Is it possible to resume breastfeeding at nearly 5 months?

[Doggomom91]

My baby girl had a missed tongue tie which was snipped at 6 weeks but it didn't improve latch. It actually reattached and was re-done at 12 weeks. For all this time I triple-fed ; breastfeeding, then topping up with formula, then pumping. The second snip did help the latch but by 14 weeks I was completely exhausted. Baby started getting breast averse and for this reason I started offering less and less boob, instead opting to exclusively pump. I had supply issues because of shallow latch and manage to build my supply to 80% of baby's requirements. We give one bottle of formula per day. However, at 19 weeks baby's second tongue tie procedure has healed and she has great tongue movement. I miss breastfeeding at every second of every day and I hate pumping. My heart is broken and I want to try again. Is this possible? Has anyone had any success restarting at this stage?

well done for building your supply to 80%, that’s a huge achievement when pumping. I don’t know about chances of resuming direct breastfeeding- I would offer the breast and see what happens. Or try a lactation consultant. But well done for keeping going pumping for so long, you’ve done really well

Did you not see the part where I said I am currently making 80% of babies requirements? I'm not sure on what planet that means "nowhere near the quantity required for a baby this age". I add one bottle of formula now and would continue to do so if by some miracle I could establish b/f. She is 91st percentile and has continued to be...I did this with my milk.

It can be done, but you might want to get support from your local La Leche League group.

Also, be proud of yourself. I exclusively pumped for 6 months and it was bloody hard.

Thank you so much. I am proud of what we have achieved together but it's just not enough for me. I'm happy to combi feed as my supply won't likely increase to 100% and I'm okay with that. We've seen lactation consultants previously but that was before we found that her tie had reattached. I wonder if I can get some more support now further down the line and if it will help.

Very well done to have pumped so much all this time! It's not an easy road to take, so you must have been really determined, so hats off to you.

I've heard of relactation, but not known anyone personally who has experience of it. KellyMom has an article on it, and if you search for "relactation" you will find one from Le Leche League.

I wish you lots of luck with it!

kellymom.com/bf/got-milk/relactation/

I would give it a try. I can't remember the exact age, but my firstborn went on an extended nursing strike for a few weeks (I know, not at all the same!) I pumped to keep up supply because I was not ready to give up breastfeeding, and did lots of skin to skin and offered the breast at every opportunity - importantly, don't put pressure on this. Have skin-to-skin snuggles, have breasts available, but do your best not to put pressure on the situation / bring in any of your anxiety (which is super hard!) - and just see what happens. It can help to pick a time when baby is relaxed and not very very hungry. If they're ravenous, they'll want to get milk in as easily as possible, but if they're relaxed / sleepy / snuggly they may give it a try and it's a way to start building things up.

Amazing that you've managed to pump for this long, so well done. How long is it since baby latched? My baby's tongue tie reattached and it was so frustrating. The 2nd division didn't really improve things but we did manage to move to feeding at the breast the majority of the time with nipple shields. We kept a bottle of expressed milk for middle of the night feeds.

I would get some decent trained support from someone like La Leche League. And like a previous poster said - lots of skin to skin, boobs available, see if she shows an interest but no pressure to feed. You might also have some luck with dream feeding so rousing her just enough for her to root but not really open eyes.

Thanks so much, it really is a labour of love. Unfortunately we don't have LLL group near us 😔 our infant feeding team sucks as well. I've paid for private lactation consultants x 2 but this was prior to the second tongue tie snip. Nobody ever thought to check if it has reattached until we went back to the original practitioner. It's sijf a minefield.

Thank you! We also used shields for about 12 weeks then after the second snip I managed to wean her off them. She's always had really short feeds and we as never satisfied to though hence the top ups. She continued to snack on me for 2-3 weeks after the this but always had to have the top ups so I gave up. I was so tired. Since then I have tried to latch her on a few times without shields but she's not having it. The last time she latched without them was about 3 weeks ago and it was a good 10 minute feed. Really I should have carried on but I was just not in a very good place. The pumping is wearing me out. I tried with shields yesterday and today she's kind of latches, at least fed for the first let down then fell asleep so she's not completely breast averse. No LLL around where I live unfortunately 😩 and not in a position to pay for any more LCs!

Brilliant, so not really that long away from the breast then so that's good. I'm not trained or anything but learnt a lot through issues with my 1st. It was 8 weeks before we were feeding majority at the breast and like I say we kept the bottle until 10 months or so. We kept the nipple shields the whole 2 years.

I would keep trying to latch her even if she doesn't feed for long. Maybe do breast massage first so she doesn't have to work so hard for the let down. And if she isn't satisfied, offer boob again first before topping up. And see if you can get one feed a day when you know she's in a good mood and you're both calm and able to relax. You probably are already but make sure you're using the first size bottle teat and doing paced feeding to replicate breastfeeding as much as you can.

There is a national number for LLL so you could ring them for advice, or find the closest leader to your area to ring, a lot of their numbers are available online.