Struggling to EBF

[NewmumOct]

Not sure if this is the right topic to post under.

Had DS two weeks ago, when he was born he was vomiting out a lot of mucusy vomit so Midwifes put him on formula from day 1 to clear his stomach.

He carried on with the formula and on day 3 my milk came in. The midwifes suggested i breastfeed and top up with formula as i was struggling with pain when breastfeeding.
The pain was a 7/10 and had meant i would not feed as much during the day/night as i would have liked.

Fast forward to today (week 2) i am still breastfeeding (pain has reduced) and topping up with formula.
When i pump i produce between 30-40ml in total.

I really want to exclusively breastfeed but i don't know where to start.
HV and midwives have not been very helpful.
Has anyone managed to exclusively breastfeed after a rocky start and what did you do? Is it too late now?

Not at all. Your baby is still tiny. Ring LLL for advice or find a private lactation consultant. If you still have pain it means your latch still isn’t quite right- it takes a while to learn. You can also watch YouTube videos too. LLL can help you come up with a plan to reduce the top ups and increase breast feeding.

Sorry to hear you're struggling. As a midwife (and lactation consultant) I can say you've had terrible support and advice from the get go, from the sound of it. All this topping up sounds like it's been for incredibly dubious reasons.

You could easily just stop the formula entirely and feed your baby responsively, on demand- he may want to feed a lot more as he gets used to not having those top-ups. Make sure to offer both breasts at every feed and aim for at least 8-12 feeds in 24 hours. Also agree with the advice to seek out professional support!

Are you pumping 30-40ml after a feed? If so that's a completely normal amount.

i have had both HV and midwife review DS latch as well as local infant feeding team. Apparently he latches well

@teezletangler Thnks for the response,
I manage to pump 30ml usually after a feed around 1hr later

First of all well done for getting back to BF after a tough start! What kind of pain is it and do you have any idea why? Has baby been assessed for tongue tie? How’s his weight gain been?

i agree that there’s nothing wrong with top ups or mixed feeding if desired, but the pushing of this for the reasons they stated sounds a little weird. I’m really not sure how formula top ups would help clear mucous any quicker than BF:

The very best thing to do now is feed feed feed. The pain situation needs to be sorted but if it is, just hunker down and let your baby and breast lead the show. He will feed a lot at times as they cluster feed to bring your milk supply up. It can feel like you’re not producing enough but it’s totally normal while your body adjusts to the supply and demand. Don’t worry about how much you are expressing at this point, babies are incredibly efficient at removing milk from your breast - far more so than a pump, and it’s not representative. Saying that - if I pumped after feeding I would get less then you, so 30ml is amazing! If you are still struggling in a few days 100% contact a breastfeeding support group. They are very knowledgable and supportive.

I had to wean off formula top ups as my baby had been exclusively tube + bottle fed during her 3 week stay in Nicu (part formula part expressed milk). I didn't start bf at all until she was 2 weeks old, though I'd been pumping. It took a week or so once we were home to wean off formula top ups. It can be done, it is 100% not too late.

First thing to say is don't get hung up on how much you can pump, it doesn't correlate that closely with how much your baby can get and it's possible for most women to increase supply quite quickly through on demand feeding.

The most important thing is to feed, feed, feed. This will build up your supply. If you can, set aside the next few days and stay in bed/in front of the TV with tonnes of snacks. Feed on demand. Expect intense periods of cluster feeding for the first couple of weeks, which can be painful and wearisome, I used nipple shields for a time. It's supply and demand so the more you feed the more milk you'll produce. You need to drink more water than you can imagine and stay fuelled.

If you are worried your baby isn't getting enough, the single most important thing to monitor is dirty/wet nappies. If you can, get your baby weighed every 2-3 days.

I planned to taper top ups by 10mls per feed per day, but I ended up not doing it in such a structured way as sometimes she fed to sleep or wouldn't take the top up.

I was then actually able to stop the top ups within less than a week as I could see she was satisfied, there were plenty of wet nappies and she was gaining weight. So having planned to gradually taper to nothing I ended up going cold turkey halfway through and it was fine.

Be prepared, it's an intense period when you are feeding to build supply like this, you will feel like you do nothing but feed, but it didn't last long and it was worth it because apart from anything else the top ups were such a faff.

I found the kelly mom website useful,the advice you have had from professionals so far seems a bit mediocre so it may be worth trying a breastfeeding support group or specialist advice service. Good luck!

Yes you can do it. I was pumping and topping up because after a rocky start I thought I wasn’t producing enough milk, but then I stopped pumping and it didn’t seem to cause any issues.

Tongue tie was identified and fixed which massively improved things (though baby had to relearn how to feed). Also had to practice a lot with latch and feeding positions.

I then stopped giving formula except at bedtime and periods where she seemed really hungry. Which meant persevering through cluster feeding, when it felt like my baby wanted more than I could produce.

Then she suddenly started to refuse the bottle, which worried me. However her weight is absolutely fine so my body has ultimately met her demand even if sometimes it doesn’t feel like it.

Key is to weigh your baby regularly and check for issues with latch and tongue tie.