Breast feeding experts - please help, I'm really stressed :(

[electra]

My baby is 6 days old. She was 2.815kg at birth. On 14/04 she was 2.58 and today weighed in at 2.56.

The midwife immediately started phoning feeding advisors, etc and even mentioned her being admitted on to the post natal ward and giving her formula etc - Help! I do not want to give her formula!!!!

A bit of back ground - she is feeding on both sides, sleeps between feeds. I don't let her sleep for longer than 3 hours. She does lots of wet nappies. On a few dirty ones a day but her stools are yellow.

What can I do to get them off my back? Once formula is introduced there will be no going back.

What should I be eating? How many calories a day? I am quite small and didn't put on much weight in pregnancy.

Please help - I am really stressed. I fed my other two babies with no problems...

In your OP you mentioned that your MW was going to phone the feeding adviser. Would this be the infant feeding adviser/co-ordinator at the hospital? Often the people holding these posts have breastfeeding qualifications so they might well be able to help support you.

Hi everyone. Unfortunately the baby has lost another 40 grams, so that is now just over 10% of her birth weight

The problem is that she only sucks properly for about 30 seconds - a minute and then gives up and falls asleep. I am considering giving her formula even though I don't want to. She is so thin and I want her to start thriving, particularly as there has been so much concern about her before she was even born.

It is so frustrating because the milk is there, I can feel the let-down and then she just stops feeding. I phoned La Leche League and spoke to a very nice advisor who said that she is probably too tired to feed and that the more weight she loses the less energy she has to feed. She suggested some things I can do to help but I am getting worried because she can't afford to keep losing weight really and is not alert enough during the day (although she is still doing a lot of wet/dirty nappies) I am having to spend all day in bed with her (the only way she will feed properly at all) which isn't practical because I have two other children.

Tomorrow I have to speak to the feeding advisor in the post natal ward which I think will be ok because the staff in the hospital are more chilled than the community midwives. Obviously the last thing I want is for her to end up in hospital again.

Thanks for all your advice. Do you think there is any hope of finding a way to give her some strength but still be able to breastfeed afterwards?

Sorry to hear that she has lost a little bit more. When you speak to the adviser, you could ask about the option of expressing and topping up with EBM?

electra are you sure the weights are accurate? how are they being done, is she always naked etc?

good to talk to the feeding advisor, but if you can do try to find out what her background is. i was badly let down by someone called a breastfeeding counsellor at the hospital who was nothing of the sort. she was a nitwit with a photocopied leaflet and her advice was bordering on dangerous.

apart from the weight is there any other concern? have you tried expressing? you could give her ebm in a a bottle and get the mw to back off.

Hi, sorry to hear you're still having problems.

Please don't say hospital is the last place you want to be - in my case that was where we turned the corner.

When you are talking to the hosp advisor, they might ask if you have asked gp or paediatrician to check over your lo to eliminate any other cause of poor feeding? It sound now like you have milk, you can feed but she isn't for some reason.

I hope you get some help from the advisor - good luck.

Hi - thanks again for your kind responses. meltedmarsbars - it's not that I think hospital is a bad place (I actually much prefer the staff to HPs you see in the community because they seem so much calmer) but I have two other children - so it's more a pratical issue iyswim...

Things seem to be a little better. I saw the feeding adviser in the hospital yesterday. She was really nice and calm and talked me through a feed. She helped me get a better latch and try various techniques until we found one that made the baby feed for longer. She said that if I follow her plan, she is confident the baby will put on weight and I will not need to use formula...she says 'lazy' feeders are a very common problem. She says it will take time and a lot of patience but that she is sure we will get there.

So after the feed at the hospital, for the first time the baby seemed happier and actually feel asleep without furiously sucking her fists! She has been better ever since and her skin looks better, and I am no longer doing school runs with her screaming the whole time I have been advised to express 60mls three times a day and to give her that in a bottle to try to get her weight up.

Glad its starting to fall into place! Hope your stress levels are reducing now - best of luck for the future.

Don't envy the expressing - I never enjoyed that bit!

Thanks She has put on 4 ounces in 4 days so I think the plan is working. I am so relieved to know that there are ways of working problems like this out!

hi,

have a look on the WHO (world health organisation) website next month they are launching the new growth charts for breastfed babies, which not only measure weight but also lengh and head measurements!!
i know how horrible it is to be almost bullied by HV into giving formula feed, i just got to the point where i didnt go any more. you know that your baby is ok, mummys instinct.....wet nappies...happy baby..etc,

hope that helps!xxx

studentbfc, the charts will not help the OP in any way. Her baby is just a week old.