Feeding advice (continued from AIBU)

[Sparklesandglitter]

So, on the advice of lovely posters I have been recommended to get the best advice here so here goes...
PFB is a few days old, we started BF in hospital and I had a few issues with latch so each feed the midwives help me position etc she has issues with latching correctly then slipping off to just the nipple but I didn't know. This resulted in us going home but with sore nipples. This led on to me persevering but causing nipple trauma. For the last two days I have been alternating between Bf/FF/expressed milk in a bottle. I am going to see a BF consultant as soon as I can. So my questions are:

Should I give my nipples time to heal and continue expressing (I am using lanosoh (sp?) regularly) rather than force the BF when I'm in so much pain? Or will this cause her to not feed from the breast when i try to reinstate it?

How often should I be expresing and for how long? I do suffer with engorgement

With FF I have found two schools of thought for preprepared feeds, which would be best:

Make up a small number of bottles, maybe 3? Then flash cool and store at the back of the fridge then reheat in water. My concerns with this are bacteria due to the feeds being fully prepared

Or, put 2oz of boiling water in bottles, again im thinking 3max, then flash cool and store in back of fridge. When she needs a feed boil kettle put 1oz of water in a bottle and leave to cool for a few mins, add formula, add cold boiled water from fridge and mix. Cool to feed if needed. I think I'm favouring this on the grounds that I don't have to reheat/less chance of bacteria

Thought please! And thank you for reading such a long post!

I can't advise on the breastfeeding side of things as it was a disaster area for me and DS, but on the formula side of things, it seems as though you want to preservere with the bf so if you are just topping up with formula I would suggest buying the ready made formula (you can buy it in 500ml cartons), pour it into sterilised bottles and keep them in the fridge. The cartons say you can store them in the fridge for 24 hours safely and warm them to room temperature by standing them in a bowl of boiled water.

If you do end up ff instead of bf then move onto the powdered formula milk as it's cheaper, but at this stage, you need to make your life easier!

Good luck with it all and whatever you decide to do it does get easier!

Thanks I was thinking about getting some cartons for those 3am tearing my hair out screaming times!!lol
In an ideal world I would like to mix breast and bottle but properly (with the actual option of breast!) but immediately the plan is get through the nipple pain and take it from there!

If you're wanting to carry on BFing, contact a breastfeeding consultant, they will advise you on latch and everything.
I would also get her checked for a tongue tie ASAP. DS has one, and in the early days would slip off unless I held him in a particular position.

TBH, I would contact a councillor and discuss giving bottles too, I'm not 100% sure, but I think giving so many bottles at this age can be a slippery slope - BUT (before I get flamed!) if you are happy with that, then it's fine!

Congratulations BTW :)

The slipping to the end of nipple - dd and ds did this because I have an over active letdown. Milk comes shooting out so when they took a mouthful of boob, they nearly drowned. So clever babies went to the end of the nipple instead. Bloody hurt until I fixed it. Dd also had tongue tie so made things worse.

I'd keep up the BF and be careful with bottles if you want to still bf. get a bf counsellor over ASAP.

Has she been checked for tongue tie?

Not sure what's best, but I personally carried on breast feeding through the pain. I had awful cracked and bleeding nipples.It was so bad at times that I cried during feeds. I used lansinoh, hot flannels, painkillers, cabbage leaves etc. The good news is that it did get better and I'm still breast feeding 7 months on and really enjoy it! The first 4-6 weeks was the worst then it got better. See what the feeding consultant says, but ultimately do what suits you best. Good luck :)

Sorry you're having probs and pain Sparkles.

The main thing I'd suggest is to try to get to the root cause of the nipple pain- till you've sorted this out, you will continue to get sore nipples.

It could be that your latch is not quite deep enough and the baby is not getting enough of your breast in his mouth. Sometimes slipping off the nipple can be a sign of tongue tie....whatever it is, you need to get someone to watch a whole feed and see what is going on. That person could be your midwife - any chance of a visit today?, or as you say a lactation consultant.

Lansinoh is good and soothing, but needs to be used sparingly. Apply too much and your baby will just slip and slide around. A few drops of breast milk can also be healing on the nipple.

I'm sorry I don't know enough about formula to give you any suggestions, but I would personally think you are better just giving expressed milk if you can manage it. If your baby is only a few days old, her stomach will only be the size of a shooter marble so will only need tiny amounts. If you are not feeding from the breast though you will need to express regularly (this will help with engorgment) probably 8-12 times in a 24 hour period if there is no direct breastfeeding.

You can also try the breastfeeding helplines - the numbers are over on the mumsnet breastfeeding guide pages. If you want to look at clips of a good latch, the Jack newman website has some good videos see here or go back to basics and give laid back breastfeeding a go - see here.

Hope you get some help today and congratulations!

I have just made an appointment to see a BF consultant tomorrow. Not sure about s tongue tie nobody has mentioned it? She can poke her tongue out if that means anything? At this stage if we can get her on the breast then great if not then we will deal with that I would rather do bottles than have me in agony and DD so upset and frustrated

Doesn't matter if she can poke her tongue out. My dd could and bf counsellors said it was minor. But I got a specialist in to look and she concluded it was very restricted (80%) and snipped it. After the snip, she could really stick her tongue out as opposed to just over the lips.

That's good news that you can see someone Sparkles.

Hope you have a good day.

Have u thought about the nipple guards? Can feed baby thru them. Try savoy cabbage and there are Breast shells. I even wore the shells to keep the bra from touching my nips.

Ps I am mixed feeding so to have a rest for one feed shouldn't do much harm to milk supply