Breast is best - no it’s not actually.

[bubblesforlife]

I’m a new mom, my baby was born last weekend.
I followed feeding guidelines, listened to professional advice, and decided to breast feed my baby.

A few days in, my baby has developed jaundice and low sodium. This is due to dehydration and no fluids.

I gave my Baby colostrum, by breast and syringe regularly.

I asked my visiting midwife if I should supplement feeding with formula until my milk came in, she said no I am doing the best by my baby. Not unless there is a clinical need.

Now we’re readmitted for 2 nights minimum and placed on as strict baby formula feeding plan.

2 other ladies in the ward also have dehydrated babies for the same reason as me. How does this happen all the time yet no one talks about it?

Breast is best? No. Starve your baby until your milk comes in, and then hope for the best that you’re on for the lucky ones it works for.

My milk came in on day 3, a normal timeline.!

The messaging is wrong to mothers. This is so very common according to hospital.

Breast is best..... eventually.... but feed your baby what it needs, if that’s a supplement of formula, so what.

I don’t know what I’m trying to say, but I’m just so upset. No one told me I was starving my little newborn. I did my best, I tried so hard and sat there filling syringes of colostrum.

Something has to change here. The pressure placed on new mothers throughout pregnancy to breast feed is wrong.

I hope my baby recovers soon so we can go home and be a family.

@Belinda554

You can’t feed, so you make a statement about breast not being best.....

It didn’t work for you, but formula is not and never will be the best option. ( for the majority)

My sisters babies were lactose intolerant, picked up early and the correct formula was given. It doesn’t mean breast is not best.

Don’t make factually incorrect statement, because it’s not best for you.

How does that square with your “breast is always best” statement?

@Belinda554 you made a factually incorrect statement yourself.

Breast is NOT always best.

I can feed.
My baby latched
I supplemented with extra hand expression into syringes.
I’ve been pumping this morning as my breasts are oozing milk. I will continue to express.

It wasn’t enough.She was still dehydrated. She is ill, we are in hospital as a result.

“Can’t”.

I could feed.

I had gallons of milk.

of the midwives said to could feed the whole ward.

Shame my baby couldn’t have it wasn’t it.

• one of the midwives said I could feed the whole ward.

Mangled by my tablet.

Breast is not always best. You have to take the whole situation into account.

But OP the problem that I see it in your situation was that you were let down.

When you asked the first midwife whether you should top up with formula, she was correct that it wasn't clinically necessary at that time, but it should have been a huge red flag that you needed more support. You should never just be left to it in that situation to see whether it will magically work. That's when you ought to have had skilled, experienced, well trained support checking your latch, looking at the baby's sucking technique, helping you to maximise the amount of breastmilk they were getting. You did not get this and unfortunately it wasn't enough, to the point that formula became clinically necessary, which doesn't mean it's too late to get back to breastfeeding if you wanted to, but does mean it's a lot harder to get established. The time for intervention with breastfeeding is not to wait until formula becomes clinically necessary, but long before.

It wouldn't seem so much like pressure if the support was actually there IMO. As it is it's unacceptable. Unfortunately you won't be the only woman to be let down in this way.

@bubblesforlife, the same happened to me 17 years ago.
The big difference is that a MW spotted the winked fontanelle and told me to give him a bottle (still in hospital at time due to some issues with me).

I ended up formula feeding and feeling I had some how failed my child because I hadn’t b’fed....

Breastfeeding rates are low in the uk for a variety of reasons but I would guess nutritional reasons aren't one of them as nutritionally breast milk is best and of course posters are going to comment on a thread saying it isn't.
It is very hard though and there definitely is not enough preparation for new mums explaining how it works and the problems you can encounter and how to overcome them. Also far to much pressure to get mums home without checking feeding really getting established - to much watching for 'a feed' before immediately discharging.
A newborns stomach is tiny though - size of a marble I think - so really does not need much and will have reserves from being in the womb. Many newborns do not feed much in the first couple of days and are healthy but obviously if other signs such as jaundice needs careful monitoring

Thank you @Fatas I’ve never heard of that. In my day baby was kept on the breast to encourage the milk to come in. To me feeding by syringe sounds counter productive but I’m probably out of date.

@BertieBotts, I doubt that having support with the latch would have helped me.
My milk just hadn’t come in (I’d say because of epidural etc... I had during birth). I had a baby that was really hungry. It just didn’t work work together.

My (and his) saving was the fact he was a very vocal baby and there was no way he would not let everyone in the whole ward know he was hungry

For me, breast wasn't best. My son was hospitalised at 3 months old for being severely underweight and it was truly horrendous and the guilt I felt was the worst feeling I'd ever felt. I breastfed and tipped up with expressed milk. Unfortunately my son couldnt gain weight, once I gave him formula he was fine.

I'm pregnant again and will breastfeed initially before moving on to giving expressed milk and formula.

Also to previous posters who said it's not common, it actually is.

@bubblesforlife you probably wrote the post being upset and of course you are, you received incorrect advice from the midwives.

I'm pro breastfeeding as long as baby is fed and everything is going well but if baby is getting dehydrated and there is a medical need, always always formula feel BUT to call it "Breast is not best " on mumsnet to me makes no sense as nutritionally and for other factors breastmilk is better than formula milk and therefore best, formula milk is the second best option there is which is fine.

I looked at the back of the formula milk powder and yes, i know it's EU regulated but I don't even know what most ingredients are but I also minimise any sort of processed food from my very own diet, so for me, breastfeeding is the choice unless there is a medical need for me to give my child formula.

Exclusively breast fed two kids, no pumps or syringes involved, not sure why syringes are needed. Milk came in on day 3 as nature intended. No jaundice (sunlight helps with that). Breast is definitely best for most babies

@Belinda554

You can’t feed, so you make a statement about breast not being best.....

It didn’t work for you, but formula is not and never will be the best option. ( for the majority)

My sisters babies were lactose intolerant, picked up early and the correct formula was given. It doesn’t mean breast is not best.

Don’t make factually incorrect statement, because it’s not best for you.

And at the same time ensure that you are making any new mum who can’t b’fed, whatever the reason, feel shit because she hasn’t given the best to her baby, right from the start.

Saying that breast isn’t always best doesn’t equal formula is always best!

The reality is that breast is great for the baby. And sometimes for the mum too. But there are many cases where it is not. Making people feel crap about formula feeding or putting in a place where they believe they ‘have to’ and feel forced to something they are struggling with/feel it’s detrimental to their child is not good practice

Its pretty damn common actually. I has exactly the same situation and my son was dangerously close to brain damage from dehydration. I was feeding him constantly but my milk didn't come in until day 6! Had I know then what I know now I would have combi fed until the milk came in. A couple of bottles a day would have made all the difference and the experience left me with severe post partum anxiety.

The issue here is not breast vs formula but that a first time Mum was sent home before feeding was established. That is the real issue. Possibly understandable in a pandemic of course.

This sounds like a nice idea but for me - and I know I'm not alone - I battled for weeks and feeding was never 'established'. How long can we keep mum's in for? Perhaps if NHS had better funding it could be for a week like it used to be. But that's not enough for all anyway.

Compassion for mums is what is missing from the current dogma and realistic messages about the minority of people who have real, genuine and biological issues with feeding.

My baby was also dehydrated and cup fed initially btw. No, it's not talked about enough.

The phrase breast is best comes from formula companies. Breast feeding is difficult and it the U.K. there is not enough awareness of the skills often needed with breastfeeding or qualified people who are able to support women to breast feed. I know far too many people who didn’t know they needed to feed their new born every 3 hours from the start of the previous feed and who didn’t know you have to give the baby vitamin D supplements.

I must also say that he is fine now and I breast fed successfully for 15 months. Not much if a success if your baby is readmitted to hospital 6 days after birth though is it?

@ktp100

Same happened to me. My milk never really came in enough, by day 3 the kid was starving so I kicked off and demanded we switch to formula (we were in for a week due to my low blood pressure but lo & behold by day 4 DS was jaundice so had to stay anyway).

I wasn't treated very nicely for deciding to do it at all. Even the doctors were umming and aaahhing, even though my son was pretty small and losing weight daily, and dehydrated,, they were like 'Well, yes, I suppose he should have formula really, but have you tried him on the breast at all?' YES!! FOR FUCKING DAYS!!!!!

Honestly, it was ridiculous. What with that & feckin' Bounty bitches I did my fair share of grumbling that week.

That's appalling. What did they think you had been doing if not attempting to breast feed, just letting him starve?

[quote cheesebubble]@bubblesforlife you probably wrote the post being upset and of course you are, you received incorrect advice from the midwives.

I'm pro breastfeeding as long as baby is fed and everything is going well but if baby is getting dehydrated and there is a medical need, always always formula feel BUT to call it "Breast is not best " on mumsnet to me makes no sense as nutritionally and for other factors breastmilk is better than formula milk and therefore best, formula milk is the second best option there is which is fine.

I looked at the back of the formula milk powder and yes, i know it's EU regulated but I don't even know what most ingredients are but I also minimise any sort of processed food from my very own diet, so for me, breastfeeding is the choice unless there is a medical need for me to give my child formula. [/quote]
Nutritionally breast milk can leave some babies with brain damage. (A very small percentage. But they exist - my baby had multiple intolerances, but we went to a clinic attended by this type of baby.)

But sure. Breast is best

Very sorry for the issues so many mums have had on here. I breastfed by first luckily with out issue, I v struggled getting my second going on the boob. I was given great help after going back to the hospital on day 3- however I do think I only went back because I had the knowledge of my first to know I needed help. Breast maybe best but education is probably better- let’s really explain how hard breastfeeding is, what are the red flags that we need more help and who can we turn to.

@Breastisnotalwaysbest love your username, clearly VERY strong views here.

Could you please provide me with a research study and evidence on that, where the lack of nutrition in a fully breastfed baby, and I mean no feeding issues, has caused brain damage.

[quote cheesebubble]@Breastisnotalwaysbest love your username, clearly VERY strong views here.

Could you please provide me with a research study and evidence on that, where the lack of nutrition in a fully breastfed baby, and I mean no feeding issues, has caused brain damage. [/quote]
Certainly. Google PKU.

If children with PKU don’t have an intervention (if we didn’t test for it as part of the heel prick test) those children have a build up of phenylalanine which causes intellectual disability, seizures and a raft of other issues.

You can read about it here. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenylketonuria

There are other similar disorders, but that’s the one that is most common.

You’re welcome.