help/advice pls - trying to breastfeed 5 day old after formula

[starrynight123]

Hi, I wonder if anyone here can help in any way because I'm getting desperate. I had my daughter on Friday and she was put on the breast soon after birth (after I'd finished vomiting!) But after that initial success, she ended up being cup and bottle fed in hospital for 2 days because my panic attacks became really bad (long history of very bad anxiety disorder ). Now I'm home and feeling bit better and very, very keen to breastfeed my baby.

My midwife suggested giving her the breast, then pumping and giving her my milk in the bottle (it takes around an hour or so for me to pump bothbreasts) plus c.20mls of formula in the meantime while I'm pumping.

I tried that for the first time a little while ago and my baby did a bit of locking and nuzzling breast and managed to sick a tiny bit for a couple of seconds. Lots of crying and soothing and trying again etc.

Does anyone have any advice about whether this sounds reasonable given that she was getting around 40-50mls of formula at every feed every 4 hrs. She will still get that amount during her 2 night time feedings.

How can I encourage her to latch on better? What else can I do? Does this process take days or weeks to establish?

I'm finding it really hard to do this because my anxiety and panic attacks aren't helping and get bad when she cries :-( I desperately want to give her the best start and breastfeed

Sorry - 'licking and nuzzling ' not 'locking'

And 'suck a tiny bit' not sick!!

I think you should get some real life input from a qualified lactation consultant or similar as without seeing you and your baby, any advice given here may be unhelpful or not relevant.

Having said that, some things you could consider:

• laid back nursing/biological nurturing (google for lots of info)
• lots of skin to skin
• using a vacuum type teat to mimic breastfeeding whilst using a bottle, rather than a free flow teat.
• Feeding 4 hourly and twice over night doesn't seem frequently enough (as an outside observer without all the facts) to get your supply going as well.

But can I emphasis again that the best thing to do is to get a breastfeeding specialist in to actually observe you and your baby. Congratulations btw

Oh and has she been checked for tongue tie which can cause issues with latching on?

There is also something called the exaggerated latch (also called the flipple!) which can help with getting a good latch. Again you can find videos of this online to see how to do it.