Pumping to top up newborn feeds

[bunhead34]

Hi,
I have a one week old, I want to pump
So I can top up her feeds when cluster feeding, and so that DH can do the odd bottle.

We gave it a go but she just wouldn't take the bottle.
Is it just too soon? Any advice? The bottles smelled very chemically although we did sterilise them.
Any advice would be much appreciated!

Shameless bump

Congrats on your baby.

These first weeks are tough and the cluster feeds are hard work.

Baby does it to help your body understand their demand. As hard as it is, it's part of process of establishing Breastfeeding. It does pass though I promise.

Dad can help you with this by bringing you food and water, by looking after EVERYTHING else in the house and doing nappies. He can also take baby for a cuddle in the early morning if you need more sleep. Also, if dad gives a bottle, you should be expressing the missed feed so your body knows it was needed. It can end up doubling your work load.

On the expressing, at this point you don't want to do too much unless you have to. Your milk works on supply and demand. If you pump too much, your body thinks baby needs more and will make too much.

A Haakaa style pump is great at this stage for relieving engorgement and catching let down. It doesn't over stimulate and is easy to use. You can have it on while baby feeds so it's no more work for you.

I combi fed one baby and EBF the other. Both were introduced bottles the same way. First baby swapped between easily, second baby totally refused. Tbh I think bottle acceptance for breastfed babies is totally down to them.

But, we got some formula starter kit bottles. For the first few weeks we offered an oz a day from one of these. Just to see if they'd take it. Baby one was fine, baby 2 freaked her shit.

If baby refuses a bottle, DONT PANIC. It's ok. Cluster feeding doesn't last forever. Around 4 months they will settle and be feeding less abs likely a bit more predictable. By 6 months you can introduce a cup with weaning. My LG refused bottles, but would take milk from a cup when she was a bit older.

You got this mama.

Hey OP I'm not an expert as I've only been breastfeeding 10 weeks, so there's probably someone else better placed to advise you

However I've been advised on several occasions not to pump or bottle feed for the first 6 weeks m, reason being

1. you can cause nipple confusion this early so you could mess up baby's latch and that would not be good, it could hurt you and baby wouldn't be getting as much milk from you with an insufficient latch

2. A pump is not going to be as effective at building up your supply as the baby is

3. pump this early on, before your milk supply has established itself could cause other problems including under supply for baby and mastitis (which I've never had but apparently it's absolutely horrible)

The best thing you can do is let your baby do their thing, it's better for you and them in the long run. I've slowly come to realise there are no easy short cuts in doing this.

@RaeRaeMama

Hey OP I'm not an expert as I've only been breastfeeding 10 weeks, so there's probably someone else better placed to advise you

However I've been advised on several occasions not to pump or bottle feed for the first 6 weeks m, reason being

1. you can cause nipple confusion this early so you could mess up baby's latch and that would not be good, it could hurt you and baby wouldn't be getting as much milk from you with an insufficient latch

2. A pump is not going to be as effective at building up your supply as the baby is

3. pump this early on, before your milk supply has established itself could cause other problems including under supply for baby and mastitis (which I've never had but apparently it's absolutely horrible)

The best thing you can do is let your baby do their thing, it's better for you and them in the long run. I've slowly come to realise there are no easy short cuts in doing this.

Also baby could prefer the bottle too, they don't have to work as hard at getting the milk. So they could then refuse your boob and only take bottle

Cluster feeding is your baby putting in their orders to get your supply where they need it to be; it needs to be done at the breast really.

Pump in the morning will probably yield the most milk if you want DP to help sometimes.

It’ll pass, soon, and I don’t think I ever had it as intense as in the first few weeks.

When my boy was born he struggled to BF and also lost weight so we got readmitted to hospital. Our feeding plan was 60ml of milk and basically if I could pump 10-20ml we had to top up with 40-50ml formula. I assume your doing something similar.
We used the tiny tiny bottles with very small tears that were available on hospital...how big is the test you are using?

I understand what a previous poster is saying but in the first few weeks if they struggle to BF obviously you have to do something else so telling you it's not recommended to bottle feed isn't helpful.

Also, a FYI for future... if a feed is solely Breast milk you do not need to sterilise bottles, you only need to do that if using formula. Hot soapy water is sufficient to clean bottles for breastfeeding since breast milk not nipples/breasts are sterile. :) Just thought I'd tell you that to save you some hassle further down the line

But back to your original question, no it's not too soon just keep offering every wee while and your baby will get the hang of it. I do remember midwives milking me and putting milk onto a spoon and touch against baby's lips for baby to lick up.

Sorry sorry sorry I see your baby is BF ok
I go back on what I said and do not use bottles for 6 weeks.

Thanks everyone! I will
Hold off on the bottles for a while

Good luck and congratulations @bunhead34. BF is hard work but you're doing great x

We syringe and cup fed DS before 6 weeks for one feed. It meant DH could feed him but didn’t risk nipple confusion.

At about 5 weeks, we tried him on a bottle & found that paced feeding with the Mam bottles worked best.

He’s still EBF at four months but has the occasional bottle of expressed milk

@MaverickDanger that's a good
Idea! We might give that a go.

@bunhead34 I really second the haaka pump suggestion. Just pop it on the other side during a feed and it will collect any letdown which you can put in a cup. Or actually my bottle refusers have taken small amounts from a spoon. I would really avoid pumping otherwise, and go with the cluster feeding. Not only is your baby cleverly pushing supply, but timed correctly might start getting you a couple of longer sleep stretches in the evening.

Nipple confusion is somewhat disputed, but a pump is very rarely as efficient as baby, and you want them removing as much milk as they need in these early days. Good luck!