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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

Is there an 'extended' breastfeeding support thread?

652 replies

Unrulysun · 22/05/2011 11:48

Or would I be better off on LLL?

Just read the 'school-age children' thread with interest but didn't want to derail :)

dd is 1 today so it's not 'extended' bf by any normal definition but judging by the number of 'Are you going to carry on breastfeeding her?' (yes because otherwise she'll be composed primarily of grapes) conversations I've had inflicted on me in the last week I think I'm going to need all the support I can get Grin

so proud we made it this far - ha ha!

OP posts:
organiccarrotcake · 23/05/2011 10:15

Teehee - yes, I meant 10.5 months.

everyspring · 23/05/2011 10:20

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

organiccarrotcake · 23/05/2011 10:22

Oh, to us too. He only started to take solids after that so before that it was all down to my poor, bruised nips :(

ensure · 23/05/2011 10:23

unsurerightnow DD was 8 weeks early too. I well remember sitting up at 3am with my hired hospital grade pump!

MummyBerryJuice · 23/05/2011 10:26

truthsweet I missed that you are an MS. I am too. Imdid my initial peer support training with the Infant Feeding coordinator in the trust but went on to do MS training with the ABM and am starting BFC training too.

organic I found the MS training more in depth than the peer support training I received BUT I would think that it probably is the same or very similar to the LLL peer support training. I chose ABM training because It is correspondence and at this stage it would be difficult for me to travel with DS regularly to attend sessions in York with the NCT.

organiccarrotcake · 23/05/2011 10:29

mummy and truthsweet I trained with Little Angels (West Yorks) but I'm also going with ABM for BFC, although I have to do MS first. Are you going to conference?

MummyBerryJuice · 23/05/2011 10:35

I wish I was Sad but we are running a ante-natal breastfeeding workshop that day. Will definitely be attending next year when it is in the North though.

KD0706 · 23/05/2011 10:37

I'd like to join you all too. Am a bit daunted by the length of the thread.

DD is 13 mo. Not sure how often she feeds, probably somewhere between 4-6 times a day. No signs of giving up and I'm not keen to force her.

Like ensure and unsurerightnow DD was prem and I feel bf was so hard won that I would be mad I think to give up early.

DD doesn't nipple tweak but she does like twiddling my hair when feeding.
The other week she also helped herself for the first time. We were slobbing on a Sunday morning and she pulled up my pj top and had a feed. Don't want to encourage that really but I did find it funny at the time

organiccarrotcake · 23/05/2011 10:43

KD I think that's funny. If I sit on the bed in the morning before I get dressed, my DS crawls over, climbs in my lap and helps himself. I'm expecting it now but the first few times both DH and I found it really funny.

everyspring · 23/05/2011 11:09

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Okonomiyaki · 23/05/2011 11:15

This is a great thread. My ds is only 6.5 months but rather than just lurk I've decided to out myself Wink as a wannabe natural term breastfeeder! You are all fabulous examples.

Can I ask about dp's reactions to and feelings around long term bf'ing? My dh is aware of my opinions and while he is happy for me to do what I think best for our ds he wouldn't bat an eyelid if I stopped and I do wonder how he will feel the longer we continue.

Oh, and one other question if I may...currently we are planning to wait to FTC no. 2 until ds self weans, however I am fascinated by (and very admiring of) those of you who are tandem feeding. I know that milk is produced to suit the youngest nurseling, but what about quantity? Do you have to go through the whole building up supply, pinned to the sofa nurseathons thing again?

Okonomiyaki · 23/05/2011 11:16

FTC? TTC obviously!

KD0706 · 23/05/2011 11:23

Was wondering what FTC was... Smile

I'm thinking I might look up my local LLL as even at just 13mo I do feel a little out of it for 'still' BFing DD.

It's lovely 'chatting' with other longer term BFers.

organiccarrotcake · 23/05/2011 11:25

FTC Grin

jbcbj · 23/05/2011 11:49

oko - i nursed my dd through all my pg, milk supply dropped for a while but then my colostrum came in and she seemed to love that. There was no necessity to build supply up - in fact i was able to express colostrum in case i had the same initial problems with the new one that i did when she was born (i didn't, he latched on and stayed on!!! Grin). feeding her as well also seemed to help reduce the discomfort associated with milk coming in; i don't recall feeling any real engorgement or feverishness. DS doesn't cluster feed in the evenings as much as DD did - whether that is his character or because supply was already there i don't know. i don't know if that answers your question...but i do think that tandem feeding really helped in the early weeks of DS's life and certainly enabled me to build up a sizeable stash of (sadly unused) colostrum.

sadly i got recurrent mastitis and could not cope with feeding DD as well as DS (she has a lip-tie, i have raynauds in my nips, and it has always been painful) so she very rarely nurses now but seems happy with that. She is only 2 years and 2 months so a baby compared to some of you amazing ladies on here. i did make her a bm ice-lolly the other day though so she is still getting some of my milk!! Grin

msbuggywinkle · 23/05/2011 11:56

I found that my supply dropped at 20 weeks last time round (it hasn't dropped yet this time round, I'm 10wks pregnant) and colostrum came in at 30 weeks. DD1 seemed oblivious! Nursing two, well DD1 went back to exclusive bfing so my milk came in in about 36hrs and I could have fed a third as well as my two! I found that nursing them t the same time helped as DD1 would make the milk let down, DD2 didn't have to work very hard!

DP is as much of an advocate for bfing as I am, his family history has lots of collitis, IBS and colon cancer so he loves that bfing reduces the risk of these.

Babieseverywhere · 23/05/2011 12:14

Okonomiyak, I nursed through one pregnancy and tandem nursed through another.

What happens to your milk regarding quantity varies mother to mother. I found that my milk came in faster when I was nursing DD1 when DS was born.

When I was nursing DD1 and DS when DD2 arrived I found the milk came in within hours. DD2 never displayed any of the cluster feeding evening feeds nor any growth spurts marathon feeding, which my first two children did. She was strictly both sides once every four hours kinda girl and likes her sleep too.

I have never run out (except late in pregnancy) yet, so the quantity must be right :)

RidinOnAPig · 23/05/2011 13:13

So I have a question. Judging by how quickly this many people have replied about 'extended' breastfeeding, I'm guessing it goes on more than I'm aware. At 11 months I am one of the only mothers I know who's carried on past the 6 month mark, and I live in a very bf friendly area. Anyway in my round-about way of asking, do others know you're breastfeeding?

MummyBerryJuice · 23/05/2011 13:22

Oh yes, I make no secret of my breastfeeding but as I am forrin, I have a very small group of friends over here and those I spend most time with are also 'extended breastfeeders'. My IL's are a but Hmm about it but they are about most of my parenting choices so . My mum would probably have something to say about it too but I told her from the off that I was planning to feed for at least 2 years so I ore emoted that one and she is just so happy to see DS when she does (lives in SA) that she doesn't bother commenting on other things. Grin

MummyBerryJuice · 23/05/2011 13:27

msbuggy come join us on here

It isn't nearly as fast moving as this one but we could definitely do with your experience.

TruthSweet · 23/05/2011 13:33

MBJ/OCC - I'm going to the conference - paid for my ticket last night!! Very excited to see Wendy Jones. I went to the LLL enrichment day in March in London and spoke to Kathleen Kendall Tackett She is a colleague of TOM HALES and she was going to pass on my thanks to him for the many times his books/forums have saved me from 'having' to wean!!!

I'm such a bfing groupie Blush

I found the LLL PS training very different to the MS training as you could sit in the PS training and come away with understanding very little about bfing (no exam bar a small test at the end to check if you have actually paid attention in training) but could still be supporting mothers. Whereas the MS training meant that everything you wrote down you had to show references and back up why you said what you did.

Example answer from my MS module:-

  1. If a mother gets an infection, should she stop breastfeeding?

No - unless the infection is TB (and mother is infectious and is not taking medication), HIV (where the infection has occurred post-birth or where formula feeding is acceptable, feasible, affordable, sustainable and safe), human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 or 2 infection, latent cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection (if the baby was under 32 weeks gestation when born - though breastfeeding may be done but may be 'controversial').

a. What is the reason for your answer?

A mother who weans whilst infected risks her infant getting the illness. This is as they will be without the benefit of the maternal antibodies the mother is making against her own illness (they may get the illness whether the mother weans or not but as formula has additional risks breastfeeding would still be the better option). Additionally the mother may well have been infected some time before appearing to be ill so baby will have been exposed before detection of illness.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2095084/
www.kellymom.com/health/illness/mom-illness.html#htlv
www.ncemch.org/pubs/PDFs/BreastfeedingTIB.pdf
www.avert.org/hiv-breastfeeding.htm

I got nowhere near that level of information from my LLL training although to be fair if I had wanted to put a few lines for each question I'm sure I could have done but I appear to have diarrhea of the mouth when it comes to bfing Blush

I'm really looking forward to my BFC training and just can't wait to get started.

WoTmania · 23/05/2011 13:38

Ridin - most people who know me know I'm 'still' BF DD as she nurses lots and is very vocal about asking but would propbably been surprised to hear I was still BF DS2.

People who aren't friends wouldn't know unless they got into a discussion re:extended BF with me

bigmouthstrikesagain · 23/05/2011 13:44

Hi - I am coming closer to the end of my brastfeeding years dd2 is now 2.5yo and I am only feeding her at bedtime and in the morning (she crawls into my bed sometime between 4-7am most mornings - I am not always conscious!). If we continue till Aug I will have been breastfeeding for 7 years in total (3 children from 2.5 to nearly 7) with one 2 month gap between stopping feeding dd1 and dd2 arriving on the scene. So I have experienced extended feeding, tandem feeding, feeding while pregnant and several bouts of Mastitis.

It is not something many talk about in toddler groups - treated somewhat like a secret not exactly shameful but something you are not always comfortable to share with people, I certainly didn't tend to feed my children after the age of 1yo - mainly because they were more interested in their surroundings than settling down for a feed - invariably the daytime feeds were first to go - and the bedtime feeds the last.

I am glad there are forums such as this one allowing us to share experiences though. Smile

organiccarrotcake · 23/05/2011 13:47

truthsweet hurrah! And I could have written your post re groupie etc PMSL.

See you there! I'll wear a red carnation and carry a newspaper (the Daily Mail as it has all the best bfing coverage Grin)

MummyBerryJuice · 23/05/2011 13:53

truth I am very Envy I wish I was going too! It is nice to hear that you thought the MS training was more in-depth too. I think the fact that you personally have to research and reference your answers is a major advantage to the MS training. It gives you a really good overview of the whole area of bf support too.

(Which reminds me, I really need to get going on my Transitional Module)