Will I ever manage to Breastfeed? Also using domperidone

[New2Mumming]

Hi Mums!

Re: low supply, lazy Baby, domperidone

Looking for advice and experiences as a new mum struggling to Breastfeed.

Baby was born at 37 weeks because SGA (weighed 5ib13) and from the offset wasn't bothered with feeding. My midwife put her on my boob immediately but I really don't think she was feeding. The next 36 hrs saw me desperately trying to squeeze and scrape colostrum until medical staff agreed the baby wasn't getting anything and started her on formula as blood sugar was low.

She's 5 weeks now and only interested in suckling for comfort. If she's hungry she wants her bottle.

Right now here's my situation:
-I still want to Breastfeed

• expressing maximum 50ml per day by pump and hand altogether whilst baby is consuming about 800ml formula per day
• also using nipple shields as she won't latch - my lactation consultant says my nips are fine and she is just small, but the baby is also lazy (wonderful, but lazy :p ) and my nipples don't have a teet, more bulbous. But my boobs are pretty small.
• have been taking domperidone 3xper day for 4 days, don't notice a change
• I've read that I should have been expressing 8x per day, but between hour long feeds every 2.5-3 hrs followed by holding her upright to avoid reflux, sterilising, fighting with her to try my boob and getting some sleep, I haven't managed.

Any thoughts or opinions ? One by one the people around me have given up on my breastfeeding journey, starting with LO herself haha, HV wasn't optimistic, and now even my husband thinks it's time to stop bothering. Just me and lactation consultant holding out hope.

Would I ever be able to produce enough milk? I dont know how to get Baby interested without denying her formula for a few days, but as she was SGA and still on the lowest percentiles for weight I don't want to.

If I only get 30-50ml would baby get enough antibodies and benefits in that small amount ie is it still worth the hassle ?

Recommendations on nipple shields?

I'm considering getting my neice to bf from me as she is older and has a large appetite. Anyone done this before? SIL doesn't mind. I think it could help my supply, I think a nursing baby is better than pump or hand.

Keen to hear thoughts !!! Xx

Has your lactation consultant mentioned a supplemental nursing system? It can be a great way of getting baby to be happier at the breast, increasing your supply with the extra stimulation and cutting down time as you're giving the supplement whilst you're breastfeeding via a tube.

I have almost non existent supply due to insufficient glandular tissue and used an SNS for 7 months with my first and using one again now with my second.

Domperidone can take a week or two to see a difference and you may need to increase your dose.

Well done for keeping going, you want to breastfeed so I hope you will find others to support you.

have you tried the National breastfeeding line?
Local drop in or LLL?
kellymom is great website

people may raise eyebrows about your niece but I think it would be a lovely thing to do.

any breast milk is better than none, provided you are happy to keep going.

i used mam nipple shields for over a year, but tried a few different ones to see what worked best for us.

very best of luck, let us know how you get on x

This probably isn't what your way to hear, but sometimes babies just decide.

I had the opposite problem
I didn't want to breastfeed beyond some half hearted idea of slightly mix. My baby refused bottles from birth and because she was struggling to gain weight, like you, I had to go with what she was happy with, because she didn't have the reserves to push her.

I know it's a problem you'd kill for right now, but for me it was tricky - I was supposed to be going back to work pt very quickly, my husband was taking 6m off for a baby he couldn't even feed, and I'd seen so many friends 'trapped ' with a bf baby, whilst I felt I had freedom with my bottle fed one. I tried every bottle, formula, expressing, syringing, cup feeding. My husband even used an SNS through his finger to see if she'd suck that.

I tried everything to persuade baby to feed in the way I wanted, and eventually gave up, because I wasnt doing it for my baby, but for me, and both of us were happier for it (saying that I couldn't leave her for the evening till she was gone 2)

If the medication works then great, but don't lose sight that you have a baby that feeds fine - just not in the way you envisaged. Don't let pursuit of this one tiny (in the grand scheme of things) part of parenting consume you in a way that affects your enjoyment of your baby.

You've clearly poured your heart into trying to breastfeed and gone further in this pursuit than most would. Starving her would be wrong as you've acknowledged.

I don't think your are necessarily at the end of the road - maybe try a couple of weeks with the drugs, and it can't hurt to try with your niece. But ultimately it may not even be about your supply, but that your baby just isn't bothered about boobs, in the same way mine wasn't bothered about bottles. We may think we have control, but they decide a surprising amount.

Best of luck for whatever you (and baby!) decide.

Sns sounds great, no, LC never mentioned it. I just wonder if it'd work with nipple shields? An is it commercial available...
Thanks for sharing your experience, glad it worked for you!!!

Are you drinking gallons and eating plenty as well as getting some rest? Sounds odd I know having just had a baby but milk didn’t come in until a I actually got some sleep.
Lots of skin to skin as well. If you can feed in the bath the warmth speeds up the let down.
Enjoy the skin to skin for a lovely bonding time don’t put too much pressure on the bf.

I didn't even start bf until 8 weeks and it took another four to get into the swing of it. Our issue was posterior tongue tie. I recommend silver nipple shields but honestly seeing a lactation consultant and joining your local breastfeeding support group and going as much as possible will help you get to the underlying issue. There will be a reason such as TT, reflux, etc. I didn't bottle feed I cup fed until baby could latch as it teaches lapping, which is the tongue and jaw movement baby needs to use for bf. Bottles teach sucking and it's such a shame when professionals encourage this when the mum wants bf help!

Thank you for the support! It means so much. Yep love Kellymom and LLL. Will look at Mam, I have medela at the moment.

Your husband trying to feed with his finger is so gorgeous, thank you for sharing and being open, your perspective has really helped 😊

I think I am, actually I think I'm fatter now than I got in pregnancy! Yes it is mad that sleep is an ingredient for bf, that's why being told to express through the night confused me. Thank you

Wow, didn't know that about cup feeding. Well done you! Will look at silver nipple shields thanks you

So you can buy a ready made kit made by Medela, it's what I used with my first. This time around I'm using a DIY one as replacement tubing for the Medela is out of stock and I refuse to buy a whole new kit when I've still got the rest of it from last time. So now I use a normal bottle with a cross cut teat, and a thin ng tube that I bought online that sits in the bottle of milk.

They can work great with a nipple shield, you can latch the same way as you would without it or some people find it works well to feed the tube through one of the holes, which helps to hold it in place.

Great thank you! Have ordered a SNS 😀

This was me a year ago!!! Baby never latched well, would scream every time I tried. I ended up expressing and spent so much money on pumps, but eventually I found hand expressing was better. I got a private domperidone prescription as I was getting f all milk and ended up on the maximum dose but never got more than about 60ml, despite expressing every couple of hours. I had him checked for tongue tie, nothing.

Ended up expressing that tiny amount for 8 months, I couldn't give it up. It surprised me how reluctant I was to admit defeat.

I have read that 50ml is beneficial so if you feel able to, keep going. People have suggested the SNS, it was next for me to try but by the time the lactation consultant suggested it my baby was well and truly used to bottles so I didn't. Hopefully you'll have more luck than me!!

Good luck with it! They can be a bit fiddly to get the hang of, if you need any advice or tips let me know!

Have you had a check for tongue tie by someone who really knows about them?

Two of mine had TT and one had to have it snipped twice. With my second I also pumped every two hours after a breastfeed plus formula top up around the clock for about two weeks to get my supply up (along with domperidone, lactation experts etc. etc.). After a month that DC then exclusively breastfed for two years.

With my first I did the same but I now know that I had lost more blood during the birth than was estimated and it seemed that this limited how much I could ever breastfeed/pump so I always mixed fed.

However, the around the clock pumping and stress of it all was not good for my physical or mental health and if I had to advise anyone in my situation now, I would tell them to mix feed from the beginning and just concentrate on taking care of themselves and enjoying their baby.

I am on a similar breastfeeding journey but maybe further along. Ds was born at 35 weeks with IUGR so really tiny. initially tube fed with eighteen days in NICU. When there I pumped constantly for dribbles of milk, and he has that combined with nutriprem.

It took ages to establish some feeding, but now at four months we have a routine of him feeding ten to fifteen minutes before every bottle. I've found the right breast works but left doesn't though we try it often. I pump twice a day and get about 120ml, weirdly more than I got before the short feeds

It's so hard, but fifty mils is still really good. Also, I know how important this is to you, as it is to me, but there are so so many ways to be an amazing mother and create a beautiful bond, and formula is ok, just hard when it's not what you imagined. You're doing so well to persevere although if you reach a stage where you want to quit that too is admirable after all your efforts. I know this all sounds platitudinous though.

Oh, and sleep! Sleep is so much better for milk supply than pumping lots overnight in my experience. Just try to do one early morning pump if she'll let you.

I had a very similar experience with my first to the point where she dehydrated and ended up in hospital. I know it's hard but honestly once I gave up expressing etc my life was so much easier and I relaxed more into motherhood.
I would also be careful for over diagnosis of tongue tie, one nurse said she had a tongue tie and was really pushy about it, the others didn't. I didn't have her done as I didn't like the idea and wasn't convinced. My DD started talking at 6 months and never stopped.. there was no way that child was tongue tied! I also know people who had it done and it made no difference at all. Good luck and relax!

I hired a hospital grade pump which really helped up my supply. I also went to a breastfeeding Cafe and found this invaluable.

All the best.

Congratulations on your baby! I also recommend googling insufficient glandular tissue although a good IBCLC should spot that. The SNs is a great tool (although fiddly). Whatever you decide rest assured you have given your baby a great start!

Could you tell me where you bought the NG tube? My 2 week old refuses the bottle and weight gain is poor so I've been on the hunt for this!

@Feedingnightmare www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133119069846 I've been using these ones and so far so good!

I hope it helps!

It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. I had premmie twins and low supply and also ended up using domperidone, shields and pumping. The NICU staff gave them formula as it was really critical to get some weight on the asap, but I kept pumping and started every feed on the boob.
They also had awful colic so we ended up with a MAD routine for a while where we started with a boob feed, then DH would offer a top up bottle of pumped BM with colic meds in, then another with formula. So that was efficient with twins 😂
BUT my supply did build, even to the point of having spare bottles in the freezer, and we kept mixed feeding to 6-7 months.
There is a great La Leche leaflet I had which shows how to hand express, which used to kickstart my supply when pumping. Being warm, using a warm flannel etc helps, and I found using my own quiet Medela pump much better than the noisy hospital one.
Also, nurses used to say think of your baby while pumping but I found watching mindless tv and tuning out so I was relaxed was better. I pumped a lot to Kirsty and Phil!
Most critically we avoided any bugs RSV etc for that 6 month time, could be coincidence but I think it was the antibodies in BM so worth it for that alone.
I also ate a metric ton of flapjack and porridge as I’d heard oats increase supply. No idea if true but I really like flapjack!

Thanks again all of you for your support on this!
I did try the SNS for a bit, worked well half the time and was a fiddly mess the other 😂
In the end when baby was just gone 8 weeks I decided to go full formula, and now one month later I'm glad I did. Life got so much better. I was exhausting myself bullying my boobs in between feeds, and domperidone gave me severe thirst and didn't help at all.
Baby is thriving and has grown into three chins on Neocate formula🥰
I am so grateful for the advice you all gave, hoping that if we're blessed with another baby I'll manage to BF but not worried if not. I'm glad this experience has given me perspective and tbh I'm less ignorant of why mums turn to formula now!
Niggle in my mind that I could have IGT but for now it's no worry.

Very sympathetic, I had a similar experience to begin with and couldn't establish breastfeeding, so we had to rely on formula.

My feeding clinic showed how to use a naso-gastric tube dipped the formula with the other end taped to my breast. The idea was that baby would be rewarded with formula while on the breast. It didn't really work for us but it might be worth trying.

Secondly, I kept breastfeeding my baby for comfort. Suddenly at 8m, he decided he quite liked it! So we kept on breastfeeding, not for nutrition, but for comfort and connection. Now I'd quite like to wean him off but he's very resistant. 😂

Good luck OP

Thabks I think your tube idea is the same as the SnS
Wow so lovely that he ended up bf!!