12 day old all but stopped feeding from me

[RhubarbRhubarb23]

Hi everyone,

My 12 day old was born quite small - 6lbs at 38 weeks. She lost 14% weight by day 5 and we were readmitted to hospital and put on a triple feeding programme - breast, expressed breast milk followed by 25ml formula top up each feed, every 3 hours. She was quite jaundiced too - although not enough to require the light treatment.

She's almost up to birth weight again now. In the past few days she has all but stopped breastfeeding from me and I'm really sad about it - I am desperate to breastfeed her if I can. She takes my breast but does nothing with it - even though she did feed and latch well initially when she was born.

Is there anything I can do to get breastfeeding back? I breastfed my son until he was 4 and we both got so much out of it.

I'm feeling really teary about this today and would love any tips or tricks to help get us breastfeeding. I'm pumping a lot - 6-8 times a day and generally getting 30-70ml per pump (from both boobs).

Oh I'm sorry that must be so difficult! Does she take a bottle easily?

Have you tried squeezing out a bit of milk before putting the nipple in her mouth? I think the main thing is to keep offering!

Has she been checked for tongue tie? What you said about taking your breast but doing nothing with it resonated with me and my baby was later found to be tongue tied. I would suggest ask if you can be referred to an infant feeding specialist midwife if you haven’t already.

Offer the breast as much as you can, google breast compressions if you're not already doing those, they can help baby stay interested at the breast and sucking and swallowing for a little longer, loads of skin to skin, and maybe strip baby off so she's not so sleepy when she's feeding.

Thanks everyone!

@TheBeesKnee she does take a bottle easily yes! I do squeeze milk first..I'll keep persevering, thank you x
@Fairylightsxxx she has been briefly checked for tongue tie but I'd like her to be checked again. I've been referred to the SIFT but haven't heard from them yet... thank you x
@Abracadabra1 all good suggestions, thank you so much...I've been doing these but not super regularly so I'll get to them a bit more!

Grateful to you all for your replies x

I had a lot of trouble breastfeeding at the start and I think it took about 3 weeks to establish. The key was consistently offering the breast.

A bottle is "easier" so babies can become a bit lazy.

Best of luck!