how long to restart BF?

[lisad123]

I have been in hospital for last 2 and half weeks and been pumping and dumping due to toxic breast milk.
Started BF dd2 yesterday but have had to top her up with FF after every feed, even after feeding her on both breasts for about 10-15 mins.
How long will i need to keep topping her up for? How long till my BM comes back to normal??
Thanks

Lisa

most HV dont reccomend FF....if your dd is feeding from you she will up her feed times/amounts to what she needs so your breasts can produce the right amount of milk for her.....is she latching on ok? if so you should just have to persivere until your milk suppy gets back to normal, probably a week or so, it may seem hard but keep at it and it'll be worth it, giving a ff is basically defeating the object of getting your supply up.

good luck!!

There's this from Kellymom which might help. Hope it all goes well.

that was supposed to be dont reccomend ff as a whole, but ff as 'top-up'....

glaskham - which HVs do you know ?

Lisa - best thing is to call one of the bf helplines.

There's too much to ask you, and you need to be in dialogue with someone.

How often were you expressing? If less than 8 x in 24 hours inc at least 1 x at night, then there may well be a real drop in your supply, and you may need formula as a 'bridge'.

How old is your baby, and why was your milk toxic?

a good friend of mine is a health visitor in blackpool. and my second post was posted wrong aswell- it meant to read that HV's dont not reccomend ff but if wanting to get bf back on track not to 'top-up'

my milk was toxic as i had jaundice and was being pumped full of high dose AB and painkillers and then anasthenic.
I was expressing about 4 times during the day and 1-2 at night.
I have tried to ring breastfeeding support line but my local support is never avaiable and at national rate its hard to keep calling.
I have been putting her to breast every feed and then topping up with bottle as she is still hungry. She takes about 2 oz after but really doesnt like bottle and cries though feed which never happened when she was just on bottle.
HV suggested loads of skin to skin which isnt possible because of my stitches, but to keep putting her to breast.
Im not getting a lot of "let down". Is it worth me expressing off more??

Thanks

L

Sorry, glaskham, still not understanding you at all

Lisa - you've had a really bad, horrible time

You deserve a medal for sticking with it all! But it's likely that your suppply is right down and giving formula is probably entirely necessary for the moment. If you can't do skin to skin, keeping your baby as close as physically possible in whatever way you can is really helpful.

In this transition time, expressing as often as you can will help, too.

I still think you need to talk to someone - the phone call rate is not prohibitively expensive. At 1-3p a minute, even a 20 minute call is not going to be more than 60p. Have you assumed it's more than this?

Hope you get help soon.

well it said national rate and my baby brain thought "international rate" DUH!!

will try to call again tonight. i hate giving her a bottle, makes me so sad
Will have to start expressing offin between feeds but not so easy with dd1 around wanting me too.

Lisa - this is what I did to get ds off the top ups. Agree that getting a bf counsellor is the best thing, but just thought I would post my experience in case it helps.

Ds took 290 ml the first time we topped him up. We gave him as much as he wanted after every feed for 5 days, and I expressed as much as I could bear after each feed too (produced practically nothing, but pumped anyway to stimulate.

After 5 days we halved the amount of formula (he hated the bottle, so that was what happened when we didn't encourage him too much). That was too little, he got dehydrated and lost weight. So we upped it a bit again and then gradually diminished it over 2 weeks.

After the 2 weeks I had started to produce a bit when expressing so topped him up with about 30 ml (1oz) a day for a few days. He started to refuse the bottle and prefer the breast so I stopped expressing or topping up at that point.

I found that taking more milk plus capsules really helped me, also having a little routine when expressing to encourage a pavlovian response and make the letdown easier.

BTW ds had terrible reflux so was an absolutely dreadful feeder, you may well find it much easier than I did.

hth, and that you get better soon.

I relactated when ds1` was 6w. He had loist too much weight and I had been topping-up wqith formula after each feed. According to the formula tin, the amount of formula he was drinking was a full feed.

The way I went about it was to pile everything I thought I would need for the next few hours (food, drink, telephone, TV remote, nappies, wipes) on the sofa, and just veg with ds. I breastfed him whenever he asked (rather than 4-hourly, as I had when he was haiving ff) and didn't give him any ff until there were no longer any gaps between breastfeeds.

At first, IIRC, he was feeding about 1.5hourly, and needed f about mid-morning. Within 4-5w, however, he was going about 3h between feeds, and not needing f until about lunvchtime. Even then, he only took half a bottle.

What I didn't know abut at that time were skin-to-skin and fenugreek/domperidone.

If your stitches are a problem, have you tried feeding lying down? You can open your shirt and take off the baby's clothes and get snuggly under the blanket, without any pressure being put on your belly (I'm assuming C-section?).

HTH.

BTW, if anything I say contradicts Tiktok, go by Tiktok. I can only speak from my own experience, but Tiktok knows what she's talking about.

Thanks roman. I have been bf when ever she needs it and some feeds she does need a top up at all, mostly the night feeds.
I didnt have a csection, I had my gall bladder taken out, so have 4 different sites for stitches. One by belly button, 2 on my side and one in centre between ribs where my bra sits. So skin to skin is not possible

Ib thanks for pumping advice will defo try it

Lisa

Ouch! That on top of recovering from chidlbirth!

The best skin-to-skin is baby on or at chest, but it isn't the only way.

Physical contact aids healing. It lowers your bp and reduces secretion of stress hormones, as well as promoting secretion of breastfeeding hormones. So any skin-to-skin with your baby will be good for you. Even just stroking her under her clothes would be contact.

Is there any position in which you can relax and get comfortable? Can you lie back-to-back with the baby while she sleeps? I often do this when co-sleeping. It's a wonderful way to connect with the baby's breathing rhythms. Can she lie on your thighs or lean against your tummy while you sit up in bed or in an armchair? Are you allowed to bathe - you could take her into the bath with you?

Breastfeeding Network 0870 900 8787
Breastfeeding Network's Drugline 08700 604233
NCT supporter line 0870 444 8708
La Leche League 0845 120 2918
Association of BF Mothers 020 7813 1481 and 08444 122 949

(copied off Hunkermunker's profile)