losing confidence with BF - any advice?

[kittycat37]

Hi everyone,
I would welcome any comments on my situation. I have a 3 wk old DD. I have mainly BF since birth although she has a bottle of formula at night which began because I had very sore bleeding nipples and I was desperate to let them recover a bit.

The thing is I just am losing confidence that I have enough milk for her. Tonight for instance I have been feeding her on and off for the last two hours and she never seems satisfied, my boobs are agony and it just feels as though there's no milk there. I have just given her to DH to give her some formula as she seems so agitated and hungry - but I feel awful about it. I think she may have reflux as she's been sick a lot and most of the time it's curdled (not just milk).

All this happened with DD1 (now 3) and I only managed to BF for 10 weeks before just losing confidence. I want to try and do 6 months this time. I just don't know what to do to make the BF better. Any tips?

This is stressful. I would speak to a breastfeeding counsellor (try lalecheleague or the NCT as they have trained emergency counsellors). I also used Homeopathy, herbal medicine (More Milk Plus - this was my lifeline as had low milk supply and a dairy intolerent baby and didn't want to use soya and I also used Mama tea) and aromatherapy. The combination of all three was essential to keep my milk supply up. It's hard when you are in this situation as there is a lot of info which says mothers produce enough milk etc and it's simply not true in absolutely every case. Good Luck!!

They do go through a growth spurt at 3 weeks, which normally lasts a day or two. My LO went back to normal after this.....well until the 6week growth spurt anyway. Hopefully, this is all it is. Curdled milk is also normal, though the thought of putting her mouth (with residual sick in it) anywhere near my nipple was always joyous.

Just give your breasts time to adapt and if your still struggling in a few days then re evaluate. Sounds like your doing just fine.

Nipple shields for sore nipples. Also if your DP is home in the evening, give yourself a rest between feeds in the pm, even if this means him taking DD out for a bit in the sling / buggy. Will probably give you time to build up milk before next feed. Little ones often feed lots in the evening.

Thanks a lot Dierdre B and ClimberChick - very helpful comments. THis is a quick response as now having hectic evening but just wanted to say thanks.

I am in same situation EXACTKY as you. Am trying ot just hang in there. How did this work out? Are things easier? I am trying to just have fauth in my breasts iyswim.

worth reading re evening cluster feeding

in fact the whole site is good