Bottle Feeding then switching to Breast - 5 day old - ADVICE NEEDED!

[yelnats]

My best friend had her baby early hours of Friday morning. She initially wanted to breast feed but didnt like it at the first feed so decided to formula feed. However she has now decided that she wants to breast feed. She has tried a couple of times to put her to her breast but her dd doesnt seem interested. I have told her the usual stuff about plenty of skin to skin and trying every time she appears hungry. On the advice of her midwife she bought a breastpump yesterday and this morning has successfully expressed 3oz.

Any advice on what she should do to increase her supply and get her dd interested in feeding from her rather than the bottle.

(I'm at work so grateful if anyone wants to keep this thread bumped for me).

[yelnats]

COME ON SHE NEEDS YOUR HELP!!

[VictorianSqualor]

Basically what you say, as much skin-to-skin as possible, let baby suckle everytime it wants to, try going to bed with baby for a day or two and let baby stay latched on.

I don't really know much about this type of situation so I'll just keep it bumped as much as I can.

[fletchaaarr]

Lots of skin to skin

Anybody got a link to the babycrawl video?

A local bf expert from LLL or NCT or ABM?

erm

Will go and see if I can find links

What area of the country is she in?

[yelnats]

thanks for your posts and please keep bumping for me this afternoon - lunch almost over so will try and pop on at 5 before I leave the office then get back on later tonight when I get home. I want to try and get as much advice for her as possible to try and encourage her as much as I can.

Just hope she forgets me telling her about my wonky boobs and the almost toddler who doesnt want to stop feeding!! lol

[yelnats]

She is Ayrshire - Scotland.

[yelnats]

She is Ayrshire - Scotland.

[VictorianSqualor]

breastcrawl video
The numbers for all the helplines are on my profile.

[VictorianSqualor]

here is a good link for kellymom on the subject.

[hunkermunker]

Get her to ring a breastfeeding counsellor.

Supply-wise - what's been said already - feed as much as possible, lots of skin to skin.

Great she's expressed 3oz already!

[fletchaaarr]

3 oz expressed impressed me too!

[tiktok]

Good stuff already on this thread - putting to the breast 'a couple of times' is no good at all though....she has not left it too late, by any means, but this is much too half-hearted and would be even without the 5 day gap.

Skin to skin and baby 'wearing' is more important than the expressing at this stage....yes, expressing may be necessary in the short term, to rescue the milk supply. but there is a real risk she will judge her breastfeeding success by what she can produce for the pump, rather than her baby's behaviour.

Her midwife should be helping her and reiterating all the stuff said on here.

[yelnats]

Oh I do know Tiktok is a BF expert!

Thanks everyone for all the advice. I will phone her tomorrow and try and advise her - I dont want to push her as I dont really know how commited she is to this - will need to try and see her as its difficult to tell on the phone.

Has anyone got any personal experience of this being successful?

[yelnats]

No I wont be risking our friendship - she has been my best friend since we were 3 years old but she is as deep as the ocean - she doesnt give much away - even to me! I love her to pieces and really want her to support her to BF but only if it's what she wants. I BF dd1 for 3 days then stopped and had I know that it was possible to feed her again after a day or so off then I would def have given it another go but no one told me and I didnt know about mumsnet at the time either. And well dd2 is another story - Im now struggling to stop feeding her! lol