Breastfeeding for first timer

[thunderonlyhappenswhenits]

I had my ds 8 years ago and I tried to breast feed but he wouldn't latch on and it was just so stressful I gave up! I would like to try again, even if it's just for a few weeks as I don't plan on doing it long term just while baby is tiny to get those important nutrients into them.

But I don't know where/how to start ! I know the first couple of weeks will be baby cluster feeding to build up supply.

If anyone can give me tips on how to get baby to latch and how often I'm supposed to be feeding etc id really appreciate it 🙂

My DS1 didn't take to it either but almost 5 months with DS2 and my top tips are:

Plenty of water- drink and drink and drink
Eat oats- helps supply initially- oat bars, porridge etc - also keeps energy up
Lanolin nipple cream is the best for sore cracked nipples initially
Try and stay calm and persevere- you are both learning. If it feels stressful to you it will to baby too
I had issues with one side and used a nipple shield - I know there is mixed advice on this but worked for me
Google breastfeeding positions and try them all out with baby to see which work best for you

Lastly- don't put too much pressure on yourself, all babies are different and some just don't take to it. You can only do your best and in doing so you are doing great!

Good luck op x

Thank you so much ladies I'm feeling abit more confident about it now. I don't know whether to combi feed ? Are there any advantages/disadvantages to this ?

I've ordered a manual Breast pump, milk storage bags and a haaka this morning 👍🏻

I wouldn’t try and start with combi feeding, you need a good 6 weeks to establish breastfeeding including supply.

Op I'd try to do breast only for first 6 weeks to get it established.

The first 6 weeks is hard including the growth spurt at 6 weeks then it becomes just so easy. Mine fed about every 2 hours going longer during the night after that.

And everyone’s experience is different. My second baby never cluster fed and slept good chunkes in the night from birth.
i don’t see any advantages of starting with combi feeding, if you really want to try breastfeeding you need to persevere at the beginning. Create a calm, cosy environment for you and baby, don’t try and do too much at the beginning but give yourself time and space to do it. If you are hungry or stressed, it will affect baby too so you need to look after yourself too.

Find your support groups - local or online - and go now so you pick up on what other women are being told. It helps a lot as the main barrier in the UK is unhelpful advice from well meaning but inexperienced people. You can counter that by surrounding yourself with experienced, knowledgable people who know about BF.

I do want to introduce a bottle early on though so the baby doesn't reject them. Would I be okay expressing what I can for the odd feed with a bottle, will this be enough to get the baby used to bottles aswell ? I'm also giving her a dummy straight away. Bottles and dummies will be mam

I would concentrate on establishing breast feeding before complicating matters. You can't really anticipate every problem as babies vary physically but almost everyone can breast feed. One of the problems is that when you are tired and emotional in those early weeks and the baby is constantly rooting and miserable seeming it feels as if it is the right thing to give a bottle which is much easier for them. Thus the journey towards lack of confidence goes, partners often inadvertently encourage this as they want to help and hate seeing their partner and child seemingly distressed when there is an 'easy' solution.Nothing wrong with bottle feeding if that is your choice of course but if you want it to work get advice and support .
It can be very tiring and time consuming depending on your baby ; mine have ranged from a few sucks and done for 4 hours to non stop misery and one some where between who was an excellent feeder but also liked me as a giant dummy.Established breast feeding is imo miles easier than messing around with bottles and sterilising etc and in itself a good incentive.

Even if your baby takes a bottle early on that is no guarantee they won't decide one day, 'Mum I want you'. One of mine was a bottle refuser from the start the other decided one week 'no I want mum' I'd a friend who gave a bottle every night for months and baby decided they wanted the boob.

Concentrate on getting FBing established then think about bottles later.
Some BF babies do better going straight on to a doddie cup than going via bottles.
My bottle refuser went straight to a cup.

Honestly if you can crack bf you might not want to faff around with pumping and bottles when baby can get it straight from the tap with minimal effort/no washing up! Storing milk - 666 rule - 6 hours room temp, 6 days fridge, 6 months freezer. It will last longer in the freezer but won’t be as nutritionally complete after 6 months.

re. Foremilk/hindmilk - this just refers to the fat content of milk. At the start of a feed it is lower in fat, as it takes a little while and, more importantly, a deep latch for baby to ‘bring down’ the fat into the milk. Haakaas etc collect drip milk or let down (leaking) which is lower in fat but can be mixed with pumped milk to make up a feed. If you have a good latch, baby will come off satisfied, have nice yellow nappies and hopefully give you a bit of a stretch between feeds.

Thank you this is all really helpful and eye opening !!

I just want to include a bottle so my husband can feed the baby too sometimes, just the odd one, as it's nice for them to have that bonding time isn't it. And it'll be nice for me to get a break !

How am I going to know the baby is getting enough milk ?

Unfortunately, babies have their own minds and might not take to a bottle anyway, or not the bottle you've chosen to buy, or not after a certain time of day (after 4 mo, DS would only accept boob at night, full stop but would, after some work, take a bottle in the day)

Oh and bonding comes in many many many ways. Feeding is not the only option and if you want to BF, you need to establish it first, so no to dummy straight away, no to bottle straight away etc.

DH did the odd bottle feed but DS but also did all the burping, lots of nappy changes, time with him in the carrier just walking dogs, baths etc. They have a great bond.

Babies are surprisingly clever they know when they have had enough and they know when they want more. They'll tell you and as long as your getting wet nappies baby will be OK.

I think people like the comfort factor of seeing the milk disappear from a bottle, and so much baby talk is how many bottles, timing, oz?

Plenty ways for Dad to bond he doesn't need to give bottles, esp if that means more work for you.
That said I used to go out one evening a week for a couple of hours catch up with my pal, so would spend ages trying to get enough for a bottle.

I think it’s very hard to predict how babies will react to breast vs bottle and how they will cope with both in combination. There’s the risk of you don’t introduce a bottle early enough they will reject them later, or that you introduce a bottle and they prefer it and they reject the breast. But I think most babies will take to both.

And I tried to give DS1 a dummy and he absolutely had no interest. DS2 I wouldn’t have chosen to give him a dummy but he really needed it!

Nipple Flip
Lanisoh
Nipple shields

I think people like the comfort factor of seeing the milk disappear from a bottle, and so much baby talk is how many bottles, timing, oz?

I remember seeing a paediatrician who was most put out that I was combi feeding as he couldn’t fill in his spreadsheet on how many oz of DS was drinking!

Your husband can do tons of other things to bond with baby and to help you. Bottle feeding is not the only bonding activity.

You don’t need to know how much baby drinks. If they have wet nappies, seem content and happy and gain weight they drink enough!

Baby friendly initiative and breastfeeding network have great info. There's key points to look for with latch - baby is facing nipple, most of nipple in mouth, see babies cheek moving. No pain etc. If those things are happening it's a good latch. With regards to getting enough milk- wet nappies and steady weight gain will answer that. How often they feed can vary from roughly every hour to every 3/4 hours. But at times they can cluster feed so can be on and off constantly. How long a feed lasts can be from 5 min to an hour, babies typically suck the first bit of milk quickly like a drink as it's thinner then slower for the fattier milk which is more like a meal. Wait for baby to unlatch rather than stopping to make sure they had plenty of the fatty milk which fills them. Don't compare to others and don't look for a normal. Be prepared to spend many hours sat on sofa or bed feeding. Have lots of snacks, reading material , phone charger to hand and go with the flow.

Also when I started expressing I liked the medela pump.

I contacted La Leche for breastfeeding support and they were fantastic I did training through one of their groups and just felt like my local group and the lactation specialist really supported me as a first time breastfeeding mother.

That first part of breastfeeding they never tell you how hard it is to be honest, your sore (not in pain) , it feels never ending with cluster feeds and frankly the night wakings feel brutal but. Big BUT I’m now a year into it and I feel fantastic, my baby is so healthy and happy and it was the right decision for us. I struggled immensely and reached out to la Leche, my midwife and a local breastfeeding group and it was very supportive of providing information to get me mentally and physically capable of breastfeeding confidently.

Hope this helps; xx

www.laleche.org.uk