help please on expressing milk and supply etc

[Snarf02]

i have posted several times recently on here, my sister has been having real probs feeding her son (he is 8 days old). He has lost a lot of birth weight (110 grams i think over when they call acceptable), he was jaundice and just could not latch on once her milk came in. She has kept trying him on the boob every 2/3 hours but he cant latch on and when he does latch on has about 8 sucks then stops so she has been feeding him out of a syringe/cup but he has not been taking loads. The mw came round today and has advised her to express her milk in a bottle and feed that to him as he has only gained a minute amount since Saturday and he really needs to start putting weight on. She is still going to try him at the boob at every feed. She has been pumping every 2/3 hrs both sides since her milk came in to keep hers supply going.
She really wants ideally to go back to bf but as he is not taking to it if it does not work out she wants to give him her milk in a bottle for 6 months.

Questions i have

Is there anything she can take to boost her supply i.e certain foods or supplements.
How often will she need to express at every feed and is this both sides to keep her supply going.
If she keeps trying him at the boob should he come back to this

Sorry for long post

bump

does he have a tongue tie?

can she see a BF counsellor? that would really be ideal, if a counsellor can watch her put him on the breast.

i drank Napiers Nursing Tea, because i found it relieving, but apparently just plain ol' fennel tea works, too.

bump!

bump

the other thing i thought of that helped me was getting into bed with DD2, her in just her nappy and me in just my underwear, for an entire day and keeping her as near the boobs as possible, rather than timing when i put her on.

it seemed to really stimulate supply!

Fenugreek's supposed to help supply.
Can't remember if I've posted on any of your other threads but has he been checked for tongue tie?

Would echo what others have said re getting a bf counsellor to watch, it might be a fairly easy to solve latch problem... And fennel tea is great... Pumping keeps the supply going and as soon as baby gets the hang of it the boobs only take a tiny while to produce more milk anyway because as the baby is sucking the hormones are starting off the whole milk making process. One last thing is maybe try a cranial osteopath did amazing things for my lo as she was a sleepy emergency c-section jaundiced no idea how to suck and open her mouth really wide properly - type baby, sounds similar to your nephew... There is a clinic especially for babies in London and its a charity so you only pay what you can afford, no idea where you sis is and whther this would be a possibility for her. Best of luck and well done to her for perservering

With Dd2, she had the problem of not opening her mouth wide enough and I had the problem of not a) bringing baby to breast and b) not putting my nipple into her mouth at the right time and right way.

So DD2 would basically clamp down and nipple suck, not breastfeed.

Needless to say, when she discovered not a lot was coming out because she wasn't milking the breast, she didn't see the point.

Just one session one on one with a BF counsellor literally saved our breastfeeding.

bumping

An update he was having the bottle of expressed milk a lot yesterday and then had 2 good feeds of her late afternoon and then they seem to have had a break through as they have had the best night yet as he slept for a couple of hours fed then slept again then fed etc(some nights last wk they did not get to sleep til 6am as he was so unsettled) and the fab news is that he had soem bottle and then boob at every feed and then since 5am he has just had her boob and at 8am was feeding for 40 mins of her so it sounds as if they are turing the corner. She is still pumping every 2 hours for the expressed milk for the bottle nad her double pump comes today which should make things easier.

Hopefully the cranial osteopath can also help tomorrow. The midwife is coming today and i am going around as well so will see if can get no of counsellor.

Thanks for all replies

Sorry to hijack your thread, Snarf, but Expat, could I just ask if the nipple-clamp and the proper feeding latch felt different to you?

I don't have access to a lactation consultant and I am wondering if my mix-fed baby is getting anything at all when she's breastfeeding. She clamps on so strongly it feels like I could get up and walk around with her dangling from my boob like a piece of avant-garde jewellery, but whether she's actually getting anything out is impossible for me to tell.

My supply has been pretty shaky from the start and I am starting to wonder if it's nothing to do with the c-section and possibly connected to her latch.