Aibu to stop breastfeeding for 12 days and think I'll be able to restart?

[Greycloudspinkclouds]

Hello, posting here looking for some success stories to give me some hope. Or perhaps something else.

I have to have some strong medication for 10 days and cannot breastfeed on it. Then a day or two for it to leave my system.

My baby is 5.5 months and exclusively breastfed. I started the medication yesterday so she started on bottles and formula then. Luckily she took it happily.

I am feeling so desperately sad about stopping. I want to restart as soon as I can, and go back to just breastfeeding. I am trying to pump several times a day (throwing the milk away obviously) and feed her with the bottle in the same position I breastfeed her in. And be the only one who feeds her.

So wanted to ask:

• any success stories from anyone who has had to interrupt breastfeeding then managed to go back to exclusively breastfeeding?

• any top tips?

• aibu to hope that we can just pick up where we left off in 12 days?

Background: I have never had problems with milk supply or latch with her or with the other children I've breastfed to 1+ years old. The consultants were very very clear that I categorically cannot give her my milk with these drugs in, so no chance possibly at all.

Disclaimer: absolutely no criticism of anyone who bottle-feeds for choice or otherwise. I know it's not the end of the world if she stays on formula it's just I love breastfeeding and can't bear it to have finished.

Yep this is doable if you keep pumping in the meantime. My milk supply dropped when I exclusively pumped for a few months with DC1, but there is a method called power pumping where you can increase your supply.

The UK relactation support group on Facebook has good info but most people on there are going from zero milk so I never posted in case it made them feel bad, but the tips in there are really useful if you have any milk supply at all.
Good luck x

Yes as long as you keep pumping to keep your milk in and you do paced feeding you should be fine. Some babies have a strong preference for either breast or bottle and will start to refuse one but many babies happily go between the two (mine included whose had to be combi fed due to low milk supply).

pumping and throwing away the milk will be hard but it’s only for two weeks. At least you won’t have to worry about cleaning and sterilising the pump parts and bottles!

Thank you so much for your hopeful reply @PeekabooAtTheZoo ! Great will check out power pumping.

Can I ask if your baby was able to relatch onto the breast after exclusively having pumped milk?

Oh and in terms of success, I went from almost zero supply at 7 months to exclusively breastfeeding for all his drinks by 10 months again, and went onto feed him for the whole 2 years in the end (he self weaned when I was a few months pg with DC2), so it is definitely possible to get bf back back from this!

You need to pump like a maniac, but it's doable. I had to stop for 8 days and it was OK but I pumped every single time the baby ate and an extra time or two each day as pumping isn't quite as effective as the true let down reflex with a baby.

Tipping the milk away was a bummer, though - all that effort.

Sorry X post, yes I was able to get him to latch again. I just did what I did when he was first born, squeeze a bit of milk onto the nipple, nipple-to-nose, and latched him, he was a bit confused for a couple of days and I was really upset because I thought it was all over but he got there in the end.

I had a break of 4 days when unwell. It was OK and baby went back feeding fine. Would also double check with the breastfeeding drugs network they have the specialistinformationmore then consultants (you can message or email them)

We did pace feed the bottles using a slower teet so he had to work for it which helped (Google pace feeding) and I was pumping where I could. You will need to pump about every 3-4ish hours to keep supply up including 1 overnight (you can keep this for baths just mark it up).

Relactation is much much harder then pumping.
When going back to it I offered frequent feeds and lots of skin to skin first few days was lots to boost supply back up

@CheeseIsMyPatronus amazing, thank you! I will get pumping!!!

@PeekabooAtTheZoo that's amazing that he could relatch after months. Gives me a bit of confidence. I am feeling incredibly upset at the moment so trying to focus on the end point

Do lots of skin to skin to keep your supply up.

There is a relactation device that is basically a long straw you tape close to your nipple and the other end goes into a bottle of formula as the baby nurses they get milk from the formula but also restimulates your own milk supply

Have you checked the drug and lactation database to check that you definitely can't breastfeed? IME medics are often overly cautious and advise against breastfeeding when you can actually continue. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK501922/

Fenugreek if you think your supply is going down. Lots. Supposedly until your urine smells like maple syrup, though mine never did.

The link I posted doesn't seem to bring up the search facility to look up the drug you're on. If you Google 'drug and lactation database' it will take you to the correct page.

What’s the medication? There are very few that you can’t take while breastfeeding

This, I would double check as I have known incorrect advice given by medics in the past. Call The Breastfeeding Network to be absolutely sure.

A friend of mine had to take a trip abroad when her ebf baby was about 4 months and she had to leave him behind. Luckily he accepted a bottle from dad in her absence.

She pumped like a demon for the length of her trip (just over a week) and her baby latched and fed with no issues at all when she returned home.

Breastfeeding Network

Absolutely possible.

I stopped breastfeeding entirely at 3 weeks with DD1 and then relactated at 16 weeks. The milk returned within 48 hours.

Yes I think will be possible. You may find supply drops with pumping but as long as there is some milk, you will be able to increase supply back up afterwards. Lots of babies don’t have fussiness over breast/bottle and after your break I’d just keep offering breast first when hungry.

Currently doing exact same! Although my baby is older I don’t feel ready to stop so after the course of medication (6days) I’m just going to see if she goes back on. I’m pumping in mean time and dumping.

Some of my info may be out of date as I was expressing all feeds for my baby more than ten years ago. I was on a forum for others in the same situation. I never did get that baby to breastfeed but she had medical issues which made it challenging. But I do know all about pumping!

If you want it to be easy to resume breastfeeding, you need to be expressing a lot more frequently, and prioritising it: you said "trying" to pump several times a day. That is better than nothing, but your supply will take a hit. Pumps are rarely as efficient at removing milk as babies are, so you need to express more often than you would have breastfed. And you need to make sure you do it, even at the expense of other things. The good news is that it doesn't much matter when you do it - it doesn't have to be to a schedule and doesn't have to match when you normally BF your baby. But if you can, avoid having a huge gap without expressing at any point in the day.

From my own experience and that of others on the forum, I remember that dropping the night feed or night expressing session could often result in a (usually irreversible) hormone shift which triggered the return of periods and caused a long-term drop in supply. For people who were exclusively expressing, this was often the beginning of the end and it was incredibly hard to increase supply once that had happened. So you really want to avoid that by pumping more often. I know it's hard, but it's only 12 days for you, so knuckle down!

It may be a bit short notice for you to arrange, but you'll get better results and spend less time attached to the pump if you can get access to a high-grade double pump. In general you get what you pay for, so you wouldn't want to BUY one for many hundreds of pounds, but you might see if you can hire one, which shouldn't be too expensive for this short time. I saw a huge difference in results between the massive £800 pump I borrowed from the hospital and the portable £150 pump they later lent me. A double pump is really helpful too. Not only does it cut your expressing time in half, but it also stimulates milk production better than doing first one breast and then the other. My theory is that double-pumping tricks your body into thinking that you have twins!

I second a PP's advice to use a slow-flow teat on the bottle so your baby has to work hard for the milk. One reason some babies refuse the breast after being bottle-fed is that the bottle gives instant gratification. You may have to try a number of slow-flow teats to find one which is strong enough to withstand the suck of an older baby without collapsing.

Thank you so much everyone for your replies. This thread has really boosted me. My late response is due to trying to juggle getting better, pumping, getting baby to take formula in a bottle!

@IreneJones and @bloodywhitecat thanks for the links to check. I emailed the breastfeeding network and have had excellent and detailed advice from them. They seem to think the risks are low and that breastfeeding on my medication is 'probably compatible'. It is just very hard when I have been told absolutely not. I don't want to put my baby at risk and once someone introduces the doubt. The constant pumping and not being able to respond with a boob to my baby is hindering my recovery though. And not feeding her is heartbreaking.

Nice to know that someone else is currently doing the same!! How is it going?

I just hope that my baby doesn't lose her breastfeeding reflexes and we can get back to normal after the 12 (11 now!) days. I'm really struggling with not being able to respond with the breast, I normally feed her so often in the day. I'm using a slow flow teat and holding her in the position I normally feed her, and it's only me who's giving her the milk.

For those who also interrupted feeding for a bit, did you go straight back to fully breastfeeding or did you have to phase out the formula bottles? And was feeding the baby the same afterwards, physically and emotionally? I fear I'm changing my relationship with my baby and we won't get back to the sync and rhythm that we had.

With us it was very gradual replacing one bottle at a time and took 3 months but that was because I had been exclusively pumping for 4 months and my supply was down to about 200ml a day, periods had returned, the full shebang, so I had to increase my supply again carefully.

I really feel for you with being told not to bf while on medication, I’ve been told the same so they are refusing to prescribe my meds at all, despite BFN saying they are safe. My dd2 is 12 months so I’m probably going to have to stop before she is ready this time. 😭 I hope you are able to get back to it.