quantity not quality of breatmilk?

[ladyhamilton]

does anyone know why this happened to me and dd? i assumed i would breastfeed and for the first couple of days, before my milk came in properly, we did ok. i got a bit nibbled but MW showed me how to position and it was fine. then i got engorged and she wouldn't latch on. screamed, scratched me, refused to feed. MW had her on standby to go to hospital if she wouldn't take a bottle - which she did, no problem, so crisis over. thereafter i did get her to latch on and continued to breastfeed but, feeling more than a bit sleep deprived and because she would feed for 2 hours at a time, i always gave her formula for the middle of the night feed. the thing is she would bf for, as i said, 2 hours then within half an hour she would be screaming for more food. i checked that she was taking milk not just comfort suckling and she was a good sucker. i was beside myself. as an experiment when she was 4 weeks old i expressed 6 -7 oz of breastmilk and gave it to her in a bottle so i could be sure how much she was taking. she drank it straight down. 20 minutes later she was screaming again. i gave her another bottle, 5 oz of ready made formula, and then she was fine. happy and calm until next feed about 3 - 4 hours later. WHY????? did she need feeds of more than 10 oz at that age? was my milk just water? what the heck was going on!!!!

As you dobtless already know, tiny babies love the comfort of bf'ing as well as the actual physical need for the milk - so it is quite normal for them to want to be more or less permanently attached for the first few weeks. There is definitely nothing wrong with the quality of your milk - the only reason she appeared satisfied after the bottle of formula is because formula is more filling than breast milk (due to the fillers etc).

I think it is Mears who has a theory that breastfed babies will always take formula even after a good breast feed as it is like us suddenly getting room for pudding after a heavy meal. Not so much that they need it as can manage it. Breastmilk is more easily digested so bf babies do tend to feed more frequently and one feed rolls into another in the early weeks. However I do wonder whether that midwife really gave you sufficient support to enable you to satisfy your baby longer term - threats of readmission to hospital aren't very constructive and undermine self belief.

thanks for your comments. when would you expect the breast feeds to stop rolling into one and the intervals between them to start lengthening?
on the supbject of MW support, i was quite happy with it and perversely the knowledge that if necessary my bairn could be readmitted was something i found reassuring rather than the opposite. to be honest the thing that was undermining me was absolute exhaustion. it seemed as if she needed to be breastfeeding almost 100% of the time 24 hours a day and i was on my knees with tiredness. even my vision was going - when i looked at the mantlepiece it used to dance from side to side. i was astonished that she could be screaming for more food just 20 minutes after a big bottle of breast milk - i'd used the bottle so that i could be sure of how much she'd taken - and i did find that extremely demoralising. i should say that my mind is very focussed on this at the moment because, at 40, i'm pregnant with twins. i am more than convinced of the advantages of breatfeeding over bottle and will certainly give it a good crack, but feel that the effort might be the end of me (i exaggerate, but the dancing mantlepiece did give me a bit of a fright!)

Also it only takes 90mins to digest breast milk. My DS always seemed to be attatched to my boob at that age

Think things became more distinct between 6 and 8 weeks - very hazy recollection though !

Round about 12 weeks I suddenly thought Wow, I have a life back and began to be able to do things between breastfeeds instead of being permanently stuck to the couch.
I have a good friend who is still breastfeeding twins at 18 months old, if you want to know any more about that I may be able to get her to email you!