Domperidone/ motolium

[Shantotto]

Does anyone have experience taking these? Not sure my GP will prescribe domperidone but I have seen motilium is available over the counter.

If gp won't give it to me, will a chemist ask questions or just let me buy loads? I wouldn't know how much to take though - I've read some women take 10 tablets a day! So I'd need a pack of motilium a day.

I've tried everything else to a point where even the bf counsellors have said its time to be kinder to myself and accept his formula top ups which we need to increase so much he might as well be fully formula fed I think. It's all getting so much that as much as it pains me I think we'd be better off not trying anymore.

Shantotto, sorry to hear you are facing this....if you want to, PM me and we can think about what you have done and what you might do. Let me know the history.

Or post here - inc how old the baby is etc.

I don't think it's a good idea to self-medicate with this drug, without a doctor's input. There are side effects, some serious.

Yes I know I shouldn't - I was just thinking last thing to try! I have a big thread here - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/breast_and_bottle_feeding/2438785-Bad-jaundice-tongue-tie-difficult-latch-and-awkward-boobs

Not gone back in a while but as DS needs to eat we are trying him on the breast for around 30 mins each side and if after he is still hungry topping him up with 90 - 100 ml. I know everyone says keep him as long as poss or they want but he would not stop and wasted his energy drinking and I was exhausting myself. Modwives intervened so I could try to rest. He is growing fast finally so he needs it! If we don't he only does around 2 wet nappies. He'll be weeks tomorrow. Anyway I'd really appreciate if you could have a look at my other thread. :) But a very short outline is below.

It covers it all - 3 visits a week to bf groups, fenugreek, nursing tea, cranial osteopath, lactation consultants, porridge, constant skin to skin, trying to feed him for 20 hours and him still being hungry with no nappies. :(

Oops he will be 4 weeks tomorrow.

Just read your thread....wow. A lot of conflicting advice both on and off mumsnet, and I bet your head has been spinning :( :(

Very hard to get a clear picture, but I think it sounds as if things were not right from the start - they just looked ok, sometimes.

The amount of formula he is having now is probably meeting most of his needs - this is not to criticise you or wring my hands or roll my eyes, just to be open and factual. he's probably having a total of 750-800 mls in 24 hours? And he weighs about 4.5 kg? (guessing here, sorry). Babies usually require 150-175 mls per kg of body weight, so do the maths....

This means the breastfeeding may not be supplying much of his nutrition, and you will need an intense 'rescue' mission to retrieve your supply - it can work, if you go at it intensively, with expressing (better than drugs :) ).

If you decide not to do this, then of course you can continue the closeness and intimacy of breastfeeding, whether or not your baby gets plenty of milk, alongside formula. Your baby can feed for comfort for as long as you manage it. You have worked at this a lot - and there are indications in your previous thread that you had underlying issues related to supply and effectiveness that were outside your control.

Does any of this help at all?

He only weighs 3.2kg, he's on 9th centile. Which I'm amazed by as I'm over 6ft and not particularly skinny!

We gave him yesterday 6 bottles with 75 -100ml in roughly. So adding it up he got 455ml roughly. Trying to track it from my app!

That doesn't sound much! I've not even looked at how much a baby should get formula wise, just going by how much midwife has told us top up with. So he's not getting enough?! I'm sorry im so confused at the moment!

Last week he finally gained just over his birth weight from less top ups so he must have been getting some breastmk out of me! We increased as he was getting hungrier and hungrier.

I do have a pump and I was trying it for a while but as well feeding him for hours it was getting too much. I feel better now though. I only ever get a drop or two out - would it still help?

Don't be influenced by my maths - he's smaller than I guessed him to be and he's getting less formula than I guessed.

He is thriving, from what you say now, so that's a good thing.

However, it still does sound that he is getting most of his nutrition from formula, and that means you would have to work quite hard to increase his breastmilk intake and your production. Work it out - a fully formula fed baby of 3.2 kg would be having about 450 - 500 ml a day.

You'd need to do the whole relactation thing, form what you say here - it's not easy, but it is possible but you don't have to do it. It's for you to decide....google relactation and see what you think. You'd need to express 8 x in 24 hours, and it's hard work, and it's not for everybody.

Feel good about the bf you have done and continue to do - it's a lovely thing to do. But you need to be realistic about what you can do from this point, I think.

Thanks tiktok. I'll consider the pumling. I have a medela swing.

I feel bad for saying this but I don't know if I want to keep trying anymore. I want this to be a time of love and happiness and cuddles but I'm just stressed out and so sad about it.

Maybe it's time for me to move on, give him formula and just see how long I can comfort him on the breast for and hope he gets a little dribble!

You can still share love and cuddles and happiness and bottle feed :) and dribbles of breast milk are all part of it too. Breastfeeding is more than just milk. It's closeness and connection, too. And bottle feeding can be closeness and connection, as well - you'll have found that already :)

Thanks

I know that deep down and I must believe it more and I know how hard I've tried. I never expected my bf journey to end up like this though - I was so looking forward to it!

He needs to grow so I'll calm down about the formula and inbetween shove him on boob as much as possible whether he likes it or not!

And have a little grieve and hopefully I'll stop bursting into tears all over the poor wee thing! :D

Just bumping this as DS had his 6 week check on Friday. He's hainingvreally well now, hurray formula! As always I got very upset about not being able to BF him properly and asked about domperidone. GP have it straight away, 30mg a day for 10 days to see what happens.

I know no one can decide for me but I'm torn about whether I want to go down this road. It might not work and if it dwww.molo.com/baby-boy/bodies-babysuits/fleming/wolfpack/oes I dkubt the gp will give it to me long term, or at the 9 pills a day I read Id need! Although lots of people are telling me I've done so much to try make it work and shouldn't beat myself up I just can't let it go and believe them.

How about making this The Last Thing? It sounds as if you're not ready to finish bf and fully ff but have tried everything else so could you give the domperidone 2 weeks and see if it helps (then ff or carry on mix feeding). If it does and there are no side effects then great, if not then you have Done Everything. would that help you to move on?

I'm in agreement with the people saying not to beat yourself up about it. I mix fed ds because he had Tt, was jaundice and was very sleepy (I had diamorphine in labour). He was still losing weight at 10 days so we topped up with f. I'm currently bf my 7 week old dd and she just took to it like a duck to water. Now I've bf her i really realise just how hard it was to bf ds IYSWIM. Some babies are much harder to bf than others. None of it is your fault. If you do ff don't look back, you've done above and beyond.

Thank you Nicky

Picked up the prescription this morning and will start tomorrow. If it doesn't help much will take stock then.

Feeding takes so long at the moment. I offer both sides for 20 minutes, timed so if he comes off for a couple of minutes I pause and then start again. Then 10 mins after he'll need the top up which takes him 20 mins or so. Then with burping and keeping him upright a bit it all starts again about 90 minutes after 90 minutes spent on a feed! I don't mind if I'm sat at home but it puts me off going out as it's not so easy to do the time consuming bf in a coffee shop and I'm too nervous to do a formula feed without bf first.

Thanks again everyone who's posted!

Spending half of your time bf would indeed be unsustainable. I've just had a skim through your other thread and your experience sounds very similar to mine. Water broke first, labour started but didn't progress, I was augmented on the drip, then ds quite small (6lb 50z), sleepy from diamorphine, tongue tied and jaundiced.
I was told that our latch was fine and sent home. Ds started by getting urates, poo went from mec to yellow but then back to dark green, very little alert time, crying-feeding-sleeping on repeat every 90 minutes, dry lips, terrible cracked nipples, agony feeding- all signs that bf wasn't working and he wasn't getting enough. He was still losing weight on day 10 so we topped up with f. By day 18 when he had his tt snipped we were topping up every feed.
I saw a very good mw who observed an entire feed, looked at the latch, explained about cluster feeding/constant feeding etc. She said that I really needed to get him off top ups within a week or so of he'd end up ff (I don't think she was being mean, that was just her experience) and the only way to do it was to go to bed with him for a few days, do skin to skin and give him unlimited access to boob- no timing just feeding whenever he made a murmur. It was excellent advice. I didn't do it though. I just didn't have the energy. I kind of gave up on it and decided just to feed as much as I could and not get too upset about f.
I found that as my nipples healed I just fed more and as ds got bigger he just took more breast milk. When the pressure was off as I knew he was getting f bf became less of a stressful, painful chore and more of a pleasure.
I really hope the domperidone helps Shantotto but try not to put too much pressure on yourself. You've done incredibly well.

Hello. I used megadose motilium. Prescribed by my GP who was an outstanding lactation specialist. For many reasons, I really wanted to BF, however this was almost impossible due to very little milk and non existent let down reflex. I managed to about 75/25 formula vs breast milk...Just 1 feed on the boob (1st thing in the morning) per day and the rest using electric pump with heat pads on my boobs so hot they have me varicose veins for almost a year

For me, it was great. What was not great was my 1st 4 weeks with an utter bitch of a midwife asking me if bonding issues were the cause of my feeding problem....how only irresponsible lazy mothers use formula etc. as my poor little baby wasted away even though I had him on my pathetic blobs for well over 12 hours a day and sometimes almost constantly.

If there was 1 thing I'd have done differently it would have been to stop stressing and focus more on the joy of having a new born, to be honest. BUT I am eternally grateful to motilium for giving me the wonderful experience of one proper breastfeed per day for a few months.

Best of luck to you.

Nicky - yes, really similar! It's so horrible isn't it?

I've also heard about the retiring to bed thing. Going to try that while I also do a 48 hour pumpathon. Well if I can bear it! Ill have to restrict his time on boob a bit though as he has never ever stopped himself as he's never got enough out. Also I'll still have to judge when he needs a top up - poor DP is so worried about him eating enough I don't think he'd be on board with me stopping entirely for a few days, even though he supports my desire to bf I can't let it get in the way of what he needs.

International - Yep my DS was on constantly those first couple of days until the midwives and my DP had to intervene as I wasn't coping and the poor thing was wasting his energy trying to get more out - I liken it to chomping on celery, you burn more calories eating it than it contains. I've never properly let down either I don't think - just a few drops come out. Sorry to hear your midwife was such a bitch about it. I'm so grateful that everyone I spoke to even the lactation consultant were kind about me having to do it and convinced me it was the best thing to do at the time for him to thrive and clear up the jaundice. I'm glad you had a good few months of a nice bf experience.

If this doesn't work then I'm going to go to a morning and night feed - or just a bit of comfort sucking he seems to get so little out - for however long that will last. I'm happy if I can still provide that for him.

Thanks again for your support.

I hope you soon will find the solution which will make your life easier and you get more time to enjoy your baby. I was on similar regime with DS1 for a while, and it was exhausting. I did 45 min breastfeed (30 min on one side and 15 on the other), then DP would give top-up bottle and I would express for 15 minutes. Then 2 hours break and start again. I rented a hospital grade pump and also took domperidone (I think 6 tablets a day). It takes few weeks for domperidone to show effect. It worked for us and after a few weeks DS1 was exclusively breasfed. BUT, my DP kept repeating me, that we need to be gateful that formula exists, as it allowed us to keep our boy healthy.
We had similar issues with DS2 (needed to star formula supplements due to low blood sugar on day 2), and did similar thing to get him back on breast (only took few days this time), but not restricting time on breast this time (as there were less issues than with DS1). This time I also used Medela SNS system (tubes to attach to breast so give supplement whilst breasfeeding), which is fiddly to start with, but worked great for us, and allowed to avoid bottle after breastfeed, so saving time and effort (I only used it at daytime though, found too fiddly for the night, so preferred DP giving a bottle top up at night).
However, don't beat yourself if what you are trying now does not work. Actually, sometimes I regret that all I remember from the early weeks with DS1 at home is sitting by the pump and being exhausted! BF is great when it works, but happy and healthy mum and baby are more important! You've done so much already!

how's it going op?

Thanks for checking in Nicky! I've only been on the tablets for two days so no difference yet. The dose is lower than the Internet suggests too so not confident in it working. Taking my fenugreek and nursing tea and oats like I have for the last weeks.

Was going to try the pumping every 3 hours for two days thing abd did two sessions yesterday before I gave up. I hate it and seeing the few drops that come out is so depressing. I feel like not doing this means I haven't tried everything.

He nursed for an hour earlier and 10 mins later he was screaming with hunger. :(

When I feed him so long before each bottle and he's still hungry I just feel bad and like I'm delaying his 'real' food for my desire to bf.

I had a rough day yesterday and I cried a lot about it all. :(

I'm considering dropping the bf now and just perhaps morning and night and maybe afternoon, rather than dragging out his feeds for so long.

I'm turning a corner slowly. I think! I'm braving groups next week where I will be brandishing my bottle without feeling too bad about it!

I know exactly what you're going through. I remember one night saying to myself that I was going to feed my son. I was going to keep him on until he was full. After about 3 hours of him being on and off, falling asleep and crying I handed him to dp and cried buckets. I don't want to tell you that it doesn't matter or that it's not important because to you it really is...but this is the worst part. It gets much easier. It won't feel like this in a month. I know it's a terrible cliche but happy mum really does mean happy baby so whatever happens with bf you need to give yourself a break and enjoy your little one.

Completely agree with Nicky. I cried everytime when DS1 was getting formula top up, and felt like I was failing him as a mum. But few months later the perspective changed - seeing my boy thriving, being healthy and happy, and me being able to get out and about, made huge difference! You did incredibly well, and every drop of breastmilk he got matters - but you also need to take care of yourself, have some rest, get out of the house, start enjoying time with your baby. Especially as he grows and starts exploring world and gets more fun! What he needs most is healthy and happy mummy!

I'm sure I took domeridon as an anti sickness drug when I was having chemo.

Isn't it a steroid? Little, round and black?? And melts really quickly before you even get a chance to swallow it?!

If we're talking about the same drug then I can't comment about its effects on milk supply but I can tell you that if it effects you like it did me then 1) you will get roid rage 2) you will be HUNGRY 3) you will get hamster cheeks 4) did I met noon the roid rage?!

I'm sure it's very damaging to the knees too?! It your bones in general?! Someone I spoke to had to have a knee replacement after taking it for an extended period whilst he had his chemotherapy.

The op isn't going to take it for extended periods though- just 10 days

Yep, pnly got a normal dose 10 day supply! These pills are white. Its not a steroid though is it?