Is there any point continuing with breastfeeding?

[RBH]

Hi, after a very tricky start I had managed to get my 2 month dd down to 2oz of formula as a top-up after breast feeds. Down from 5oz so we were on the right track and on course to stopping ff completely. Unfortunately I was rushed into hospital on Xmas Day and spent 10 days there and another 2 days unable to bf as had to wait for the antibiotics to leave my system. DD, bless her, is still happy to bf but is now having 5-7oz of formula per feed. Her feeding pattern is settled so don't want to mess that up but I wonder if there are any benefits to her with so little breastmilk? It was definitely beneficial to me as during the couple of days when i was home but couldn't feed her I felt incredibly disconnected and being able to bf got me over that. I am happy to keep going as long as she will but my supply isn't increasing as far as I can see.

I guess anything is giving her some benefits in terms of immunity. And it is definitely benefitting your relationship from what you say.

If you want to try and boost your supply then feed her as often as you can, and only give formula as a second choice. Try for example giving her less formula (say 4 oz) and then breast feed for the next feed. Supply at this stage is stimulated by demand and can be built up again over a few days if the demand increases.

It's great you have managed to maintain breastfeeding despite all those setbacks, RBH.....I don't see what you would gain by stopping, seeing you enjoy it and your baby enjoys it. As for benefits, of course there are benefits - she will still get some antibodies, and breastmilk is always a nourishing food and drink. What's not to like?

If you want to increase your supply, then you could do so.

You'd need to give your baby lots of skin to skin time; you'd need to express a lot; you'd need to work on reducing the formula a little bit at a time.

Have you got a sympathetic health visitor to support you through this? Or even a doctor (not one who will tell you you cannot bf because of antibiotics leaving your system - that was almost certainly not the case ), or your partner?

If you continue doing what you are doing, your milk supply will dwindle and your baby may become less interested, but it's not possible to say how soon this will happen. But the cuddles at the breast can last as long as you want, whether you transfer milk or not

Thanks for your replies.

Tiktok, unfortunately the only decent health visitor I have come across has just gone on maternity leave and I am in the process of changing doctors as I ended up in hospital with acute pancreatitis as my useless doctor failed to diagnose gallstones and put my stomach pains over the last two years down to being pregnant or having had a baby!!

I understand the need to express a lot but hate doing it and find it hard to find time with a toddler who is exceptionally clingy at the moment after the traumas of the last couple of months. To maintain my current supply how much expressing would I need to do? DD2 presently has 5 or 6 feeds in 24 hours depending on whether she wakes once or twice in the night. In order to up my supply how much expressing are we talking about? And for how long? Could probably handle it if I had some idea of when it would stop! Even when I was exclusively bfing DD1 I never managed to express more than 4oz and that was first thing in the morning when she was sleeping through.

I think I have pretty much given up on the possibility of her completely giving up formula which sucks as I am not good with cow's milk and she looks like she has mild ezcema. Have a dietician referral though. I would like her to continue having some breastmilk though at least until she is weaned and ideally for the first year. Is this realistic?

RBH, you have a lot going on your life and a toddler who needs you as well as your baby - expressing to restore a supply would take up a lot of time and energy. I don't want to speculate on how much you would need to do to retain the supply you have - I'd need to talk to you in more detail about it all. Can you call one of the breastfeeding lines and talk it through?

I will try to call the NCT woman who was very helpful at the beginning. To be honest I think I am just going to have to accept that we are on the final part of breastfeeding and just make the most of it until dd2 gives up. I am actually quite amazed that she is still willing to do it at all. It would be too disruptive to dd1 to do the amount of expressing required and unlike before I can't send her off with grandma as she will get too upset.

Am trying not to hate the bottles and do find it all upsetting, especially as the general assumption with ff is that you chose to do it and so you get all the anti-ff stuff thrown at you. I know bf is best but I had no choice and ff is better than a starved baby. I actually met a woman at my post-natal group who is so upset about bottle feeding that she barely goes out as she is too embarrassed to ff in public. Anyway that is a whole other thread!

Thanks to everyone that gave advice over the past few months. This baby lark sure is a minefield!

RBH, I wish you all the best - no one has any right to make any assumptions about anyone with a bottle of formula!

Women using formula may be very sensitive and may be imagining that people are thinking critical thoughts, and may see criticism in quite harmless comments or even harmless looks. We've discussed this at length on the mumsnet boards.

In fact, the vast majority of people are not judging and not even thinking about what you're doing!

But that may not be what it feels like.

Hi - just wanted to let you know that I had to start ff my Lo when she was 3weeks old as I had huge problems exclusively bf her . I've ff and bf ever since and she is 4 months now. I usually just bf in the night, if I need to, and do both the rest of the time. She is happy with this and so am I ans I still have milk so do what you feel is right for you both and sod everyone else. Best of luck!

Hi Rumpel, thanks for that. dd2 is now 3.5 months (reread thread and saw that it looked like she was 2 mos!) and on the plus side at least by giving her both bf and ff it meant when I was in hospital we didn't have to worry about her feeding as she was fine with bottles. Just never thought about bottles while pg so had to get my head around it all. Do feel let down by the health professionals but mumsnet has been brilliant. Got to run as she is yelling for food.

Hi there,

I had low milk supply and I increased it and stopped needing to feed formula as top to my baby.

The advice I was given was,

feed on demand,
feed breast for 20 mins first always,
drink lots,
rest,

eventually baby just stopped wanting the formula in the bottle as was getting enough. It took about a week. I didn't express.