Tiktol & others, please help! Just had an accident & can't bf my baby. Am heartbroken.

[Maria2007]

Hi Tiktok (and other bf experts), I need your help urgently!

Here's some background: I'm Maria (we've met on these threads before, I think). I'm breastfeeding my 5 & a half month old baby since birth. He's also used to taking bottles once in a while, since in the last 3 weeks we've been giving him one bottle of formula at 11. Under my current circumstances it's good that he's comfortable taking bottles.

So. Yesterday, around 4 pm, I had a bad accident. I fell on my face (onto a plate) & broke several teeth- some came out completely- and other teeth are misplaced. I will need extensive dental work. I also had big cuts all over my mouth, & was given extensive stitching at hospital (I went with an ambulance to A&E). As you can imagine the whole thing was extremely traumatic, I lost lots of blood & didn't know at first what was happening. I'm very relieved that the damage is only on my mouth & teeth, as it could have been so much worse. But it's likely there might be some reconstructive work needed in the future, let's see.

About the medications I'm taking: They gave me morphine at hospital, for the pain. And then lots of local anaesthesia for the stitching. They have now put me on 2 antibiotics (Amoclan & Amoxillin) & one strong painkiller (Diclofenac). Plus, some paracetamol as needed. I will also be doing dental work, starting today, & that too will likely require more anaesthesia & perhaps more painkillers. Hopefully all this treatment will be completed within a week or- more likely- 2 weeks.

In the meantime, I can't & won't breastfeed, not without getting advice (hence my msg here), because I'm very scared of giving all this medicine to my boy through the milk. At the same time, I don't know what to do. Last night after my return from hospital I expressed & threw the milk away (to relieve the engorgement). This morning I also expressed & threw it away. Should I express & throw it out? If so, when? My boy usually feeds every 3 hours or so. At night we give him one bottle of formula at 11 (and I express at the same time) & then we usually give him EBM at 3.30 or so- this too we started recently & it helped our baby's sleep- so he's used to bottles at night. The rest of his feeds have been direct breastfeeds. Should I express on that schedule & throw it out? Could I then continue feeding him- when this ordeal is over- perhaps EBM in bottles if he refuses the breast? (will he, most likely, refuse the breast after 1-2 weeks on bottles solely)? I was planning & hoping to keep up the bf until he's 1 year old or so, perhaps keeping up to 3 feeds a day on the breast. Is that completely wishful thinking at the moment? Should I just give up completely? I don't want to, not in this traumatic & sudden way, but I also need to rest & recover.

Any advice would be fantastic. I can't talk to a bf helpline so easily because- as you can imagine- I don't talk clearly because of my cuts in the mouth. Which is why I'm writing here. I've always got good advice here....

Thanks in advance.
maria

So pleased to hear you have fed your little boy, Maria, and that it was clearly so nice for you both. Hope you recover very quickly from your horrible accident.

Mash with cheese in it is much more calorific than the plain sort, very tasty and just as easy to eat. Hope your mum looks after you nicely!

So pleased for you both, Maria . Hope your recovery goes well.

Oh my goodness Maria . It sounds so scary, you poor, poor think. So glad you fed your little boy.
What a horrible, shocking accident!

Chicken stock is great, full of vitamins and proteins. I'd also go for milkshakes. You poor thing. I'm .

Maria! Lovely news.

You are being so brave.

I hope that you feel better and better as the days go by.

Take care.

poor think? poor thing, of course. I hope you and your family have a restful night.

Well done and very glad to hear you fed him today, am sure breastfeeding will help both of you feel better (woudl try and ignore what your parents have to say about it).
Echo the post about liquid food esp chicken soup, good for recuperation.
Good luck and perhaps consider taking a general multi vitamin to boost your health while its hard to eat and also probiotic to help prevent thrush/candida (common side effect of taking antibiotics).

great news Maria.
Wishing you all the best for a speedy recovery. Please be reassured that any dental treatment you might need will NOT affect your BF
(notquitecockney I can assure you I am a for real)

maria - so sorry to hear about your accident and v.happy that the bf is working out.

healing vibes to you xoxox

Hi again girls,

Well on the one hand I'm relieved. On the other hand, it seems that the feeding will be a challenge from now on. For example, after I fed DS at 6.40, I then had to give him a top-up of formula at 7.30 or so, because he was clearly still hungry. And I think this may be the case tonight too, so I'll gradually work towards a few full bf feeds a day. He drank all the top-up (120 ml) so it was clearly needed. The good thing is that he's 5 & a half months, so we'll soon be starting solids & will gradually decrease milk feeds anyway, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to keep some breastfeeds a day.

Also, second challenge is that I'll be doing lots of dental work, involving local anaesthesia. Tomorrow, for example, I'll go to the trauma/dental clinic in the morning for a first assessment since lots of my teeth are mucked up. So I'll feed him first thing in the morning myself, and then after that it'll be formula again. It's likely that they'll use local anaesthesia again, so I wonder how soon after that I can feed him again. Even though I know it's probably ok with the anaesthesia, I still want to be completely sure.

Anyway. As I said, a challenge. But we'll get through it, I'm sure, I was very reassured today.

Jasper, thanks so much for saying that dental treatment doesn't affect bf. This is SO reassuring. Can you give me a bit more info if possible? When you say it doesn't affect, are you talking about local anaesthetics? Or anything else? I'll be needing extensive treatment as 1 tooth is completely gone, 3 more are badly broken, and 2 more are moving around. And possibly some others have changed position.

Oh my god, I find it grotesque even writing all this down... Can't believe this is happening

You poor poor thing.

I'm guessing the local will be lignocaine or lidocaine, bupivicaine a similar - thats what we use to suture the perineum and when epidurals go in and also down the epidural and you can merrily feed no problem.

Try hand or pump expressing for 10 mins or so after a feed and remember to take the feed out even if he doesn't - milk supply will respond quickly as you are so well established.

Can't believe what your up against with the dental stuff. Its a major biggie you poor thing. I'd be desperate.

Treedelivery, thanks for your message. Very helpful

Well I guess I'm feeling desperate on one level, but on another level I'm also feeling very relieved that it was just my mouth that was cut & not my eyes or neck....

Oh God....poor you. You sound quite scared. I was in a not so dramatic car accident when dd was 2months and I can honestly say I felt scared for days. Was only a rer shunt. Think we must be extra sensitive as mums and less able to shake things off. Plus you have to have work done on your teeth which lets face it no one likes.

You must have clattered down bless. Take those painkillers girl!

Hi Maria,
so glad you were able to go back to breast feeding. What a terrible ordeal for you!!! (((((HUGS))))
Just wanted to add a note to what someone said about taking a multivitamin to help your recovery - I don't know if you lost a lot of blood or not but if you did, there is a liquid iron supplement that tastes quite nice and is not constipating (you don't need that on top of everything else!!), called Floradix Iron and Herbs. I believe the company that makes it is Salus Haus. Sounds like it's readily available in the U.K. They also have a liquid vitamin supplement. I've always quite liked the taste but if it doesn't appeal to you it could be mixed with fruit juice (something non-stingy like pear juice maybe), or into a milk shake. What about a powdered protein supplement? You could make a smoothie with vanilla protein powder, ice cream, berries and the iron/vitamins.

Good luck with everything you poor love!!
xxxx

BfN fact sheet on dental treatment and breastfeeding

Complete list of drugs in breastmilk factsheets here

You might also want to look at the one on analgesics (painkillers).

If you have any queries then the breastfeeding supporter pharmacist can be contacted on 0844 412 4665. She is very helpful.

Best of luck with it all.

DEF no problem with dental local anaesthetic as treedelivery explained.

Nothing else we use in the course of our job is a problem either, I promise! I had more dental treatment done on myself when pregnant and breastfeeding than at any other time in my life.

Good luck xx

Hello again everyone.

Today I was at the dental/trauma unit at the hospital, and it was pretty traumatic an experience... It turns out at least 2 teeth (unfortunately 2 front ones) are completely lost, only routes remain & those will have to be taken out. Others are question marks. Anyway, won't go into more detail, it's all so depressing & I still can't quite believe this is happening.. Next week, more appointments with my own dentist, & the whole thing will take ages, I think (and will probably cost quite a bit)...

As to the breastfeeding. I think it's more or less back on track. The dentist today also reassured me that there's no problem with the anaesthetics they give, and the antibiotics I'm taking will finish in a few days anyway. The only problem is that for the next month or so I'll be on purees & liquids only, and so it's important to get the right nutrients in. At the moment I feel my milk supply is so so (most probably on the low side), but that's normal I suppose since we supplemented with formula all these days. The good thing is, no more doctor appointments this week, so I'll concentrate on the breastfeeding & the resting & pureeing foods!

As for my mother, unfortunately she's quite against the fact that I'm trying to re-establish the breastfeeding, but I told her I really don't want to talk about it. Still, she feels I'm exhausting myself by breastfeeding, and that I should just stop it, but thankfully all the health professionals (and other people) I've talked to have been very supportive & have given me good advice.

Anyway. That's about it for now. As I said I'm concerned for my milk supply, I do think top-ups are necessary at the moment, but not at every feed, so that's ok...

(obviously I meant only ROOTS remain at the teeth )

poor you I'd be mush if I had to have dental work like that. I choose to have braces as an adult and still shook when went for review.

Great thing about bf is your milk will be of great quality despite your recent turmoil as you are a healthy woman you have excellent reserves for your body to call on and pour into the milk. It is you that will miss out on them. Hence even women in the African famines make milk, bubba's have programmed us well! I admire your handling of mum!

I guess soup will figure largely for a while now.

Glad that things are getting better with the bfing.

Sorry to hear that you are still facing a lot of treatment on your teeth. As for your mother - she only wants what she thinks is best for you - she doesn't want to see you in pain and exhausted, and she thinks that stopping bfing will help you feel better, whereas you know that stopping bfing will make you feel worse and stopping is really not what you want to do. Well done for persevering.

Floradix is a very natural source of vitamin supplements, recommended during pregnancy and bfing, and you can get it in liquid form. Take it with orange juice for best absorption.

Can you manage yogurt?

Here's one treat i feed my skinny baby:
take one can of breakfast compote (basically dried apricots, prunes etc rehydrated in apple juice), drain, whizz til smooth, mix with greek yogurt.

Tasts so good dh and I both steal spoons of it ( from the big pot not baby's pot of course) so you don't have to be a baby to enjoy it.

Full of iron and calcium

It sounds horrible, Maria. I'm so amazed at how well you seem to be coping. Like treedelivery said, I'm not sure I would do half as well in your shoes.

Glad that you feel reassured about the bf-ing. Don't worry about your mum; belgo's right: she thinks she's encouraging you, but only you know what you want.

Thinking of you. xx

Maria - good to hear the babyfeeding is back on track...if you see your doctor at any point soon they can prescribe (ie they will be free) fortisip which are complete nutritional drinks - 300 calories each, the banana ones are bearable and they have dietary fibre in as well.

One of my friends was in a similar position and the NHS paid for his front teeth but not the others - what is the status of the free dentistry because your lo is not yet a year - doesnt that come into play?

and well done about your mum...

Hi Maria, I'm so glad to hear you're getting the bfing back on track. Agree with previous poster, surely your free dental treatment will cover this? If I remember correctly, if the course of treatment has started before your exemption expires, then the whole course is free. Certainly worth looking into.

Well done you.