10wk old bf baby settles with test ff help

[Softlysoftly]

Ok I've started a few threads about dd2 sorry. Background she was EBF up to last week, started off loss and low weight gain, jaundiced and only pooed once a week, permanently attached to boob and would never and I mean never settle unless held.

Fast forward and she's following the 9th percentile, still small for 10wks at just under 10lbs, did start to space her feeds a little and would go in Moses sometimes for 1-2 hrs. She still cries for a feed every hour though I can sometimes force her to sleep (as she's exhausted).

I kntroduced a 10pm bottle after a bf this week, she will take 3-4oz then feed from me again to sleep and settle for 3hrs. Today she was screaming and screaming even after a feed and I caved and gave her a bottle, again she settled. This feels like the start of a slippery slope....

What I suppose I'm asking is could my supply at 10wks and constant feeding still be crap and not enough for her? Do you think she is so used to frequent feeds that there isn't enough gap between to let me build up a load of milk to satisfy her in one go? Can I change that is it routine time? How do I stop her needed to be literally attached to sleep (she still will not be put down in the day without screaming, and I'd asleep is only lightly and wakes).

I don't want to torture my baby with hunger when a ff can clearly fix it but will horribly miss bf also after all this I feel guilty I could have caused her a bad start crying all the time :(

Hi - I've got four children (8,6,5 and 3) and pregnant with 5th. I breastfed all my kids. My third child (now 5) was EXACTLY like this. i felt like I was starving the poor little man and the health visitor just said things like "persevere, he'll settle". Exceptnally unhelpful. My older two went onto dummies in hospital. My second because he was in special care, my first because my mum told me to give her one. When I had my third baby I had "don't use one" rammed down my throat from, well, everyone. But I bought one and gave it to him after a feed and he would sleep for hours (literally swap the breast for it as he fell asleep). I worked out that he wasn't constantly lookin to feed but was craving the suckling motion, of being BF and held close. Swaddling him with his dummy worked and he was off it again by 4months old. When I had number four he went onto his dummy at 3 days and off it by 23weeks!! They only ever got them after a restless feed and I tried to never use them for "just" comfort.

At 10weeks you can try giving her a little boiled, cooled water as she may be thirsty and not hungry, but your milk deals with hungry first so she may be getting frustrated. I'm not saying go buy a dummy, as most health proffesionals (and indeed some mums here) will shout at me for such advice - I'm just saying that's what helped me xx
As for your routine, I wouldn't change it until she starts to settle more but if you really are struggling with supply you could speak to your GP or HV about getting a prescription (can't remember name) to help increase it. Rememeber also that stress can cause your let-down reflex, not flex basically. Try and remember what soothed you during your pregancy as she will remember this too and try to recreate it. (i.e soap opera music, washing machine).
Most of all, don't feel guilty, and you are most certainly not crap!! You are doing the best you can and she is gaining (even if it is slow) weight, she is healthy and you brought her into this world. Bfing for even one day gives you little one th BEST start, so do not be hard on yourself (one FF a day will not hurt her if that what you feel she needs - you know best - you are her mummy). You are amazing xxx

Are you swapping from breast to breast? If so then try just giving one side per feed, maybe even the same side for two feeds in a row. If your baby is only getting foremilk then she may always be hungry because she isn't getting the hindmilk which is richer in fat and more calorific.

If you plan to continue bfing then giving the formula is the start of the slippery slope as it will lower your milk supply, but as MrsCoyle says just perservering is no use either, you need expert help. The La Leche League website www.llli.org/ is a good place to start to find out what may be the exact cause of your problem and some possible solutions.

Whether ff becomes the start of a slippery slope or not depends on whether you let it, really. Both my dcs have had 1 bottle of ff a day but both bf past 6 months. I don't have any other advice beyond previous posters, but don't beat yourself up, it sounds like you are doing amazingly.

stunt Nun, what you are suggesting is block feeding and only good if op has over supply, block feeding along with formula will reduce op supply.

op have you had any good rl breastfeeding support? I think you need to seek more help if you want to carry on feeding. Do you have a local breastfeeding group you could go to they are often held on your local childrens centure.

In the mean time you could try best compressions and offering multiple sides at each feed 2,3 or more sides as many as she will take, will get more. This will get more milk into her. she is follow the 9th so gaining on what could just be her normal size. It is totally normal for babies to feed this often at this age and breastmilk is much more easily digested then formula, so when little they will often have a long gap between formula feeds a it takes them longer to digest it. doesn't mean she's not getting enough when breastfeeding.

She could also just be an unsettled high needs baby in need of lots of contact. you could try carrying her in a sling to see if shell sleep for longer steaches that way.

MigGril yes, that's why I asked whether she was switching between breasts too often. I tried different patterns of feeding with mine to try and get the best results but I didn't really know what I was doing at the time and I think I ended up feeding DS2 too much foremilk so that he was always hungry. OP probably needs expert help at this point to get to the bottom of any issues.

Do you have a children's centre of breast feeding advisors anywhere near you? Might be worth speaking with them?

My DD is 10 weeks too and I've found that swaddling her but with one hand poking out the top has made a huge difference as she can lie there and happily suck her thumb to sleep. She's EBF and there were days she was stuck to me as all she wanted to do was suck but when I realised she was just comfort sucking not actually feeding.

It's only just this past week she's got the strength to actually stick her little thumb out and keep it in there but I have seen the hugest difference with her sleep and we have been able to drop her night feed!

If she's not a thumb sucker dummy might be other option?

You've done fab so far with the BFing and the odd bottle isn't going to hurt but if you are concerned what about a bottle of EBM?

stunt nun, the formilk and hind milk is something that is really over anerlised. Milk isn't really like this there is a gradual change in fat content thought out the feed and it also varies depending on the time of day and the weather conditions.

The only time you need to worry about it is if baby is showing signs that mum has oversupply. Mum would also notice this a lot of extra milk would be being produced. Other then that the best way to get a baby who's maybe (I say maybe as it more not be the case hear op baby is staying on the same percentile so may just be naturally small) Is to feed from both breasts as often as possible, and this means offering at lest both sides per feed. Anything else could reduce supply to much.

softly - it sounds to me as if you want to continue breastfeeding, and unfortunately introducing a bottle of formula will not do anything for your supply. You mention letting your milk 'build up' - your breasts are never empty and are always producing milk so the more you let your baby feed, the more milk you will produce.
I would highly recommend getting real life help - have you had your latch checked and has your LO been checked for tongue tie? Also, breastfed babies do not need cooled boiled water as breast milk is made up of mostly water anyway and you want to avoid giving 'empty' calories and also the chance to feed her directly which will in turn boost your supply. With regards to the screaming, it could be that she isn't necessarily hungry - many breastfed babies will drink a bottle of formula after a feed and do want to breastfeed for other reasons aside from hunger.
I would echo maples advice and cuddle up with lots of skin to skin, feeding on demand. If she is having plenty of wet nappies (dirty not so much an indicator) without the additional formula milk and her weight gain is also ok, then there isn't any reason why you cannot return to fully breastfeeding if that is what you want - you just need to take the steps to increase your supply and seek RL help to ensure milk is being transferred effectively.

Thankyou all, I do switch feeding at the moment, picked up the tip from on here so she swaps about a lot every feed.

I suppose the best days I've found are the ones where I send DD1 off the her grandmas and me and DD2 sit, eat, watch tv and sleep! She does seem more settled then. But it's just not realistic to do that every day with DD1.

I have been to a bf clinic who checked her over and just seemed surprised when she seemed satiated and asleep but then was up 5 minutes later screaming hungry, so not really helpful .

I will try LLL locally thankyou, and will try and steer clear of ff, I'm not anti but as she settles so quickly it just makes me massively doubt that the screaming isn't to do with sleep/attachment as I had started to believe and is in fact hunger. Gah hate self doubt!

Have you thought about a sling? I found in the early days with DS he sometimes just wanted the closeness of feeding not the milk. So I could put him in a sling and he could snuggle and get comfy and sleep.