Struggling but determined to BF when having to FF my 5 day old for jaundice

[digitalgirl]

Sorry - this is a bit long.

My DS was born at 36+5 last Sunday. Had started breastfeeding as soon as he was born, but colostrum was very limited so assumed it was more of a practise for DS than a feed. Was told in hospital that I had to top-up feeds with formula as DS is jaundiced and dehydrated - and was kept an extra night. Convinced I wasn't breastfeeding properly and asked for help - was shown how to position and DS has a good latch - but after a night of bottles he wouldn't suckle. Wasn't allowed to leave the hospital until I agreed to 'top up' with formula in order to combat the jaundice. They would have preferred me to stay in order to establish breast-feeding, but my milk hadn't come in and I didn't think staying on a sweaty, busy, uncomfortable post-natal ward would make for a better environment than being at home.

I've been offering my breast before and after every 3 hourly bottle feed. I've been lying on the sofa getting as much skin to skin as possible. But up till today DS refused to actually suckle. He would latch on but fall asleep.

Finally on day 5 my milk has started to come in (after a painful session with a breast pump yesterday). Thought I had a breakthrough this morning when DS spontaneously suckled on my breast after a routine bottle feed. Then he didn't for the rest of the day. Each feed I expressed a few drops of milk onto his lips so he would always get a taste for the real thing before getting the bottle.

If he's hungry he'll furiously root for the breast and latch on, but then immediately get frustrated when the milk doesn't immediately arrive, even if I've expressed a few drops in preparation. He'll push it away, then have another go, then cry and fidget.

The rest of the time he's too sleepy to do anything but accept the bottle and feed whilst asleep.

This evening he did the furious rooting thing. Got very frustrated very quickly so I alternated with bottle and offering breast more often to see if that would make a difference. In the end he finished his feed and was still hungry, but couldn't get what he wanted out of my breasts and had a massive cry, was very upsetting for me. I didn't want to offer another bottle because I thought that would just make it worse - and that this was the best time to get him to suckle again.

It was tough, but in the end he managed 5 minutes on each side.

This was my first day of my milk coming in, will it get easier now or should I be expressing in between feeds to get my supply up so it's easier for him to suckle?

Am off to bed for a bit, but will check for responses in the morning. Thanks in advance!

Digitalgirl good on you! You are doing so well, you are an inspiration! I hope that in years to come you are putting posts on other people's threads about your initial problems saying that you went on to BF for a year too!

digitalgirl,
my daughter was born at 37 weeks and was jaundiced for a month and a half - had to do all sorts of blood tests for serious causes of prolonged jaundiced and they all came back negative. I exclusively breastfed her during this period - my health visitor was more supportive than yours, though. it is very tough but it is never too late. good luck

sorry also forgot to mention that she lost more than 10% of her birthweight in the first two weeks and she was in the lowest centile. nine months afterwards and she's above average in the weigh chart

Sorry I haven't got time to read through what everyone has written...but just wanted to say, thinking of you, this is a tough time. I had a similar situation and we cup fed my twins, I was really determined to breast feed and someone had told me along the way to do this rather than give a bottle. It worked well for us as the hospital took my wanting to breast feed seriously...and yes we gave them formula, but my milk wasn't coming in (I ended up having to have a blood transfusion then it was fine.) It does take a few days, a bit of formula won't harm your baby, and you're right you need to get out of the hospital and be able to relax. It's so stressful that time...Cup feeding is actually quite easy, and it does make them take you seriously...hope this helps and good luck with it all.

I went through this too! It's very hard work trying to make a sleepy baby suck isn't it?

The midwives said just breastfeed for about 20 mins, then use EBM, then and only then resort to formula.

I couldn't cup feed as he was just too difficult to hold so I bottlefed him the EBM/formula against the advice of the midwives. He was born at 38 weeks but didn't really feed properly for 2 weeks but one day he woke up and started feeding properly, ALL THE TIME, every 2.5 hours, so KEEP GOING, it will work, I promise you...

Incidentially, he has never really been ill and if he is he isn't very poorly and shakes things off really quickly so it is really worth it feeding your baby yourself.

Good Luck!

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone on this thread that cheered me on through the last few days.

We are officially breast-feeding with no forumla or EBM top ups!!

It's still hard work, confusing, exhausting and completely unpredictable. But when Alfredo finally latches on and feeds happily for that magic 20 minute minimum it is SO rewarding and definitely worth the effort.

Although the regime we put ourselves through to get this point was physically and emotionally punishing, the main brunt of it only lasted 3-4 days. Despite the BF counsellor suggesting we drop formula top ups one day at a time we ended up dropping it almost overnight because my milk supply had increased and I was power-pumping enough EBM.

Got the all clear from the midwife yesterday to stop top ups altogether which coincided with DS finally getting the hang of latching on to both breasts.

Still a long way to go before breast-feeding comes completely naturally to both of us - but we've made it over the biggest hurdle now I'm confident that he'll get his my minimum 6 months of exclusive breast-feeding.

Wow DG that is such great news. You should be really proud of yourselves, all three of you

that is fantastic well done

Well done DG. Inspirational.

Hi My son also had jaundice for 1st week and I had to give some formula but also expressed and gave it to him via a bottle. He also wouldn't latch on at all as was too tired from the jaundice, but a really wonderful midwife suggested I use a nipple shield, which I did and he managed to get the hang of breastfeeding using that method for the 2nd week, then he gained enough energy to enable me to try latching him directly. He managed it after a few frustrating tries and he is now 6 weeks old and thriving. So stick with it, it really does get better.