Reintroducing breastfeeding after expressed milk using a bottle

[HollyHx]

DD is 11 days old. She has had jaundice since day 3 and so I have had to express and feed her from a bottle. We needed to feed her frequently and make sure we gave her lots of milk – she wasn’t feeding directly from me so using bottles of expressed milk was our only option.

Her jaundice levels are improving every day and she is putting on weight which is great and a huge relief. I have been trying to reintroduce her to the breast since she finished phototherapy on day 4. At first she would latch on but not suck. We have made some progress and now she will suck for up to 10 mins but not every time. We are doing lots of skin to skin and she now latches on at every feed. We are still waking her up every 3 hours for feeds. She is a lot more alert now. I was hoping when she was more alert that she would stay on the breast for longer but it just seems to be too much effort for her compared to the bottle.

Does anyone have any experience of reintroducing the breast completely at this stage?

I worry about how I will continue to express and bottle feed when my partner is back at work. I really want to exclusively breastfeed for as long as I can and would love to have the convenience of her feeding directly from me rather than the extra step of expressing first.

If anyone has any tips for how I can encourage her to suck and persevere on the breast I would be extremely grateful. I was thinking about feeding her using a cup rather than a bottle but don’t know anyone who has tried this.

Congratulations on your new baby! And bloody well done for all that expressing - it's exhausting.

I'm afraid I don't have any experience of getting a bottle fed baby back on the breast, but I do know that most babies can be surprisingly resilient and flexible when it comes to this type of thing. I think perseverance is the key.

I say this on practically every bf thread, but have you tried contacting La Leche League for support and advice? Google for their number and to find out where your nearest meeting is.

And keep the faith! You've done so well already - I'm sure she'll get the hang of it soon.

I have with DS, he had a tongue tie so he was bottle fed for 6 weeks.

I contacted a LLL lactation consultant who was brilliant, it was her who diagnosed the tongue tie. We were similar to you, he started off in short bursts then seemed to get tired then gradually did longer and longer feeds.

We topped up with a bottle for about a week I think, to make sure he was getting enough then moved onto solely breastfeeding. It was a learning curve for us but we got there.

Laquila - Thanks for the positive words! It helps a lot. Expressing is exhausting but hopefully it will be worth it.

I've had a look at the La Leche League website and already found some useful ideas to try. Thanks for that recommendation.

Nakedfamilyfightclub - thanks so much for sharing your experience - it gives me hope! We will continue to persevere and celebrate each time a feed is a bit longer.

Hi

I managed to reintroduce bf after DS (now 12 weeks) was in hospital at 3 weeks and too poorly to breast feed, I expressed and topped up with formula. It has taken about 6 weeks to get to where we are now, he'll bf from 4am til about 4:30 pm, after this time he refuses the boob, not sure why, I think he gets tired and finds the bottle easier. Its been a long, hard process and I've nearly given up many times! But i pretty much did what you are doing HollyHx, lots of skin to skin, offering the boob for every feed and we ve gone from barely latching on taking full bf through the day. I was really worried that he wouldn't accept the boob and only want the bottle but he goes between the two without any problems. I think you're doing amazingly well it's really hard, but hang on in there and in the end its worth it!

Wow! You've done so well - you should be very proud. I think it is easier for them to drink from the bottle so it makes sense that your DS is tired. I hope soon he continues to bf for the whole 24 hrs. I am not surprised you have nearly given up - it is really hard and I'm only 10 days in! I feel inspired by your message though and will read it whenever I feel like giving up. Glad that we're doing the right things.

Today DD was on my breast for an hour, sometimes sucking, sometimes not. I feel positive about this because its the most she has ever latched on for. She still went on to drink the same amount of expressed milk though so I wonder how much she is actually taking from me...

Fingers crossed we will be discharged from the jaundice clinic next week and we can work on reducing the expressed milk without the pressure

Thanks for all of your support

Quick update from me in case anyone is searching with similar issues.

After 2 weeks of using bottles/expressing milk we started to use nipple shields. These were great and within a day we were solely using the shields and no bottles. Every few feeds I would try without the shield but DD wasn't able to/didn't want to latch. I used the shields for two weeks then one day she latched for a whole feed without them. We had another couple of days of sometimes using the shields/sometimes not until she was completely feeding from the breast. I had a sore nipple so got some help with the latch and now we are completely bottle and shield free and have been for two weeks. DD is 7 weeks now.

During those first couple of weeks I didn't think we would be able to get here but we have, and relatively quickly, so anyone experiencing similar it is worth persevering!