the 1st 4 days. i was able to hold him and try and feed him for 10 minutes at the start of every feed but he was too dopey and never really latched on. After 4 days he started being bottle fed my expressed milk. He was stiill too dopey to latch on,he wouldn't even open his mouth, we had to try every trick in the book to get a small amount of milk into him. we became quite resigned to the pa lava of sterilising, expressing and bottle feeding and i'd mentally given up on him breast feeding until i decided to try and latch him on one evening around 37 weeks, which he did and fed well he's now 7 weeks old he won't take a bottle and piled weight on from the day he started breast feeding, I think possibly he had to get closer to his due date to have the strength but i also think that with my 4 babies, what works for 1 doesn't for another, i think you have to do what feels best for you and not beat yourself up if it doesn't work, there's no manual!!
good luck xx

 

[Srrme]

I found it was a lot easier, and less stressful to begin breastfeeding at home, instead of the hospital. I tried a few times in the hospital, but was overly stressed, so I stopped and just bottle fed him expressed breastmilk until he came home.

 

[cat81]

I had a similar experience to what you describe. LO didn't take to breastfeeding at first and it was all I could do to keep him awake. At first he was tube fed, then when we began breastfeeding, I was topping him up with a bottle of EBM after each feed.

When he was discharged, he was getting a bf and a top up with a bottle of EBM for most feeds (unless he took a lot from the breast). We kept this up when we got home and then eventually, he just got better at it and we were able to drop the top ups all together.

He turned into a right little boob monster and we are still going strong with breastfeeding now at 11 months. My advice would be to persevere if breastfeeding is something you feel strongly about. I was determined to make it work and despite a number of set backs, I persevered with it and now I am so glad that I never gave up. Don't worry about giving a bottle of EBM if she isn't taking enough from the breast though. As you say, it is still breast milk. I am sure that when she gets bigger and stronger, she will be able to feed better at the breast and hopefully you will be able to drop the bottle feeds then.

Good luck. x

 

[Marleysgirl]

Does anyone hve any words of advice on how to get through this? I'm worried that I'm trying to bf for my sake and not hers. She'll be getting breast milk regardless so why put her through this?

My words of advice? Don't beat yourself up about it. Much as you would like to breastfeed, your relationship with your baby is far more important.

I, too, was determined to breastfeed. I'd been expressing for about 6 weeks when we started trying and failing. The hospital's BF advisor visited us in NICU daily, to assist, but couldn't explain why Andrew just wouldn't latch.

I had one very upsetting overnight stay in hospital trying to establish BF prior to coming home, it just didn't happen.

Then my Mum told me that I was formula fed, and it didn't harm me By this point Andrew had been on EBM for 9 weeks so he'd had the benefit of all those antibodies - did it matter if he received them by tube, cup or bottle? No.

I (& NICU at my request) switched to feeding Andrew EBM by bottle and he took to it like a duck to water. Another overnight stay was successful and he was allowed to come home.

I was fortunately that I had a supportive (and out-of-work) OH who would feed Andrew whilst I pumped, so I continued to express for 4 months after bringing him home. We then switched to prescription (higher calorie) formula to help his growth.

For the record, we did continue to try to establish BF for a couple of weeks after coming home - but it never did work.

 

[Poorah]

Thanks all. I decided to try offering the breast first and using a bottle to top up. She can guzzle milk from a bottle like anything, but she gets so much wind I have more incentive to get her on the breast. I have to say it really is much more work to bottle feed, but its such a relief to know she's getting lots of food without too much stress.
Oh and I am in the maternity hospital in the East end of Glasgow .