Please can anyone help me? I breastfed my DS from birth. I was told in the hospital he latched on fine and we fed well at home too. Then a couple of weeks in, he started wetting through at night (out nappy, into clothes, onto Moses Basket). Thought maybe was nappy size, so tried a few. Was a pain, but not a big problem really, except he was uncomfortable a lot - really struggling when he needs to pass a dirty nappy. He was also bringing back a lot of milk after feeds. Then, the small gains in weight he had made, stopped. At 6 weeks, he even lost 1/2 an ounce. By now had been to BF Clinic a couple of times, but they said that all babies posset and that he was latching fine and showed me how to feed lying down too. But, still no improvement. Birth weight was 7.1, by 10 weeks was only 9.2 - was plateauing on chart. He was uncomfortable, still bringing back lots and would writhe in pain sometimes after feeding. His nappies had degenerated into green slime. Eventually ended up in hospital with suspected pyloric stenosis, but diagnose reflux and gave domperidone and ranitidine. Reviewed one week later by Consultant at hospital, who said as he had only put on 5ozs in 10 days, he needed to be topped up with formula. She prescribed Nutramigen, a hypoallergenic formula, which I thought was because of allergies in our family and blood in his nappies on a couple of occasions. One week later, with me still bf and topping up with one or two 120ml bottles per day, he had put on 1lb and 2ozs. Consultant satisfied formula had worked and said see in 6 weeks. Vomiting did not improve, still discomfort, although seemed to be lessened by drugs. Christmas was hell - averaged 4-6 hours sleep a night, not necessarily all in one go, still cried a lot and was always wanting to be fed, but when I fed, he would feed for a few mins then pull off (without letting go), then want more, this would go on until I couldn't stand the pain. Finally after christmas, the GP upped the dosage of medicine, but still didn't help (incidentally DS still wetting through on average 2x per night every night). New years, I had read up some more and thought symptoms could be an intolerance, so although I had already cut out dairy and I myself have a wheat intolerance, so can't eat that, I cut out soya, eggs and nuts also. Then couldn't wait for improvement - knackered and upset at upset DS, so did trial of just formula for 69 hours (I pumped meantime to try and keep supply) - within 24 hours, he was transformed, feeding better, going longer between feeds, not wetting through so much (not at all one night) and sleeping better. On the second day, he passed a full dirty nappy without so much as a whimper - unheard of before. I then introduced low allergenic diet for myself - basically fish, chicken, turkey, veg, fruit, rye bread, oat cakes, rice cakes, hummous, only things that are low allergenic, but plenty of them and resumed bfing. By this stage, my milk wasn't enough and he has steadily had more formula. Saw consultant for follow up and she said she could discharge him (he's now 13lb 13ozs) - I asked about allergy testing, but she said didn't think he needed it and she only prescribed hypoallergenic formula so I would use it!! Basically feel I have been conned into formula feeding and don't know why my bm is not enough.
So, is there anyone out there who can advise if there is anyway I can resume bfing and what could possibly be causing him to vomit more after my bm than formula, why he wets through on my bm and not on formula (so much) and why he struggles so much with passing dirty nappies on bm but not formula - he really is up from 5am struggling with it and then finally does biz at 8am (every day) - I think otherwise I am going to have to give up on bfing for his sake as much as mine!
Please don't post with pros and cons of bf and ff - I know all of those and heartily endorse bf, but I'm at the end of my tether with coping with this. Others on my post-natal board have suggested seeing if mears or tiktok can help?!