Can I exclusively express and feed the baby?!

[ChipsnCurrySaucemmm]

Breastfeeding isn't going well - I've tried correcting a tongue tie, various latches and breastfeeding counselling but I'm in incredible amounts of pain and it's starting to affect my mental health.

Has anybody got any experience of expressing full time and bottle feeding the baby breast milk?

Thanks - a hopeful breast feeder :(

I did it. It’s a lot of work but doable.

A double breast pump would be very useful although I just used a single but would collect milk from the opposite breast in breast shells

I did this to but only for 6 weeks as my supply started to drop. It's bloody hard as you need to express as often as baby needs feeding and that includes through the night. So I started combi feeding when my supply started to drop and eventually moved over to formula. I do struggle without my sleep though, I'm sure others could persist longer.

I did it - till 3 months . By three months the baby was more alert and wanted to be picked up and played with rather than just sleeping all the time, and I felt bad being shackled to the pump. So she's been Ff since 3 months , i would have loved to breast feed but did not have enough support early on enough.

I later found out that dd had "peanut butter tongue" (basically sticking tongue firmly to tire roof of the mouth, even worse when she was hungry and tense, never managed to latch properly as tongue blocked entrance to mouth - my nipples were incredibly damaged by 4 weeks.

Had this been identified early on I think I would have breastfed successfully. Just telling you in case it's the same thing.

Exclusively expressing is v hard work and I was getting up 2x per night to do it , so had to express , bottle feed, sterilise pump and bottles every day.

People do it and make it work long term though. Double breast pump (eg Medellin freestyle ) is essential.

Do you want to give us a bit more info op? I you could get breastfeeding sorted would you want to carry on doing it?

X

Ps. Most of the breastfeeding support i received was crap. They had no idea about my specific problem.

Medela not Medellin !!

I know people who’ve done it- but it’s a very difficult thing to do. Do you know why bf isn’t going as well as you hoped?

You could but balance it against how much hard work it will be. Give it a try (trying hiring a double pump from hospital) but don’t worry too much if you bottle feed. If it takes over your life you miss out on just enjoying your baby.

Try nipple shields

Just wanted to add - if I have similar issues with future dc, I'll give big a good go but will FF earlier than 3 months and not torture myself over it !

Big = BF

Ffs

You can hire hospital grade breast pumps that are so much more successful at getting out a decent amount of milk than the ones you buy.

Definitely try nipple shields if you haven’t already! I know of someone who fed exclusively with them for a really long time! Maybe a year?

I wasn't able to breastfeed both of my DDs and so chose to exclusively express for 12mths with both DDs.
I used a double electric pump, pumped every 3-4hrs and twice during the night (even when baby was sleeping through). The best way to keep your supply up is to pump between 1am-6am.
Once I got into a good routine I was able to pump whilst baby was either sleeping or happily occupying herself. I would have put baby in their bouncer facing me, jumperoo and sang, on the floor playing with their mat toys above them etc... It worked really well for us. You end up building up a good supply and having a freezer full of milk instead of food

Thanks so much for the responses. I'd absolutely love to carry on bf (I have a few personal reasons to not want to use formula - but absolutely would resort to this is bf/ expressing didn't work)

Baby just won't keep a deep latch - I've been shown how to latch her on with a wide mouth and almost force my whole areola into her mouth - but she resists with her whole body and arches her back and gets immediately distressed. The only latch she feels comfortable with / will maintain is absolutely destroying my nipples. My boobs are now so sore I cant bare to get dressed and even showering makes me wince. I hate the anxiety of her next feed and have been using my hypnobirthing techniques to get through feeds. I'm getting anxious that she is picking up on my stress and the few times she has cluster fed so far have left me crying and my partner having to comfort the baby. It's not long until partner goes back to work and I'm dreading having to feed / comfort the baby alone which is making me feel like a terrible mum. I've even resorted to handling her as little as possible in case I Trigger the feed response.

I expressed for 15 weeks and it was awful. So tired I was hallucinating, having all the kit to sterilise, feeling pressure (only from myself) to BF “properly” even though DS refused to... urgh!

And at 6 weeks DS was guzzling 14oz per feed, so what I had expressed was gone in a flash! I had to top up with FF and in hindsight my mental health suffered from the pressure I put myself under to keep expressing. I shouldn’t have persisted for so long.

I did for 5 months. It does take up a lot of time though I was pumping for at least 4 hours a day. I had a medela swing and used a manual pump at the same time. I am 40 weeks pregnant now and have bought the spectre 2 double pump.

• I've tried nipple shields but still felt the pain of the nipples being pinched in her mouth so I didn't feel much better by using them!

Oh that sounds so dreadful. I had a rough time with my oldest. It did pass.

Do, do try nipple shields if you haven’t - even with a shallow latch they should work for you? And there is no pain at all with them.

Painful breastfeeding is horrendous.

Crossed post! Sorry they didn’t work. I promise I won’t mention them again but - did you get the right size? I tried a medium at first, did hurt. The small was the right one for me. Medela was the brand I used.

Either way - good luck!! It is a tough time and I hope it passes very quickly so you can enjoy tour baby!

It's difficult to say without knowing how old your DC is. If under 6 weeks then what you're experiencing is relatively normal and will pass very quickly (it's tough though ). Have you tried nipple shields?

It's possible to mainly express but very unlikely you can do it exclusively - almost all expressing mothers need formula as it's too hard to maintain supply.

I understand the trepidation of how much a feed will hurt- it can be horrendous! I found Lansinoh and nipple shields to be a godsend with DD who I have been successful with (in fact she won’t stop BF). Nipple shields come in different sizes so if you find they aren’t comfy you might need to get on Amazon for a bigger size.

Thanks so much and no worries about mentioning nipple shields ;) maybe I will
Try a different size and medium have still been painful -
Maybe small would suit better

I did 3 months with DD, even the bf support worker was at a loss with us!
With DC3 I managed to pump for 6 months as baby was NG tube fed.

Top tips!

Hands free bra - to me it was essential for full time pumping.

Double breast pump - both breasts being pumped makes let down easier, stimulates more milk production, makes pumping quicker.

Milton tub or cold water sterilisation - I bought two Milton tubs for sterilising the pump parts ( keeps for 24hrs) and milk collection bottles.
Also a 5ltr plastic tub to store extra pump pieces/bottles etc ready to use.
It's much easier to use than having to microwave only 6 bottles or half the pump pieces at a time.

Make sure you get the correct flanges for your nipple size + one size up as I found my nipples stretched over time slightly.

Before & during breast massage!
I used to warm up a wheat bag or water bottle, put the hands free bra on, lay it on my chest for 5 mins, then tuck it under one arm against the side of my breast and massage the opposite side for 2 mins, then switch it under the other side and after that turn on the pump whilst massaging each breast alternating or from underneath simultaneously.

You need to massage from all sides, there are you tube videos to show you where to start.
It really helps drain the breasts efficiently which will increase your production.

You need to drink 3ltrs of fluid a day, mostly water tbh.
I pumped in the summer of 16 heatwave and if I didn't drink enough I saw the affect on my milk production.

I started with 8 pumps per day for the first 5 weeks and cut down to 5 by 3 months, but I always kept my 2am pump because it really helped maintain my output, there is a hormone released during this time of night that helps maintain milk production if stimulated by bf or pumping.

I exclusively expressed with a hired medela symphony for just shy of a year, with the help of domperidone 5 times a day.

You need to pump AT LEAST 8 times a day, never going for more than 4 hours without expressing, and at least twice in the night until your supply is established.

You need to cluster pump for 2 hours every evening when your supply needs increasing until it has increased eg 10 minutes on 10 minutes off.

You need to massage your breasts for 10 minutes before pumping and have your baby close by or look at a photo of your baby to promote the let down reflex as you start pumping.

Once nothing is coming out with the electric pump you need to hand express each breast for 5 minutes to get the last bits out.

Once your supply is well established and you are consistently expressing 25+oz a day you can drop one night session, if your supply remains stable you can then drop one session in the day to take it down to 1 session every 4 hours.

Good luck! It's very hard but was worth it for me

I did it for about 6 months, ideally you'd be best with a double pump I used one at a time then it's less sterilising, it's doable but hard, you still have to pump through the night to keep milk supply up and even if you have loads of milk you still need to pump lots!! I kept having difficulty getting enough milk and was told this could be because it's pumping rather than the baby latching, but you can defo do it!! Xxx

Fruitcider has some very useful tips there!! Wish I had known some of them when I was pumping !! Xx