Anyone successfully relactated??

[SummerRayne17]

Hi. I stopped BF my little girl at 6 weeks old and really regret it :( she is 11 weeks old now and I want so much to start feeding her again (formula making her very constipated).

Does anyone here have any successful relactation stories or tips/advice?

I have read that you need to try to express 8 times in 24hrs, to try and rebuild milk supply.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks

I can't speak from experience but a midwife told me recently that if enough sucking/expressing was done on pretty much any woman of childbearing age, eventually they would produce milk even if they hadn't given birth- which is what they did to get wet nurses etc.
So I would assume it can be done- maybe give it a go and see? You could let baby use you as a dummy after every feed or whenever they need comforting to help stimulate supply as well as trying to express?
Best of luck and hope you manage it

I've not relocated but had loads of problems with supply and had intense BFing support - in the LLL I attended was a woman who had successfully relocated (she was in a serious accident when her DC was a few weeks old and in hospital unconscious) and an adoptive mother who managed to induce lactation to feed her baby with some FF top-ups only - it was amazing!

Get some expert advice on board.
it can be done, but is hard work and very time consuming.
LLL are excellent - you may need to investigate a supplementary feeding gadget to get your DD interested in the breast again, lots of skin to skin contact, get her to latch on as often as possible (every time she cries) as babies are far better at removing milk than any pump, but pump as well.

Kellymom.com is good for evidence based advice, also.

Kellymom

At breast supplementer - this is the kind of think I was talking about.

Scroll down a bit for feeding tools on the breast

In my experience, nothing beats RL support.

Find out if there is a La Leech League group near you.

Yes, I have.

I stopped at 3 weeks, ff for 8 weeks than began relactation.

You do need real life help. The LLL are probably the only people who will have experience of this.

I hired a hospital grade double pump and expressed every 2 hours including overnight which meant I had to get up while my baby slept! Skin-to-skin is key. We used a sling with me naked on the top half, bed shared (formula only risk factor) and had a bath together every single evening.

Milk came back very quickly but the latch took longer. The bath was the key.

Mix fed until 12 months. A return to EBF was impossible.

Kudos, stargirl

Have done it too. Went on to feed my baby till he was 3.

Stopped at 3 weeks, started again at about 10 weeks got back to EBF at 16 weeks, more or less.

Look at Jack Newmans website.

You might be able to get back to EBF, you might not.

Don't have a do or die attitude to it, just see if it works out for you.

It's really hard at first and getting out of the house is virtually impossible because the relactation aids are tricky to use.

I expressed by hand straight down the sink, it was too much faff to double pump and keep cleaning all the equipment and feed the baby with the relactation aid and prepare the formula top ups.

Wish you luck OP, you've got nothing to lose x

You only need to sterilise the pump parts once every 24 hours. Pop all the pieces into a freezer bag and store in the fridge. DH cleaned and sterilised them.

Thanks for the replies. Well done Star and Pom! It's amazing that you managed to achieve bf again. I tried putting lo to the breast last night to see if she would still suckle, she took the nipple in to her mouth and sucked but became frustrated nothing was coming out, so had a screaming session (she has just been fed).

I think i will start pumping and she how it goes. I think, if i can build up a supply then she will suckle it. How much i can get, remains to be seen.

Good luck summer.

It's a very emotional and frustrating process but keep putting baby to breast and pumping to increase supply and who knows.

It is definitely possible. I stopped breastfeeding at 3 weeks, though I continued expressing. By 3 months DS was on mostly formula and I expressed 2-3 times a day. We started breastfeeding at just over 3 months and fed until he weaned himself at 14 months. I spent a week at home constantly offering him the breast and pumping small amounts more frequently.
Good luck!

Try a supplemental nursing system. A pump isn't as effective as a baby (although it's definitely a good idea as well), and an sns will allow baby to suckle without becoming frustrated at the lack of milk. It'll also make sure she associates milk with the breast and help you avoid bottle/flow preference. Medela do one I think but it's basically tubing and a bottle, you could make one yourself.

Following with interest as I would also like to try!

I've just placed an order to hire a hospital grade medela electric double pump, will be here on Thursday! feeling like i want to give this my absolute best shot. DH is very supportive of it too, which helps. Going to kick start with skin to skin and suckling time tonight.

I have also left a message on the contact for Shropshires LLL support, hopefully she will get back to me soon for a chat.

Good luck, OP!

I've supported people to relactate before.

You will need RL support and I have seen you have contacted LLL which is a great idea! At this stage, as you breastfed recently, it should definitely be possible!

There are two parts to relactation:

1. Teaching the baby to latch
2. Re establishing a milk supply

For part one, you will need lots of skin to skin and encouraging baby to latch if your baby won't already. You can try feeding your baby at the breast using a SNS to enable your baby to get milk even while you don't have any and to slowly decrease the amount of top up when you do re establish a milk supply.

For part two you will need to pump very regularly including at night time to reestablish your supply. Using an SNS also stimulates your breasts. Galactagogues can be used to help establish a supply too but you could establish your milk via stimulation alone.

Good luck

Hospital pumps are the dogs bollocks! I couldn't believe how quiet it was compared to my Medela Swing, and it looked like a dalek
Good luck OP!

Hospital pumps are good (but not as good as your DD when she gets the hang of it again).

I just want to repeat what Unicornberry said: you must pump (or feed) over night. Milk-making hormones (prolactin mainly) are at their highest in the early morning hours so removing milk during the night is particularly useful for stimulating supply.

Fenugreek needs to be taken in high enough doses to make your sweat/pee smell a bit ?treacly but can work well to increase supply - but bear in mind nothing will kickstart lactation other than removal of milk.

Oh, I am rooting for you

Thanks for the good luck wishes. All i can do is give it my best shot and if i am successful, that would be wonderful. I have really regretted stopping bf.

Unicorn, Thanks for your advice. I have just been looking at the medela sns and found a secondhand one on ebay for £27, so think i will give it a go. Not had a call back yet from the LLL contact, will try calling again in the morning if nothing!

A friend whose toddler was very sick in hospital accidentally relactated after a year. The child suckled for comfort and after 3 days, milk reappeared!

Thanks Pacific!

looks like I will be doing an expressing session in the night then! Lol.

I have just been reading up on the best foods to eat too...oats for breakfast, it is!

Wow Mayhew, that was great! If only it was that simple in the norm! Lol

When i was bf previously, i had a very good supply, so i am hoping when it kick starts back in, it will be the same. Fingers crossed!

Oh yes, eat all the flapjacks you can get your hands on! I couldn't figure out why I was so engorged all of a sudden, and realised I'd been having oat milk in my coffee every day

Blimey Peace, its amazing that food can have such an impact! I happen to be partial to the odd flapjack too, so cool