No milk no we're home? What happened? What do I do?

[Mibby]

Hi

Baby was born Monday morning, got bf going in hospital, monday was a bit hit n miss but several consecutive good feeds tuesday then wednesday the nurses kept interupting us to do checks before they let us out. Got home about 4pm yesterday, couple of good feeds about 5/7pm then its gone to pot, lots of screaming/ wouldnt latch overnight and this morning. Tried expressing after lunch and there seems to be almost nothing there, I've resulted to formula in desparation to get something down her. Any ideas?

mibby i would ring one of the breastfeeding lines if I were you and speak to a breastfeeding counsello

your milk may not have come in yet, which would explain why you can't express much/anything
that's ok, but you need to be feeding baby as frequently as possible to get that milk to come in and to get a good supply going, so obviously you need some help if baby won't latch on

whereabouts are you? perhaps a breastfeeding counsellor could come out?
or your midwife if she is clued up on BF?

Has your milk actually come in yet? Do your breasts feel full and swollen? What you can express bears no relation to what's in there anyway. I suspect the best advice here is to feed feed feed and hold off with the formula, but no doubt someone with some expertise will be along to help you soon :)

i ebf and couldn't express until a few weeks in, don't worry, if he is weeing he is getting enough! my milk didn't come until day 4 so he was hungry on day 3 and lost more than 10% weight, but we didn't give formula and he soon caught up when milk came in. Epiurals/ c-section can delay milk.

Breasts still really soft, does that mean what she was getting was colostrum not milk? She latched and sucked earlier but i cant tell if shes getting much out and she gets really cross/ screams after a few min. Will look up a counsellor and see what they say

yes that's all normal

colostrum is only produced in tiny amounts, and it's totally normal for her to be getting a bit antsy by now and wanting to feed a LOT!

i think by day 4 all 3 of mine were wanting feeding every 30 mins or so! i was very glad when my milk came in on day 5

if she will latch on then just keep doing that. she will be getting colostrum. there is no need to offer formula

LadyViper I didnt know that. I had an epidural, that might be it

Your milk probably didn't come in yet (you will feel your breasts 'swollen' and full). It will within next couple of days. Try to feed as much as possible and don't stress.

Im in tears now guys, thought it was just me. Thank you

you also need to make sure that you are getting plenty of calories in you - none of that wishy-washy low-fat nonsense

eat cake

lots and lots of cake

You will so know about it when your milk comes in! Keep her close to you, skin to skin is best, and offer her the breast frequently. Great excuse to strip her down to a nappy and take her to bed for cuddles! But do take thisisyesterday's advice and phone one of the helplines for some reassurance.

we dont do low fat. This is a high-chocolate house :)

I agree sounds like milk not quite come in yet, you will def know when it does! Will take quite a few weeks for everything to settle down.

Lots and lots of feeding on demand, dont try to structure feeds, lots of cuddles and lots of the chocolate :-)

Please can I just add - you may not get the swollen hot breasts at all when the milk comes - I didn't with either of my two. I just fed the babies lots in the first few days and at some point the milk must have come in - I didn't notice when and I never even leaked until after 8 weeks. I had plenty of milk though. Just wanted to let you know in case the same happened to you!

Agree with Golden - I didn't really get engorged or leaky when my milk came in. However, have been successfully breastfeeding for 12 months :)

Have done several hours skin to skin and had some sucessful latches and we've both calmed down so hopefully milk will be 'in' soon. Have drunk pints of squash too as felt very thirsty all morning and colostrum is back so shes getting something

Keep up the fluid intake and eat flapjacks - big, sticky, gooey, chocolatey flapjacks are the best ones.

I sat on here (with DD latched) in floods of tears on night 4 because she wanted to feed constantly but never seemed satisfied. Eventually she slept. By the following afternoon was sending DH to supermarket for cabbage leaves as I'd turned into Jordan as the milk appeared!

Keep going, you're doing great!

well done Mibby thats great, keep doing that and it will get your supply going, you're doing fantastically!

Great news Mibby- stick at it now and just keep offering the breast often.

Do drink to thirst and whilst obviously the calories are helpful to your own well being and recovery postbirth, they won't make your milk any better in quality of quantity. (but chocolate flapjacks are rather delish admittedly)

Crikeybadger - I do have to disagree with you I'm afraid - IME calories will make the milk better - if you are going to produce a nice fatty milk then the easiest way for your body to do this is to use the fats you have just eaten - not to have to expend energy breaking down your fat reserves. when BF mothers get stomach upsets and can't eat for several days the babies do get grumpy - because they are not getting so much fat through the milk.

looks like we all agree though on the psychological benefits of eating chocolate, cakes and flapjacks!

uh no sorry, thelittlebluepills- this is a well perpetrated myth.

Otherwise, why would women in developing countries on the verge of malnutrition be able to breastfeed their babies successfully?

i agree with crikey in that I've read that it's the mums fat reserves that make the milk,not what is currently being eaten. BUT if mum's just given birth and is up all night looking after a LO then she needs to eat well so that she feels better herself.

I don't think the food you eat goes straight into producing breastmilk either - read on here the other day that it's fat stores that are used anyway.

bluepills - you said: "if you are going to produce a nice fatty milk then the easiest way for your body to do this is to use the fats you have just eaten - not to have to expend energy breaking down your fat reserves. when BF mothers get stomach upsets and can't eat for several days the babies do get grumpy - because they are not getting so much fat through the milk. "

Wrong, in every way, sorry :)

It is easy for the body to use fat stores to make milk. Where do you get the idea from that somehow the body uses fats instantly for the breastmilk? Our bodies just don't work that way. Fat content varies not a jot with the amount of fat eaten by the mother and not a jot in 'speed' of making it, either. So timing makes no difference. (Type of fat varies with diet - not an issue.)

Yes, sometimes mothers notice a difference in their bf after they have been ill themselves and it does seem there is a bit of a drop in quantity which can annoy some babies. The fat content will be unaffected. It's probably because a sick mother's physiological functioning generally is affected by being sick - it's quickly remedied by frequent feeding.

Lots of references for this if you are interested :)

Midwife has just been, seems my milk is here but not vast quantities so have a schedule to feed/ express and some nipple shields to improve latch. Seems my inverted nipples are causing problems again :( She was hopeful its all fixable tho