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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

11 week old on bottles of EBM since 3 weeks - now breastfeeding!

4 replies

Hangingbellyofbabylon · 18/11/2009 22:10

my dd is now 11 weeks. She breastfed at birth but didn't latch well and I was really sore. At 3 weeks she was painfully thin, hadn't re-gained birth weight and basically got so weak she refused to breast feed full stop.

I began expressing full-time - and luckily have loads of milk so no probs there. She has been happily thriving on bottles of my milk since 3 weeks old. I continued to offer the breast every few days and she would have a little nibble but was not feeding properly.

Anyway, over the last few days she's been rooting for the breast more and more and this morning for the first time she latched on properly and I could really feel the let-down. She has been only breastfeeding since then and seems happy and content. I have offered her a bottle after each breastfeed but she hasn't wanted it. The problems is I've been double pumping till now and freezing around 20oz a day as have so much milk and that's only pumping 5 times in 24 hours . Now my breasts are engorged and the milk is just piddling out. I know expressing would sort it out but she has just finished feeding on both sides so I think pumping as well would send the wrong message to my breasts.

What do you reckon? I was thinking of giving it 24 hours of breast only to see how she gets on. I'm terrified she'll get weedy like before but she is so super healthy and alert now and I really think she'd let me know if she was hungry.

Am going to try to breastfeed in the middle of the night when she wakes - that would so fab as sitting at the breast pump at 3am is pretty crap.

OP posts:
gingerbreadlatte · 18/11/2009 22:29

Congratulations for getting the BFing going! you must be thrilled. If you are producing that much milk, she should be fine. Just watch out for plenty of wet and dirty nappies. But it sounds very positive.

Your boobs will catch on pretty quick and down regulate the supply to match what she needs. When you are engorged just express off enough to relieve the pressure and after about 2 or 3 days your supply should drop. While expressing does stimulate supply, it doesnt as much as a baby so taking off a little bit wont cause an issue.

In the mean time use sterilised breast shells when feeding to catch any escaping milk as you can then keep that.

Good luck

blinder · 19/11/2009 19:14

got no advice for you other than phone la leche league for expert advice but wanted to come on and say

WOW!
WELL DONE!

gingerbreadlatte · 19/11/2009 19:16

Just popped back to see how you are doing?

moaningminniewhingesagain · 19/11/2009 23:29

No advice here either really, just wanted to say congratulations, that's brilliant news. Expressing is such a drag isn't it.

I weaned my weak/sleepy/losing weight DS off topups of EBM when he was 8 weeks, when he was stronger and sucking better, I never looked back. He's 11mo now and still BF.

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