When to give in to giving formula?

[florabean1981]

*fyi, all the new charts in the little red books are international breastfeeding ones by the 'WHO' now, which are identical to the ones Merv's Mum has posted (in the sticky thread at the top).

 

[Soph&Bump]

Just to reassure you, my LO lost weight. Not as much as yours but it was quite a lot. It was when I was having feeding problems. When the midwives discharged me 2 weeks ago, she was 6lb 13oz. When the HV weighed her yesterday she had gone up to 8lb 9oz. I wasn't getting enough breast milk down her when exclusively BF so I started doing a combination of EBM, BF and formula and it's down to this that she's put the weight on. The HV was really impressed with the weight gain as she's just under average now. Doing just a couple of bottles of formula a day means I don't feel really guilty for turning to formula but I know she's getting a good amount of feeding.

I was also feeding at quite long intervals as LO didn't really look for it. I'm doing more like 3 hour feeds now and this has helped. I'm sure your LO will put weight on if you do a combination.

 

[marley2580]

I agree with RAFwife

 

[mayflower]

grace, just in case you're still on here and you were still looking for ways to stick with the bf, i wanted to make a suggestion as we have tons of experience of this in our family.

One easy way to get baby to gain weight without introducing formula or bottle is that you express milk every time after you have fed her and settled her.

Then after the next feed, and each feed after that), you feed her your expressed milk (which prob wont be very much to start with) from either a 10ml plastic medicine syringe (squeeze it very gently onto the babies inner cheek so you dont choke her!!) or a baby feeding cup (you can buy them online or just use whatever youve got at home, no teat or anything, it's just like a normal plastic tumbler only much smaller.

Lots of patience required!!!

But if you want to avoid baby switching to bottle cos it's easier, then this is the was to go.

After a few weeks babies weight will pick up and she will gradually take less and less from the cup/syringe/bottle as your milk supply will be up and she wont need it any more.

best wishes

xx

 

[Soph&Bump]

Then after the next feed, and each feed after that), you feed her your expressed milk (which prob wont be very much to start with) from either a 10ml plastic medicine syringe (squeeze it very gently onto the babies inner cheek so you dont choke her!!) or a baby feeding cup (you can buy them online or just use whatever youve got at home, no teat or anything, it's just like a normal plastic tumbler only much smaller.


xx

That's a really good idea. I've had to feed from a cup and it's quite amazing how they take to it. I used a little plastic measuring cup that came with the electric pump (2oz cup). It's very easy to do and the baby laps up the milk. When I was desperately avoiding using a bottle, this is what I was using. I still use it to feed LO some milk with Colief drops if I'm about to BF. Having said that, I thought a bottle was like the devil and I couldn't bare to use it. I got some help from an NCT breastfeeding counsellor (and ex midwife) with 30 years experience. She reassured me that things would get better and that a bottle wasn't going to cause big problems. Best of luck. When do you next weigh your LO?