Please help do I restart breastfeeding?

[mumsbetsy]

I have a almost 4 week old. I breastfed from the start & she latched so well & slept amazing and it was lovely! Beginning of week 3 she started to cry at the boob and pull away & seemed to have a lot of wind. Due to this & also having a toddler I decided to quit. I spoke to Hv who advised to keep pumping and give her half formula half breast milk to begin with, which I have been doing for the past 4 days.. but since then after every single feed she is clearly in pain & cries for hours after , hardly sleeps during day and is so unsettled. I find myself dreading her next feed because I know all hell will break loose. I'm considering starting breastfeeding again while I still have my supply & I ask to be referred to a Bf specialist which I was offered a few days ago by hv. Has anyone else experienced this or do I just have a difficult baby?

Hi @mumsbetsy, we're just giving your thread a bump in case anyone's around to give you some advice and support.

Hang on in there

Hi I haven't experienced exactly this but I breastfed both of my children for quite a while (one over 2 years and the other almost 1.5 years) exclusively and I think you absolutely can restart, if you feel like it. Breast milk is best for babies especially newborns and gives them much less tummy troubles. Give it a go and see how it goes. I doubt your baby's crying was related to any problem with the breast milk, I think it's just developmental. Try to persevere and see how it goes, wish you luck

Given that both types of feeding are causing upset/crying, I would go back to breastfeeding whilst I still had the supply. If you can afford it, I would see if there is an IBCLC in your area to see you. They can assess for ties, reflux, attachment issues etc. You could also try calling La Leche or the National Breastfeeding line to see if they have any advice. It sounds a bit like reflux to me.

With the obvious disclaimer that everyone's situations are different, in your shoes I'd 100% return to breastfeeding while you can, and get proper support, not just HV team which can be hit and miss for breastfeeding expertise. Has baby been checked for tongue tie by a feeding specialist?

Breastmilk much less likely to cause tummy problems, and although it's time consuming in the early weeks, once you're established, breastfeeding is much lower-faff than bottles.

Hello so we've spoken to a few different doctors and she has been diagnosed with cows milk allergy which explains the fussiness. We've been prescribed with a special formula but I am still expressing still too. If I want to breastfeed I will need to cut out all dairy. I'm not sure whether to do this as I'm worried if I slip up I could make her poorly x

Hi just to say I had a very similar experience. Also around 3 weeks my DD started to cry at the boob etc so we started giving some bottles of formula and the same thing happened she would just scream and scream. She was also diagnosed CMPA.

I went back to breastfeeding and cut out dairy it honestly isn’t too hard. Also if you do slip up occasionally it won’t make her seriously poorly. As they only get a tiny fraction of the dairy in your diet if you have a little bit of dairy it is actually only a tiny % by the time it gets to them if that makes sense. Also several doctors and BF specialists have advised me to continue to have a very small amount of dairy in my diet to give baby some exposure which increases the chance of her eventually growing out of it. I’d say go for it there are so many benefits to BFing.