How to go back to bf?

[oysterpots]

Ok, so my experience has been a bit of a tedious long and drawn out one... basically misdiagnosed mastitis turned out to be thrush, by which time I couldn't take the pain any more and reduced my bf to two a day - one morning and one evening, while ff the rest (6-8 bottles).

Finally got my gp to prescribe fluconazole and the thrush is clearing up, so much so that the pain is gone and I can bf without it hurting at all (a total revelation!).

Today I bf my DS 4 times rather than the two a day I'd been doing, followed by formula as my breasts obviously weren't supplying quite enough (think he was getting between 1-2oz per feed but can't be sure).

So do I just carry on like this, upping the number of bf per day until we're back to exclusively bf? Any other tips to increase supply? Thanks

Sorry about the thrush.
As a fellow sufferer (twice) can really sympathise.
Bloody grim isn't it?

How old is your baby?
Lots of threads in archives on reestablishing a good supply (do you know how to look in the archives?)
Obviously you can't drop all those formula feeds at once.

Key to it is lots of skin to skin contact in unstressed circumstances and an access all hours situation. Often suggested is a 'babymoon' where you take to bed with the baby and feed and feed and feed.

Feasible?

Agree with Moondog, loads of skin to skin and feed as often and as much as possible. Since feeding during the night is good for boosting supply it would prob help you if you sleep with your baby and feed him as often as he wants at night.
Have aso read that eating oats is good for your milk supply. Good news if you like porridge/flapjacks! GOod luck with it all...

Lots of skin to skin and baby in bed with you - on demand feeding and hopefully in a couple of weeks you will be up to demand again.
Keep going - well done for keeping it up after such a shit time OP

oyster - i remember your earlier threads / posts so great news on teh thrush clearing up and you sound so much happier. i am no expert but i think the advice is to get bubba on the boob as much as possible. goo dluck and please let usknow how you are doing.

I had to mix feed my little boy (three weeks early) for the first 6-8 weeks and my milk supply was probably affected. From 8 weeks he was exclusively breastfed, until I started him on solids at 6 months.
I gradually reduced the amount of formula 'top-up' as they put it in the hospital. I don't know if it helps, but I took lots of notes, such as time of feed, length of bf, amount of artificial feed any ebm. I did use the HV's weigh-in as a kind of yard-stick, to make sure he wasn't shrinking away, but he never did, just gained slowly. He was very diddy, but now is 50th centile for height and length, I just let him grow at his own pace, at one point he was 9th centile.
I tried everything to get the supply to increase and probably overdid it because I ended up getting blocked milk ducts on a few occasions because he didn't really want all that much.
Things I did included, feeding in the bath (at almost 3 he still always wants to get in with me when I have a bath), offering the breast every hour, having naps and lying skin to skin in bed during the day, expressing for about 5 minutes every hour, putting my ds in a sling during the day when I was doing things.
I also took fenugreek (poo), domperidome for a while and then went to a herbalist at Napiers and started to take goat's rue and vervain, which were phenomenal, I think those herbs produced more than domperidome, but tasted foul.
Oh I also drank fennel and nettle tea (quite nice actually) and took alfalfa supplements (very nutritious, given to brood mares in racing stables apparently).
I think in retrospect I would have just continued to offer every hour, done skin to skin in bed (never turn down the opportunity to have a sleep ), had baths together, because its the only way I could get a wash, and taken a bit of the goat's rue and vervain, it probably would have worked just as well.
Quite a handy thing for the bath is one of those bath floats, like a lilo for tiny babies. It frees up your hands whilst in the bath.
I think I may have had a slow let-down because my little boy would freak out when I first tried to attach him and pull away very quickly. I found that a quick breast massage and a minute of hand expressing would get things going for him, so he was less likely to get cross about the wait. Not every time, but if you are doing the offer every hour or so, then you know you are going to be offering so can prepare. On the other hand, I wouldn't stop him feeding to do breast massage, if he just latched on naturally. I don't think he would have been impressed 'Now just wait there baby, while I do this'. Yeah right.
I'm sure you will find a way to make the bf work. I'm still feeding my little boy.
That turned into a bit of an essay, but I do hope that something there helped.

Oh you are going to be just fine. As everyone keeps saying just keep putting your baby to your breast. That is the best way of getting your supply back up.

If you really want to go down the herbal route check out the breastfeeding heaven website for supplements for increasing milk.

Maybe also try expressing on the feeds your DS is a bottle. Just to stimulate. And the all important thing - get at least one feed in between midnight and 4am (apparently the best time to stimulate milk production).

I am sure more expert advice will be given.....

I wish you the best and let us know how you get on.

apparently marsbars and guiness are good for supply

2nd time i have mentioned guiness on mn today

but you sound like you are doing the right thing and very sensibly too. good luck

Mars bars and Guiness!!
Not that I have any probs with supply at the mo but think I will go down this route just in case...