encouraging stories/help to get my nearly two week old on the breast...

[lucy101]

My DD is two weeks tomorrow and we have had a bit of a rough ride with BF so far. I had to give her formula for the first few days as I had no milk at all and then I managed to get her BF for a couple of days.. but she was clearly not getting enough milk (and was falling asleep very quickly latching) as she was losing weight and also had a little jaundice so I began to express, not least to increase my supply (I also had a PPH which may have reduced my supply).

I had a very minor TT snipped just in case on day 4... but it was so slight that it was debatable whether it would cause a problem (had lots of TT issues with my older son so was clear I wanted this checked out properly straight away).

Anyway, after a week I am now pumping (approx. 8 times a day for half an hour) around 600ml or more a day (from 25ml the first day!) and she is getting just expressed milk from the bottle... however she now won't really latch at all and just nibbles and sucks rather half-heartedly and then falls asleep again within seconds. In fact she has never managed to stay awake for a feed (bottle or breast) for more than a few minutes (although carries on asleep). She is a very sleepy baby but no jaundice now and the Midwife and HV think this is just her nature (she certainly cries if you put her down and does get hungry and signal this in the evenings).

She is back to birthweight now (it turned around very quickly once she started on the expressed from the bottle) and my supply seems fine now but I can't continue with the pumping regime as I have a DS of three to take care of once my DH goes back to work.

My DS didn't latch on at all until 2 weeks and then didn't really get going until 4 weeks when we slowly dropped the expressed milk (and in that case formula) top ups and managed to BF for 12 months.

I am wondering what I can do to actually get her breastfeeding again. I am thinking of trying some slightly more difficult nipples (Breastflow worked well last time) to try and steer her more towards the breast but I am loathe to use the SNS as I had real problems with this last time.

Could anyone offer any hope or help that we might solve this in the next ten days as my heart is sinking that we are heading towards formula.... and I worry so much about her being so sleepy when her brother was so much more active.

Gosh that is long.... so sorry!

Hi!

My experience was not in the UK, so the advice I received may differ, but I will offer it anyway!

DS's birth was difficul (induced, epidural, long!) and he didnt latch on in hospital at all, so I was syringing colustrum into him and was then given formula bottles :-(

On day 5, the midwives had me in for a session where they showed me how to wake him up (also falling asleep when feeding!) by making him rub his own lips with his little hand. I had lots of sessions with the midwives who were really patient but we couldn't get bf established, so in the end we went with a nipple shield which was the only way I could get him to feed from me.

He used the nipple shield for 3 months, and then, all of a sudden, stopped and just latched on normally, for no reason I can think of. From then he has been breastfeeding wonderfully, and it is so easy and I'm really glad I didn't give up and go down the formula route because I now breastfeed him in bed, practically asleep, and it is lovely!

Have you tried nipple shields yet? I think they were a good halfway stage for DS.

Ditto the above - we had a difficult birth and DS wouldn't latch. I expressed for a week and it was exhaustingly difficult and I resented it. Tried nipple shields and DS latched immediately. Took a month to ditch the nipple shields. We used Avent ones on advice of a lactation consultant - silicone. Tried ditching the shields during night feeds initially as DS was more relaxed then. Congratulations, well done and good luck! X

Hello!

Don't feel disheartened, you're doing really well!

The first 2/3 weeks are the worst and it does get better. We had similar issues and I never thought we would get thru it. Very sleepy baby, difficulty latching, 13% weightless etc.

tNever in mt wildest dreams would i ever have thought that at five weeks we would have a baby that was back up to birthweight, feeding exclusively off the breast and very awake!

What worked for us was carrying on expressing, offering the breast first at each feed and then topping up with milk from a bottle.

She got more energy to be awake and this helped with her latch. Never had a problem with nipple confusion.

Keep going, you can and will get through this!

Hi and thanks so much for the encouragement.

I have been trying the shields... but she still won't open enough. It seems the gape is the problem.

I am feeling pretty fed up as I went to a breastfeeding group today and the person running it had no suggestions at all... apart from telling me I needed to think about when it would be time to give up trying to bf and the endless expressing and go to formula.

After the third time she said this I came home!

Not sure what to do now...