5 things I wish I'd known before I started breastfeeding

[twinklegreen]

just reflecting really.

What things do you wish you'd known before you had your baby?

Mine are;

1. the tingling sensation when you get a let down, as it describes in the books, can actually be quite toe-curling, and is completely normal.

2. It can take up to 7 days for your milk to come in.

3. the REAL experts in breastfeeding hold IBCLC or Breastfeeding counsellor training. Midwives and HV's often have very little training (Even sometimes if they are an infant feeding co-ordinator) and often give out incorrect or out of date information and advice. :(

4. You should try to feed your baby as soon as possible after birth, not wait until someone gives you permission. :)

5. The smell of EBF baby's poo is actually quite addictive

Anyone else?

1. It can be very boring just sitting there feeding. Never mind looking at my baby I was desperately trying to watch everything I'd taped off the TV and not get cabin fever.

1. That it might not hurt at all and you might have loads of milk.

1. When it goes smoothly it's fine .

sometimes as much as you would love to bf and the trying and hours of expressing - the world can be a cruel place sometimes you just dont have enough milk, topping up is ok, as you have tried you best.

(though must admit i still feel very deeply hurt by this experiance, and expecting again...)

1. Not to take the advice of anyone who formula fed in the 70s.
2. That children who are barely out of the uterus do not have to be put down somewhere in order to ensure they get more independent.
3. That not being sure how many feeds your baby is having a day is a good thing, not a bad one
4. That it isn't universally painful and difficult and in fact can be ridiculously easy
5. That you can raise the hackles of people who didn't breastfeed just by existing, and you have to be very generous and just let them snipe at you. Well, you don't have to, but I chose to do so...

Loving this thread!

My tips are mostly related to people's often odd views on BF.

1. People say bizarre things about BF such as "are you sure he's getting enough from you?". If DC is putting on weight and there are plenty of dirty nappies IGNORE.

1. Kind of related to point one...mums/ mothers in law will continually say "he's hungry again?!". Don't let them make you feel conscious about bloody feeding your child!

1. People will try and convince you it's time to stop uttering things like "you've done the important bit now," at 3 days/3 weeks/3months. IGNORE. The closer to 6 months EBF you can get the better, and better still if you can manage longer.

1. The more supportive your husband or partner the better.

1. So called friends can get quite jealous at your BFing mastery and try and often try and make sly digs. IGNORE.

1. You will often find yourself hovering in the formula section of the supermarket, on the cusp of picking it up, filling up a massive bottle and letting DC glug it down to send them into a long, long sleep (it will only be one bottle of a night time, you tell yourself.) This is MYTH. Formula is not the key to an unbroken nights sleep and can muck up the delicate symbiotic baby/boob balance.

EBF is one of the hardest but also most rewarding thing I've done in my life. Everyone has their own BF journey and I really urge anyone to at least give it a go. I'm so glad I did.

1. Newborns feed all the time, all the time, all the time. Enjoy sitting down and cuddling your baby. Get people to bring you cake and drinks.
2. Go straight to a proper IBLC certified lactation consultant if you need help. We'd already saved up the fee and it was the best money I spent on the baby, ever. Which leads to...
3. Posterior tongue tie is a real thing and can be sorted.
4. Feeding lying down is not just convenient, it's a chance to have a nap yourself. zzzzzzz
5. It's never too often to feed your baby. You cannot overfeed your baby. Baby grizzling but nappy clean? offer boob. My mantra was 'if in doubt whip one out' and it's wonderful. Magic boob heals all!

I love if in doubt, whip one out BRILLIANT

Ha ha! If in doubt whip one out - so true.

Oh yes - and it can come very easily with no issues. And if there are issues they can often be overcome.

Yeah. I was weepy, in pain, and panicy at DS's slight dehydration in the first week of his life (tongue tie, not getting enough, very very hot weather, sweaty baby) - a year ago this week, in fact. He'd had a fair bit of formula and I thought it was already over for us. Then we hired a lactation consultant.
After that day I could feed lying down, off the sore part of the nipple, and it was better.
At 3 weeks it wasn't just better, it was painless, and starting to be convenient. At 6 months it had become so easy that remembering to take other, solids-based snacks was rather hard.
Now - she says, having just got back up from the sofa after DS toddled over and began grabbing hopefully at her shirt- it's something I don't even think about.

God yes I remember now: the day my milk came in I was lying on the sofa having a snooze and suddenly woke up freezing cold, shaking uncontrollably, pale, sweaty and faint. This lasted about 10 minutes and I was seriously thinking of getting DH to call an ambulance (I think he was about to anyway!) Then it went away, and I felt fine. Next day the midwife came for my 3rd day checkup and I told her, she said "oh yes it's quite normal, just your milk coming in". Why the #### don't they warn you then?!

oh god - yes to the daft myths you'll hear, wellamI1981 Thankfully I am a mardy cow and would ignore or lecture people on their wrongness but the worst myth is the formula = sleep myth. I tried it. Didn't work. NOTHING did! But it didn't last forever.

Its not always easy, but stick with it and it does get easier.

Having flat nipples does not mean you cant BF, I managed for 6 months with nipple shields, bit of a faff having to sterilise them, but it soon becomes 2nd nature.

Drink LOADS of water.

Theres nothing better than a nice buttery EBF baby poop!!!

Invest in some Vanish ultra to wash aforementioned poop out of baby clothes, it gets EVERYWHERE.

And I'm going to add a 6th, enjoy it, put your feet up and catch up on some TV whilst doing it, it may be your only chance to rest!!

1. Get support. Don't assume MWs are experts, they often aren't. Ask around and find out who your local expert (I wouldn't have managed breastfeeding if it wasn't for our local expert).
2. The first few months are hard work, but persevere, it gets much easier as time goes on
3. If you baby is putting on weight and filling nappies then it's all working well
4. Don't beat yourself up if it doesn't work
5. Enjoy that special moment when your little one looks up at you with their big cute eyes in the middle of a feed, priceless

1. Be comfortable.
2. Be warm.
3. Have drink/phone/snack to hand.
4. Carry endless supply of high status, take a long time to eat snacks for toddler in tow.
5. The baggy at the bottom top/stretchy vest underneath lift top up/pull vest down combo is the best way to reveal the least boob/post preg belly flesh. And it's warm.

There's a good UNICEF bfing training programme which many midwives in our PCT were sent on. You could tell those who had been on it and those who hadn't.

Ask the doctor for domperidone if your supply isn't what it might be - I had a hell of a time at the start - perfect latch, low supply - and with domperidone for 6 months I am now still breastfeeding at a year and don't need it any more.

Makes you feel hungry thirsty and tired, like your life force is being sucked out through your nips.

First couple o weeks are worst-cracks and blisters hurt but if you get through it, is much easier.

Don't buy a million breastpads. I have hundreds of the buggers and have leaked 3 times in 7 months.

Breast shells are shite for collecting milk but great for forming nipple and keeping air between clothes and battered nips and stopping them drying out in the beginning.

Libido killer. Can't face sex during breastfeeding months. Makes me want to shout 'can everyone just get off and leave me alone'.

Makes me pass wind more than normal!

Helps a bit with weight loss but not if you eat tons. The last bit holds on until weaning.

Introduce EBM in a bottle early doors (within a week of birth and give one every couple of weeks thereafter) and baby will take a bottle readily when time comes.

Thanks it from me!

As someone who tried desperately hard to bf - loads of water, milk thistle, fenugreek, good diet, expressing between feeds, contacting my HV/midwives/LLL - and who, after four weeks of trying, only managing 2-hour stretches of sleep maximum, and whose baby simply kept losing weight ... that it is okay if it doesn't work out. You are not a failure, you are not a bad mother, your baby will be okay too. It took a 70s ff mother to help me realise this, and for the first time ever my DS slept - didn't wake screaming and hungry 30 minutes after his last attempted feed - and he began to put on weight.

That it is possible to be allergic to Lansinoh, and that slathering it on after every feed for the first eight weeks was NOT helping my agonisingly sore nipples

As many others have said: that most HCPs know jack shit about BFing, but some do, and they are great. Ask around other mums in your area to find who knows their stuff.

How exhausting and draining the endless evenings of cluster feeding were. But that it would end eventually.

How even though my baby happily took a bottle for the first two months, they could lose interest and refuse to take a bottle ever again.

Not to worry about feeding to sleep - that's what BFing is designed to do, and they grow out of it (and then you wish you could still use BFing as a tool to get them to sleep).

Next question for me: will DS settle at nursery without BFing in the day???

Top-ups of formula/EBM do not mean the end of breastfeeding, but can mean that the baby gets enough energy to allow him to BF properly so you can get back to EBF.

If anyone suspects a tongue-tie, get a referral straightaway. I wasn't convinced my DS had one, was referred to a surgeon based on a LLL clinic, he had a 75% tongue tie that was then snipped!

1. Have a contact number of a local breastfeeding counselor at hand before baby arrives.
2. Get the hang of breastfeeding lying down.
3. Breastfeeding can be incredibly relaxing.
4. Get a proper feeding pillow for those long stints when baby is very small.
5. The comfiest breastpads are the Johnson's ones (and I do not work for them)

Shuffleballchange: save your Vanish! My best discovery was that EBF poo stains will light bleach out of anything: so long as it is wet and you leave it on the washing line for at least 1 day, re-wetting if necessary, even in cloudy weather, it does bleach out completely! I'm often seen pegging out nappies in the rain...

Lovely thread

• Go with the flow - every baby and every mum are different. Some feed every 2 minutes, some every 3 hours. Some mums can shoot milk 20 feet at the first wimper, some never leak at all
• A boob cures all
• People may judge or make insensitive comments - ignore or have witty comebacks ready "Oh - I didn't realise you had issues about breastfeeding, how sad"
• Once it is over you will never get it back (as one who has fed herthird and last)

The first six weeks were nothing like as hard as I had been led to believe -except for the breastfeeding, which was harder than I could have imagined. We had several HVs check the latch which they said was fine. I agonised about whether one breast was empty and why DS didn't seem to want the other side... I wish I had known:

1. First sign of cracks, use the special nipple cream from St Mary's Hospital, paddington (don't know where else it is dispensed but my local pharmacy happens to do it)
2. After a while it doesn't matter which side is next - your baby will tell you if it's the same side as last time by protesting that it's empty!
3. There are many stages: craziness of milk coming in and feeling like Jordan, milk spurting everywhere; worried that boobs are empty when your baby seems ravenous (again)... They are not empty, keep going; worried your boobs are empty when they go soft (around 3 months for me); then bliss when your body catches up with the demand and you can feed with no pain and no spurting in 5 mins or less.
4. Oral thrush is hard to diagnose but if your nipples feel itchy and burn after feeds, go to the gp and don't take no for an answer until they give you something strong for it. DS and I had it for a miserable 5 weeks and saw 4 gps until I was given some pills.
5. Persevere. I was so ready to give up at 6 weeks but soooooooo glad I didn't. It's so easy now.

1. If it does hurt, it isn't always a problematic latch. You might just have sensitive nipples or a baby that sucks hard. Each feed you get through will make it a little easier for the next one! The day it doesn't hurt will be there before you know it.
2. It can really really difficult at first, some people and babies find it easy but don't beat yourself up if it is a nightmare, it isn't anything you are you are doing wrong - I found it tricky to get a little head to latch onto a massive boob, to get used to feeling soggy and cheesy if you don't want to wear breast pads at night for the first few weeks, to not be fingers and thumbs and feel like I was flashing everyone
3. It is amazingly easy after 6-8 weeks and is payback for the first few weeks!
4. Don't stress about amount taken and frequency of feeds. Some are quick feeders and some are slow, most seem to put on the weight at the same rate
5. If you want the baby to take a bottle don't be lazy about expressing and bottle feeding most days from 6 weeks!

Oh and one extra breastfed babies CAN SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT. Don't give up at 9 months because you think it will help them sleep through - it doesn't. DC1 doesn't sleep through the night at 3 years whereas DC2 started sleeping through with no dream feed at 8 months and she doesn't eat proper solids.