Early (10 days post birth) expressing

[Inwaiting]

Hi all

I'm not sure if there's a breast feeding page?

Anyway my little one is 10 days old and due to one breast being out of action because of cracks I have been giving her a bottle of expressed milk during her night feed.

Is there any guidance on how much this should be? The breast feeding councellor phoned this morning and was very adamant I shouldn't be giving her bottles so soon. But how I'm supposed to keep her going on one breast I've no idea.

When I asked the quantity she said that there is no advice?! And be careful because you can over feed?

I want to keep going breastfeeding and expressing so any advice would be great.

I exclusively expressed from about 3 weeks to 3 months. I managed to express 150ml from each breast, so I gave him that, and he usually drained it. He never vomited and simply stopped drinking when he was done. Also didn't have a problem going back to the breast after bottles, or switching between them.
Offer as much as you can express and if baby still seems hungry, offer the in-use breast or more expressed milk. Good luck

Sorry to hear breastfeeding advisor wasn't very helpful or sympathetic.
Can u use a nipple shield?
Why do you have cracked nipples? I had mastitis in both boobs with dd and used a nipple shield for a short while until it stopped hurting.

My lo used to take about 2.5oz of expressed milk at that age. Then around 4 weeks old he had around 4oz which he still has now at 5 months.

kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/pumping/milkcalc/

This might help

I breastfed my daughter (now 7 months) and it was really hard at first as she had tongue-tie. She had it snipped at 10 days old and breastfed successfully for 6 months til I weaned her. Have you checked your little one out for this as cracked nipples can be a sign? Anyway I expressed for the first few weeks as was told by my HV to express every time I would have BF'd (every 3 hours) and to feed 30-70ml a feed. Hope that helps and congratulations and well done so far!

I expressed for one of my twins for a few weeks as she was too small to latch on (she was 3lb and her twin was 6lb!). At that age she had about 30-40 ml but if your baby is a more normal size then I'd think abut more - there was some kind of formula (mathematical not milk!) the NICU told me to calculate the amount based on weight, will see if I can find it xx

Thanks ladies. I think my left nipple is cracked because it was the boob she went on when I first gave birth so it was a lot of trial and error for us both getting her latch perfected etc.

She seems absolutely fine taking breast all day/late night and then one bottle during the night. I know it's discouraged but it's better to keep going with my milk than out of a tin right? I felt like the feeding team had closed the book on me yesterday.

At the moment she's getting between 70-80ml for this particular feed and she seems content. I was just just worried after the feeding team said I can over feed her

Sounds like you're doing absolutely the right thing if she's content have you tried nipple shields though? DS couldn't latch on to them so I didn't use them, but might help your situation.
Keep on keeping on.

No we've tried two types now and she's just not having any of it. Think they're too big for her

Fair enough! I couldn't get my bloody nipples into them, I don't know what sort of shape they're designed for, but I'm not it