Comments on: Formula and breastfeeding – Help!

By: Kim

Kim — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 00:08:58 +0000

I know this is late, but just in case any other struggling mom’s find this…I went through a very similar ordeal. Had trouble with the latch, baby down almost a pound at hospital discharge, went to a lactation consultant, breastfeed like crazy, and he still had a hard time gaining the weight. It took a bit over 2 weeks for him to get to birth weight.
1. Definitely see a lactation consultant. Some things that helped from that were power pumping to increase my supply (Pump for 10 min, rest for ten min…repeat for an hour…do this for 3 days)
2. Supplement! I used Yogi mother’s milk or w/e it’s called at first then switched to “Motherlove More Milk Plus” within 24 hours of starting the Motherlove product my boobs LEAKED for the first time.
3. I read a lot about the issue! This is a GREAT website
http://www.lowmilksupply.org/

By: Sara

Sara — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 05:46:53 +0000

I’m pumping right now! lol

By: tobasco

tobasco — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 02:40:53 +0000

You need to see a lactation consultant, end of story. There are so many things that could be going awry here, and since this is not your first time breast feeding then you know what normal breast feeding looks like.

Pediatricians do NOT get ANY breast feeding lessons in their schooling. most of what they know if personal experience or what they heard along the line – unless they took personal time to seek out lactation consultant training. Many of them mean well, but they end up giving crappy ‘advice’.

By: Sara

Sara — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 16:32:50 +0000

We had to supplement for a few days with donor breastmilk. Our hospital has a milk bank and if I’d needed it after we’d gone home, I could have gone back to get more. Might be worth checking on! I would not have been ok supplementing with formula but the donor milk was a great option.

By: NicoleT

NicoleT — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 14:05:43 +0000

I second Kesa’s comment… I had a similar experience with my son, and in retrospect, the SNS would have been the better solution (using pumped milk rather than formula). I don’t think my son was getting enough hindmilk – as he was sleepy all the time, and would fall asleep after getting the sugar-rich foremilk, he never got to the good stuff.

GET THEE TO AN LC ASAP! Or at the very least, to a La Leche meeting to commiserate!

By: CM

CM — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 01:05:45 +0000

Like Jen F., no new advice here, but I am so impressed with your perseverance and your commitment to do what’s best for your baby. Best of luck getting the feeding issues resolved, and I hope you get that much-deserved rest!

By: jen f.

jen f. — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:58:59 +0000

everyone else has offered great advice so i just want to let you know how great you are doing!! sometimes new moms dont hear that enough, but you are giving up so much to be able to maintain milk supply and do what is best for your baby. Smoking Crayolas Blogspot

By: Katie

Katie — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:53:35 +0000

I had the same problem! My daughter took around a month to get up to her birth weight and beyond. Starting at a week or so of age, we supplemented with 3 bottles of formula a day, spaced out pretty evenly over 24 hours. I pumped at least two of those times to work on getting my supply up. I also tried really hard to eat and drink enough. Once she got up to weight, we cut back on supplementing, but we kept doing 1 bottle of formula per day right before we wanted to go to bed because then we got a long stretch of sleep!

I remember it being SO hard and worrying, so I feel your pain! Keep at it, it should get better! Good luck!

By: Stacia Reichelt

Stacia Reichelt — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 23:47:51 +0000

I second, third, whatever – all the comments about possible oversupply and block feeding, even expressing and ounce or two before putting him on the boob so he gets more of the hindmilk. My daughter never had a problem with weight gain, but had major gas/tummy problems due to my oversupply. At one point I was going through 5 or more breast pads PER BOOB a day. I started block feeding and if it was getting really painful I’d just squeeze out a tad in the shower instead of emptying. It evened itself out.

If your supply does get low, you can always take fenugreek or drink Mother’s Milk tea to help, but you should be ok. Whenever I did/do pump, I watched tv/got on the internet/read a magazine so I at least felt like I was getting something else done.

Definitely consult a lactation consultant to see if there are any latch issues too. And if after all that you need to supplement with formula for a little while, sobeit. I think in your situation anything all these ladies suggested should fix the problem, but at the end of the day your son’s health is what’s important no matter what you need to do to achieve it! Good luck mama

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 23:26:55 +0000

I had issues with my supply from the beginning. My baby had a hard time gaining weight and is still small, though happy and content. Pump when you can, feed when you can, bottle when you have to. My husband and pedi said the best thing I could do for him would be to give up the guilt. Formula fed babies can still be president!

By: Christa

Christa — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:48:57 +0000

With my firstborn, I had a hard time with milk supply so I would nurse and then supplement after nursing with organic formula. For whatever reason, through lots of tears, heartaches and feelings of failure, I just wasn’t making enough milk and he wasn’t gaining enough to make my doctor happy. With my second I found hand pumping while watching a movie to be preferable to my Medela electric. One thing I was told by my doctor is that babies don’t digest formula as easily so they stay full longer. Really not sure if it’s true or just what I observed, but if we gave our baby a bottle of formula after nursing he slept longer at night. Good luck.

By: Megan

Megan — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 21:52:26 +0000

I think that Danielle’s advice is excellent. A very close friend of mine just had a baby in August and was having this exact problem. She would nurse the baby and then after each daytime feed, pump until she got at least 2 ounces and then give the baby the breast milk bottle. Her little guy gained 8 oz in 3 days doing this. She also sought out the help of a lactation consultant and it turns out her little guy was having latch issues.

Best of luck to you!