Anyone managed to start breastfeeding at 6 weeks?

[ayearoverdue]

I had problems with my milk coming in late (day 5) and DS was being FF and wouldn't latch once it did come in. That was fine at the time as I expressed my milk and he was fed pretty much exclusively expressed breast milk. About 2 weeks ago my supply started going down hill and recently came down to about 1 - 2 ounces a day, nothing in comparison to the 4 - 6 ounces I was expressing per feed previously.

I've been doing lots of skin to skin to try and boost my supply and managed to get him to latch back on. For the last couple of days I've been latching him for as long as he wants and offering him both breasts for each feed and then topping him up with formula if he's still hungry.

Has anyone successfully managed to establish breastfeeding at a later stage? Any tips? I'm going to try and get seen by a breastfeeding counsellor to check his latch and get some advice on my supply.

I did! I spent a whole weekend in bed and only offered him breast, Luckily he never needed more so I didnt top him up with formula. We then went on to BF for 13M, good luck!

If your DS will latch on then that is half the battle won already (still a lot of work ahead but getting a baby to latch if they don't want to can be very tricky).

You can offer more than 2 sides per feed and switch nursing (swapping from side to side when baby slows down) is a good way to increase supply.

You can also finish at the breast - bf both sides (at least) then offer a small top up (decreasing this over time) and then finish back at the breast so baby associates the feeling of satiety with bfing not with bottle feeding.

You can also try to just bf for increasing amounts of time - e.g. starting at only bfing between 9am-10am (or what ever works for you) then offering a top up if baby is still hungry after 10am but still bfing as well, then increasing the time that you ebf for each day (say the next day trying for 9am-10.30am and then offering a top up if needed) until you are just ebfing. Timings would need to be adjusted to suit you and baby - you may be able to do 4pm - 6pm or 6am-9am or whatever works!

Another way is to reduce the amount of formula offered each day e.g. if baby has 300mls of formula a day you could try to only offer 270mls on day 1, then 250ml on day 3, then 230mls on day 5, etc (or what ever timings/amounts fit with you and baby).

Cutting formula out completely without having some time for supply to be built up if you are mainly ffing isn;t generally recommended because you just might not catch up quickly enough (e.g. if baby is having 700mls of formula a day and about 50mls of bm, it would be expecting the impossible to drop all formula the next day and just bf - there would need to be a cross over period where baby was given decreasing amounts of formula).

Good luck and keep us posted

Thanks for your replies. Loads of fantastic info there TruthSweet!

It seems to be going well, he's latching easier and my milk is increasing I can feel it and I've expressed some today (as he had a long sleep) and I seem to have increased my supply already! YAY I think we're getting there :)

Any more stories or tips would be greatly appreciated.

Sounds like you are doing great ayear!

If you want a positive story - I managed to get DD1 back to bfing at 8weeks (she was mainly bottle fed formula with some EBM [even though pumping 12 times a day] and the occasional bf due to jaundice and other rubbish happenings) and she bf until she was 3.6y when she was unable to latch anymore.

That's not to say that you have to bf to self weaning too but just to show a rocky start doesn't have to equal an early end to bfing.

Kellymom.com has lots of good info on relactation too - well worth a look.

I established bfing at 8 weeks - DS was prem and wouldn't latch so I expressed and brought him home from SCBU on bottles of EBM with the odd formula top up (less than daily).

We got home, got settled and did skin to skin and he latched on and off we went. My boobs went crazy and I got mastitis from sudden oversupply but I fed through it and carried on. We stopped when DS was just over 12mo, my choice.

Hiya, this is just anecdotal and I've never heard anyone else offer it as advice... I seem to have managed to invoke my let down reflex with a glass of water. In the early days I used to drink a whole glass of water as soon as my baby latched on. Now, whenever I drink a glass of water my boobs leak furiously!
It took a long time but it definitely helps. If I need to express or if my baby's hungry but I feel empty I just have a glass of water and it really helps...just like Pavlov's dogs! And when I say I drank a glass as soon as baby latched on, I mean EVERY time...

I had problems with my milk coming in late, in fact it didn't really 'come in' properly (no engorgement) and did 50/50 bf/ff from about day 4.

I haven't managed to cut out the formula or even reduce it, despite trying, and never had much luck with expressing. DD is a big baby (9 15 at birth) and she lost too much weight without formula so we were advised to mixed feed. DD is 5 weeks now and we still do mixed feeding (breast then bottle at every feed).

It seems a bit unusual / taboo, but I can't see any problem with mixed feeding. So just to let you know, don't feel like you have failed if you don't bf exclusively!