10 day old bf baby and been told to top up with formula because of mastisis.

[Fleetingglimpse]

My friend has had a baby just over a week ago.
She has been determined to bf and things were going well.
She developed mastisis when her ds was a week old and went into hospital where she has been put on a 'feeding plan' to bf baby every 3 hours, then express, and then top up with formula. This seems crazy!

She is exhausted. This doesn't sound right and I want to advise her to ignore the plan and bf her ds for as long as he wants.

Would I be right in doing this?

She wants to exclusively bf but also is worried about not following medical advice in case she harms her ds.

Any opinions would be very gratefully received.

Well I ignored all the "helpful" medical advice I got about breastfeeding DC2 and DC3 whilst in hospital with them, and fed on demand rather than on a 3 hour schedule as advised. I knew that would end up in ff top-ups, and brazened it out. Its quite hard to do in the face of medical opposition though. If she was my friend I would be telling her the same thing that you want to tell her.

Oh my god!!
What hospital is that? They used to advice that during the ice age!!!!

Feed when baby said so!!!

The milk supply will go down with mastitis but if she carries on feeding milk will go back like it did with me and i have 2 hungry girls to seed. I was so close just to top up with bottle! dont!

You such a nice friend!

it's ridiculous! the best thing she can do is breastfeed as much as possible.

i had mastitis with ds3 (6 times) and dd2 (3 times so far...) and unless it is extremly painful for her to feed i wouldn't recommend doing this

with DS3 i could still feed but with dd2 it was so painful and i also had cracked/bleeding nipples so i expressed the milk and bottle fed her that milk but did at least 1 or 2 feds myself a day, i did this for about 3-4 days until it eased off

have they given her some antibiotics?

at all the typos

Thanks for your replies.

I am going to speak to her tomorrow and depending on how she seems will advise her to ignore the feeding plan.
I don't want to stress her out even more though.

I can't believe the doctors have told her to do this. Its nonsensical.

She has had antibiotics.

Only one breast has been affected, and she has been able to bf from both although with pain from the affected one.

if she is hesitant not to follow her given advice get her to look up the info on the web all the advice tells you to feed through it

best wishes to your friend

Starlight yes there were concerns her ds was dehydrated, hence the hospital stay.
Maybe I should just mind my own business!

You are right Starlight.I have no breastfeeding qualifications, only my own experience.

I am just fretting for her.