Those of you who have been told to top up with formula when you wanted to keep breastfeeding

[hunkermunker]

What did you say?

Who told you to do it? Did they suggest any other ways to fix whatever issue they thought the formula would solve?

Did you?

How did it make you feel?

Did you continue to breastfeed after you'd topped up?

I'm sure you're all sick of my story re DS2's low blood sugars, so I won't bore you again with it - suffice to say it made me feel upset, undermined, angry and like I'd been punched in the stomach - here was somebody who was meant to be trained to support me to breastfeed and failing to do so.

Was told to top up dd2 as no wet nappies and weight loss. I think this was probably the correct advice for the short term, however rather than then getting help to stop the bottle I was just asked if I was ready to stop bf at 3 weeks.

I rang the NCT and found out that she was an ineffective sucker. My midwives and health visitors were useless but a combination of NCT and Mumsnet(especially tiktok and twinklemegan) meant that dd2 wasn't wholly formula fed from a very early age.

I am still cross at the bad advice I was given from 'officials'. I was lucky as I was able to access other resources but what about people who can't or who trust the health professionals to give them the correct information?

My friend who is a bf counsellor is also a HV and tells me that she receieved just 2 hours training in university about breastfeeding - the rest meant to be learned "on the job" from qualified HVs who'd had the equally crap 2 hours of training. Luckily for my DF (and for the Mums she supports) she has fed four babies of her own and trained as a bf counsellor through the NCT. She shudders at the advice she has heard some of her colleagues give and it's a real bone of contention between her and her employers.

Unfortunately I didn't know her when DS was born. I formula fed as I struggled with BF from the word go. Lack of trained support meant that there was nobody to turn to. Even my HV who was kind and supportive didn't have the time to spend with me which might have helped. The area had gone from 3 HVs to 1 and she was just rushed off her feet.

I formula fed from about 3 weeks (I think - my memory isn't good after 4 years). I do wonder though if I might have managed longer with the right support - a bit off the original topic I know but relevant when talking about the crap advice given by some professionals. They are just badly trained and not enough investment is made to rectify this.