Two bf questions that are totally unrelated

[Eglu]

DD, my third child is 3 days old. My milk has just come in and I'm in agony. I can't remember how long the hideous engorged feeling goes on for, pleas tell me not too long.

Secondly she already seems to be looking to suck her fingers and I'm wondering if I would wreck her feeding if I gave her a dummy, as I'd prefer that to fingers, at least I can take it away. I have met people who bf and gave dummies. But I don' know when they gave them.

Congratulations on the new baby :)

I can?t remember how long it lasted for me, so that makes me think it can?t have been that long. Vague answer for you, sorry!

Re dummies, it?s generally recommended you don?t give them till your supply is established ? is around about 5/6 weeks.

Thank you. Couldn't sleep last night as my boobs are the size of watermelons and very sore. Hopefully it won't be long as she is at least feeding well.

For me it had gone within a week I'm fairly sure. Cabbage leaves or those gel packs you can put in the freezer are good.

Dummy introductions are one of those things you'll get mixed views on. BTW Ds was a finger sucker and wasn't interested in a dummy, then he graduated to thumb sucking at 3 months (both at the same time!) and gave up himself at 5 months, has never gone back to it. So don't worry if you don't use a dummy, it might not be a problem in the future.

DS2 sucked his thumb when he was tiny. I offered him the breast when I saw him doing that and after a very short time, he stopped thumb sucking.

Might be worth a try?

I only had the hideous engorged feeling for 48hrs. Hope it settles quickly for you too !

The sucking fingers could be a cue that she needs to feed....and the frequent feeding will help with the engorgement too. So by offering the breast, you could crack two birds with one stone.

Congratulations and hope things go well for you.

I agree, good advice from crikeybadger.

Congratulations on the birth of your baby :)

48 hours for me

I agree with crikeybadger too :)
Congratulations!

I've been told no dummies until BF "fully established". I guess people all get to this stage at different times, but as a third time BFer, you will know better than most when this is for you.

I think sucking fingers in the very early days is a hunger cue too - it's a bit later that they suck them for comfort.

I didn't introduce a dummy til 3 or 4 weeks, when I was sure feeding was going well and the latch was good. It was another couple of weeks til ds happily took one though.

Thanks for all the advice.

The sucking fingers is happening after she has fed so not a hunger thing. The reason I'm worried about finger sucking is because I did it until about 10 years old.

Was thinking it might be about 48 hours for the breasts, hope it isn't much longer. I just hunted out my gel things and put them in the freezer.

Whilst I'm here and you are all so wonderful, any tips for trapped wind. We are experiencing a lot of screaming atm, and it is so awful that nothing I do helps.

It may not be a hunger thing, but a comfort thing. If you meet the comfort by letting her back on the breast then she may not develop the finger sucking habit.

My LO had terrible trapped wind and no-one could get a burp out of her.
I used infacol and that made winding her easier.
If she is having a bad bout of it, try some white noise - hoover, kitchen extractor, hairdryer or even radio between stations - it worked on mine DD and spaced her out enough to get through the wind. Dunno why
Congratulations Eglu.

Are you sure she's not still hungry, OP?

I would think that both symptoms - finger sucking and screaming, plus the engorgement - may just mean she needs more food? It's hard to know from here of course, and you'll perhaps be able to figure it out better, but it's worth not discounting it :)

Eglu - my DD2 is the same. She's three weeks old and sucks on our fingers like mad. It's definitely not hunger because it's usually when she's just had a feed and will reject the breast if offered ( I have very fast let down and quite high supply, so it's hard for her to comfort suck on me). I'd try offering the breast first as others have said (kill two birds with one stone on the engorgement), but like you I am pondering a dummy. But on the other hand some of the best sleepers seem to be finger/thumb suckers- they can find their own digits well before they can get a dummy back in!

Sorry, that's not much help is it? If you find an answer let me know!

I think I was engorged for a couple of days, ended up having to express a little just before feeding as my boobs were to full for him to latch properly. But don't have any problems now, I do have to wear breast pads though as my boobs seem to know before I do that he will need feeding and I get the 'let down' and they start leaking.

I gave him a dummy from the day after birth, he has also had a couple of expressed bottles and doesn't seem to have suffered for it. He is a very sucky baby though and would use me as a dummy if he could. He falls asleep either with or without his dummy and spits it out if he falls asleep with it in.

I put cream on my nipples after everytime I feed him - on both nipples. I am desperate to avoid cracked nipples and pain, and have been lucky so far. My DS is 3 weeks old on Sunday. I use mothercare nipple cream and its been really good.

Congratulations on your baby!

Thanks everyone. The screaming has clamed down now. We started with infacol and she is much less restless. I have been feeding lots and lots and it helped too.

Still a bit engorged but not too much. MW is happy with how things are going. This is the first time I've not had cracked nipples, but have been using lansinoh from day one.

I only managed 2 and 4 weeks respectively with DS1 and DS2, and am determined to manage it long term this time. I think I'm doing okay so far.

Have given up the dummy idea for now.

Good news, thanks for the update. Hope all continues ok but any questions, you know where to come :)

Thanks carrotcake. I know that mn will help me with this if I struggle.