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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Original poster

should i bother to continue with bf such a small amount

63 replies

moocowme · 04/10/2007 22:41

my baby was 4 weeks early and is on his second week in the NICU/SCBU and looks like he will be in for about another week. I travel in to see him every day but this takes about an hour both ways so i generally do 11-8 every day with him.

early on i was unsuccesful with bf due to the sheer pain of it but have got some nipple shields now. I am managing to feed him 2-3 times a day for anything from 10-20 minutes. the rest of the time he is on formula and about half of this is tube fed until he can establish better feeding.

I realise my milk will not last forever at this rate and he is probably not getting a lot from me.

should i continue with this? does anyone think its beneficial for DS even at this small amount?

OP posts:

Original poster

moocowme · 15/10/2007 18:53

we did not get to the bf clinic this afternoon as we woke up for a feed right on starting time and by the time we finished and got in the car and drove over it was finished.

will have to try another one tomorrow as their is one every day in this area in a different location.

i was worried that my milk was drying up last night as he was very hungry and would not stay on breast at all but looks like a growth spurt as he downed 160ml of formula and then slept it off for most of the night. had a good 20min on breast just now and thought that was ok. still top him up with a bootle tho.

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CantSleepWontSleep · 15/10/2007 22:31

How many times a day are you putting him to the breast now? The more the better if you want to build your milk back up.

Mum2boys3 · 15/10/2007 22:58

Do you actually want to move onto full breastfeeding as from some of your posts in not quite coming clear if you are happy to mix feed then carry on what your doing giving extra bottles but if u want to go to full bf then i suggest you follow some of the very good advice all ready given. I am a trained peer breast feeding support worker and my main advice would be to stop giving him the formula and as mentioned before go to bed for him for the week rest, drink plenty of water, eat and only offer him breast milk as this will make your body make more he wont go hungry as long as you keep putting him back on the breast. for the fisrst 10 weeks al my baby eanted to do was feed but now at 12 weeks is feeding every 4hours and ibn a good settled routine. It does work out in the end and baby does not need to be so full that he cant possibly take more.

Good luck.

tiktok · 15/10/2007 23:21

Hope you get good help at the bf place, moocowme.

I'd only repeat that your milk will dwindle without frequent feeding and/or expressing, and 160 ml as a top up of formula is a large one....the bf clinic should help you reduce the amount of formula you are giving and support you in increasing the bf/expressing. It may not be possible to drop the formula straight away, but you can dvelop a plan which means you give less and less as the bf improves.

Good luck

Original poster

moocowme · 16/10/2007 15:01

i think i shall have to wait until the rain stops to go out as its a bit much to handle at the moment.

so far i am bf for the first 20-30mins of any feed then top up with bottle as DS is much better at sucking early on we do this for 4 of the 6 feeds in any 24hours. today i tried it without nipple shields towards the end and it felt ok. spoke to HV briefly and she said some ealry babies have small mouths and find it hard to latch properly but this improves as they grow. so at least this bit is working well.

at first i wanted to bf exclusively for at least 6 months but htis could be a bit ambitous. Just making it to some bf for 2 weeks would be good. if i could build it up to be full time it would be good but i am not going to stress if we don't get to this as any bf is better than none at all.

expressing i think is not an option at the moment as i hate the electric ones and cannot find a hand one that i can try out without paying loads of money.

at the moment just keeping what we have going would be good. building up even better but this might take a while i think.

so my current question is how long whould i bf for in each session? I am not sure about withholding the bottle afterwards if he wants it to top up with.

OP posts:

Original poster

moocowme · 16/10/2007 15:08

topping up with a bottle is usually different amounts. sometimes its only 60ml through the day. the 160ml was unusual and i put it down to a growth spurt. i think he must be getting maybee 30-50ml of breast milk possibly.

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Mum2boys3 · 16/10/2007 17:03

i think you are worring to much about amounts when u breastfeed all babies tend to slow down on sucking after the initial minutes. if your baby is still small then i would consider just keep offering your breast it will only take a day or two at most for your body to relise it needs to make more. your baby wont go hungry as long as u keep feeding breast milk from you.

stop worrying about times and amounts and feed on demand.

tiktok · 16/10/2007 17:30

moocowme, timing feeds is not going to help you...the only way you can build up and maintain a milk supply is to breastfeed frequently and effectively, and not to remove the baby from the breast to give formula....that is a recipe for early cessation of breastfeeding, sorry to be blunt

CantSleepWontSleep · 16/10/2007 19:54

'at first i wanted to bf exclusively for at least 6 months but this could be a bit ambitious' - it isn't too ambitious moocowme, but you need to listen to the advice given by the experts on here if you are to do so.

What exactly are you hoping to get out of going to the bf support group?

Original poster

moocowme · 16/10/2007 20:07

we have had some sucsess with latching today. it does not seem to hurt much now. I have been reading and watching some of the links and videos others have suggested on this forum and think we are making progress in that regard.

we had 35min feed on both tonigh and only 50ml from bottle after that and he is sleeping well now so i think we might be getting somewhere slowly. only thing i can't do is press and squirt like in one video. i would like someone to check that i am actually still producing milk as i can't quite see it that well due to needing a new prescription in my glassess and not quite having the time to organise this at the moment.

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moondog · 16/10/2007 20:38

Oh good news!

tiktok · 16/10/2007 22:57

moocow, I don't understand why you gave your baby the 50 ml of formula though....35 minutes on the breast may not have been long enough for him. 50 ml is better than 150 ml though

I am not sure why you think you may not be producing at all - why would this be? I do think you need someone to talk to in real life, and to observe a feed.

Original poster

moocowme · 18/10/2007 22:38

finally got to see a bf person today. and did a bit more with latch. only now DS is a bit more fussy with latching on but after trying for a while we did well, i think he is finding a bottle a bit to easy. going to keep offering him breast first at every meal (except the 3am one! i am to tired at this hour) and see how it goes. shall be going back for some more help next week.

ooh did manage to express a few drops manually as well. something i was to squeamish to do before.

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