Moving from breast to formula - 1 week PP

[Sunflower654]

I’m 1 week PP after a EMCS with a few days tricky recovery in hospital. I started breastfeeding but latching has been really difficult - baby has gained weight but feeds aren’t relaxing at all. They fill me with anxiety because baby gets frustrated they can’t latch (I’ve been told no tongue tie) and then that turns into an hour long crying session and no sleep. My nipples are in pieces, even through shields.

Today my breasts were so swollen that no milk would come out. I had to give formula and the difference in how calm and relaxing the feed was was just incredible.

How do I reduce my supply? I will happily pump for some expressed feeds but also, I would like to have majority formula feeds. I can’t say baby has fed X amount of times because it’s been so erratic so it’s not like I can do the usual one feed less on the breast and wean down that way. How many times a day should I actually pump in order to reduce supply while preventing engorgement? My supply is actually really good, it’s just the battered nipples make it impossible for baby to latch well which means a feed can take HOURS.

I can’t advise but I’m giving your thread a bump.

This was me nearly 17 years ago. I just stopped bf and moved wholesale to ff when ds was a week old. Supply, such as it was, dissappeared overnight. Maybe there wasn’t much to start with.

Congratulations on your new LO

I would give one of the BFing Helplines a call. The BFC will be able to tell you the best way to reduce your supply and reduce your risk of mastitis. She should also hopefully be able to advise you on healing your poor nipples.

This article on sore and cracked nipples might help too.

I would also get a second opinion one of the TT as it can affect FFing as well as BFing.

The first few weeks of breastfeeding are incredibly hard, especially with your first. So I think you have quite unrealistic expectations of it being relaxing, it really isn't. It's pain, anxiety, shredded nipples, excruciating back pain, constant cluster feeding, and absolutely zero sleep and no break.

The wonderful relaxing bonding part comes much further down the line. Week 1 is the hardest, and it slowly gets easier.

If you have decided that you're done, I'd start with dropping the evening feed, and then the middle of the night feeds. You'll be engorged, just hand express enough for comfort. The morning feed will likely be the last to go. I wouldn't pump regularly except as last resort as that stimulates the milk production to make more too.

Cough & cold medicines work well to kill your supply, you need the ones that have decongestant in it (like the lemsip satchets).

I will repeat the PP - the first few weeks of breastfeeding are so hard! Your baby is learning a new skill while hungry (and even adults struggle to learn while hungry!) I found a compromise where I gave baby like 20-30ml of formula and then tried her on the breast when she was slightly hungry but not starving. That worked for us.

For stopping breastfeeding, I would listen to your body. I stopped at 6 months, so I was more settled, but basically if my boobs were rock solid and painful, I fed. When I stopped BF at 6 months, I dropped one feed every two days (replacing with formula of course) and that rate was good for me. Since you don’t have a schedule yet, I would just only feed baby or pump when you are uncomfortable, or maybe just try to feed 5 min less than you did the day before.

Maybe relaxing was the wrong word? I didn’t expect sunshine and rainbows levels of relaxed but my baby screaming with hunger because they can’t latch on to boobs that are so swollen with nipples that have become inverted due to trauma at 4am with no other feeding option available was also far from what I expected.

I’ve gone to full formula feeding without any pumping and luckily, I don’t appear to have any blocked ducts. I was wondering whether to kill my supply with decongestants but I am wondering whether when my nipples heal, if I can go back to offering the breast and seeing what happens. I’m hopeful that with support I’ll be able to get baby latching well. Being sat in a hospital bed attached to drips and whatnot after an EMCS meant I didn’t have the mobility to position baby correctly and unfortunately, the midwives/nurses didn’t have enough time to give the support needed. Not their fault.

I feel for you, as I also had a traumatic c section experience and to be honest, I've actually blocked a lot of it out as I can't even think about it. I couldn't even see my baby for the first 8 hours of his life.

My mum had had a terrible time with me which was good as I very low expectations and arranged for a private lactation consultant before I even gave birth and she was a miracle worker, although tbh most of her work was just cheering me on when I wanted to give up.

If you do want to continue BF, I highly recommend reaching out to a certified lactation consultant. They really know their stuff.

I also have a friend who decided to pump exclusively as she really hated breastfeeding itself and she did so until around 8 -9 months with both her children. So that's an option too although I think she's bonkers and I wouldn't recommend it. She found a lot of comfort in seeing how much baby takes and she found bottle feeding easier as well.

I am not an expert in any way but it sounds like your milk had just come in? I think can take longer if you’ve had a c-section/ traumatic birth. So maybe that you’ve done the hardest days? I’m only saying this as you’ve said you may want to carry on once things heal a bit. The 20mls of formula 1st may also help baby be more settled. It is hard to begin with - I hope you’re ok xx

I think it must have been, the engorgement started and it just made the nipple trauma worse.
My breasts are now completely soft with only slight leakage so it appears my supply has dropped. I’m going speak to the midwife on Friday about re-establishing breastfeeding with more support in getting the correct latch.

@Sunflower654ah breastfeeding after sections can be tough but I've managed it twice. My strong advice is to get baby checked for TT by a lactation consultant - you'll need to pay but NHS midwives arent trained in it and missed it with both my girls. My first's was so severe she lost too much weight and it took 3 NHS visits for one of them to spot it and I immediately went private to get it sorted. My second's wasn't as bad and she didn't lose too much weight but it was such a struggle every feed.

The NHS is fantastic in parts, but TT is not one of them. Please get them checked, if you can afford it it'll be the best money you've spent and TT can interfere with other developments xx

I have questioned TT but was told because baby can stick their tongue out, it isn’t TT. I will look into it more.

@Sunflower654please do if you can :) my younger could but still had it and my LC was annoyed it was missed (she frequently works with the midwives to help them spot it!).

Best of luck ❤️

Unless the person checking for TT is a Tongue Tie Practioner i would take what they’ve said with a huge pinch of salt @Sunflower654

Does your LO have any of the symptoms in this link from Milk Matters?

I had a really hard time BF in the first week. Would grit my teeth and curl my toes whenever she latched for about 6 weeks tbh. It got soo much better after a couple months. I would suggest trying to keep a bit of supply while you FF and then once your nips have healed try to start latching baby again and go from there (I've heard of people starting to ebf months down the line when baby's mouth is a bit bigger and can latch better). You might like to have that option once out of the early painful bubble.