Expressing and Boob Refusnik

[raedrenn]

My nearly 9 week old DS has had trouble feeding since birth. He had a tongue-tie which was snipped at 2 weeks and was re-admitted to hospital with weigh t loss. His latch has never really picked up properly but we have perservered now for 2 months with bf and ebm/formula top-ups. The problem is I can't get him to stay on boob once flow slows down and he won't go on left boob unless half-asleep and obvioolsy prefers a bottle. We have resigned ourselves to all these problems and I promise myself to keep feeding just one more day... Anyway, the question is! I am expressing 3x a day and generally getting loads. How long can I carry this on if he isn't bf off me? (Which he has refused to do the last 2 days

Btw - now has great weight gain and is a happy wee chappy

Well done for sticking with it. You can carry on expressing - maybe up it to 4 times a day - or whatever it needs to keep enough supply (I did it for my twins for 9 months). sometime soon the supply become demand driven (rather than hormonal I think) - so you need to maintain demand either by him feeding or you expressing.

I would still try feeding him directly - and maybe just expressing after he has had a feed, to stimulate supply and get enough to top him up. As he gets bigger he should find feeding easier, and maybe get quicker at it - so it maybe he is getting enough from a quick feed.

I guess you have tried different positions ? - the rugby ball was best for mine when they were not latching well.

Thanks for your support.

The rugby ball works sometimes on the left but I've also found sliding him over is quite good so he's facing he same way as on the right (need lots of cushions) can fool him occasionly.

I do offer him the boob at every feed and try to keep him going as long as possible before topping up and then expressing in the morning, afternoon and last thing at night. I will keep on and hope milk supply stays with me. Every few days I do extra expressing and drink milkmaid tea to keep it up