The Breast Feeding Support Thread

fits

Omg toots. That’s awful! You poor poor thing. How are you today?

Toots

Thanks everyone, mentally I'm feeling better today. I had the lactation consultant today and feeling much more positive after that. She prescribed me a cream for my nipples, and also a special burn dressing for my boob - it's blistered badly so need to prevent infection and keep it covered.

In terms of my supply issue, she feels it's hormonal because it came on so suddenly and she wants me to get my thyroid level checked. She's given me a note of what the levels should be for lactation and she reckons my thyroid is underactive. I'm dreadful with needles, but needs must and she said it should only be one little tube so hopefully I manage to stay conscious.

In terms of the biting, she said I'm doing the right thing by stopping the feed and saying ah-ah, but she said she'd go a step further and actually set the baby either down on the floor or in her cot to reinforce the message that she's not to bite. She also checked baby's mouth and mentioned that her teeth do seem to be particularly sharp. :eek: apparently the 8/9 month mark is peak biting time.

Radiant Cool Crazy Nightmare

Hi, apologies if this is in the wrong section, it's my first time posting in this forum. My wife is feeding our fourth child and is starting to find it very tough the last month or so, we are starting to try wean the baby onto bottles but are having no joy whatsoever.
He will not take any bottle, we have tried 3 different brands (tommy tippee, dr browns and nox)as well as a kind of fake boob contraption thingy that he just will not latch onto. Hes 5 months old so I was going to start him on baby rice but again nothing. I am wondering if anyone here has any tips or tricks to get this moving a bit faster. There was no hassle with the other babies moving over to bottles.
I should add that we have tried breast milk, formula and a goats milk formula aswell in the bottles, I'd just like to be able to do the night feeds so she can have a decent nights sleep for a change so all and any advice is appreciated.

bee06

Have you tried some thing other than a bottle ... sippy cup, open cup, shot glass?

Radiant Cool Crazy Nightmare

bee06 wrote: »

Have you tried some thing other than a bottle ... sippy cup, open cup, shot glass?

No but I will now, never even thought of a sippy cup as he's so young, I got about 3x 5ml dosing syringes into him a few days ago.

annoyedgal

The miracle cup 360 is a great cup if he is old enough. Following these suggestions as my son developed bottle refusal at 8 months and no amount of tricks or perseverance would work. He would go hungry rather than take it so I gave up trying.
Hoping it won't happen this time although being very lazy about giving expressed bottles so need to step it up!

jlm29

Mine all managed straw cups from a young age. You could just try a straw in a glass first do you’re not wasting money on cups!

bee06

Radiant Cool Crazy Nightmare wrote: »

No but I will now, never even thought of a sippy cup as he's so young, I got about 3x 5ml dosing syringes into him a few days ago.

Some sippy cups are suitable from 4 months but I can’t remember which ones. And as JLM said, I straw in a cup could work just as well.

In the meantime, is your wife co-sleeping? This saved my sanity when my little boy hit the 4 month sleep regression. He’s 9 months now and woke every two hours or more often until last week.

mjj

Hi all!
First time mum, breastfeeding my four week old baby. Hoping to start expressing in the next week or two. Looking for advice/recommendations on bottles and pumps? Want to get bottles that will cause least confusion for baby, is it just a case of trial and error? Goin to get a Hakka pump to start with and see how we go!
Thanks a mill!

bee06

mjj wrote: »

Hi all!
First time mum, breastfeeding my four week old baby. Hoping to start expressing in the next week or two. Looking for advice/recommendations on bottles and pumps? Want to get bottles that will cause least confusion for baby, is it just a case of trial and error? Goin to get a Hakka pump to start with and see how we go!
Thanks a mill!

The most important thing when giving bottles is you used paced bottle feeding and always use the newborn teat (regardless of the age of the baby). You don’t want to have them get a preference for the faster flow of a bottle. It’s trial and error on what one they take. Some babies will never take a bottle. Pumping: if using a manual or electric pump make sure the flange is the correct size for you. I started pumping using a tommee tippee manual pump when my little boy was 9 months and the flange was too small and I destroyed my nipples. The pain when feeding was unreal for a while. You shouldn’t have this issue with the haakaa.

shesty

Purple Lemons, visit your doctor, and explain how you feel.My first literally cried herself hoarse at five weeks.It took three doctor visits to get listened to-first time mum, pre- six weeks, and gaining weight so not considered a problem.All my babies have been criers but this was something different.She never slept in the day.Ever.Eventually silent reflux was diagnosed.They feed and feed to relieve the pain.Have a friend having the exact same experience as you at present and has the same diagnosis at seven weeks.The bigges t thing here is your mental health because jesus it is hard to deal with a baby like that.Keep going back to your doctor until they listen.You are the mum, listen to your gut.
Also put a rocket under your OH.Have been there with two under two.It's not for the faint hearted.He needs to dig in and help.A lot.

Edit:Toots, you poor thing, you are going through the mill.I hope it gets better.

Toots

Had the thyroid checked today, so should have the results next week. Also only had one bite yesterday, so that's been an improvement. I've had to supplement with formula for one or two feeds, but we actually managed a long enough feed last night - not as long as she would usually have had, but much longer than we've managed recently.

Sausage dog

Any advice for dealing with a cracked nipple? Baby is nearly 6 months old.

fits

Lanolin cream. Use before and after every feed.

catrionanic

Im battling sore nipples on newborn #2 right now, and finding the silver breast angels cups better than I found lanolin last time. You put a few drops of breastmilk into it and that stays on the nipple. And the cup shields and protects it from rubbing against your bra etc.

Sausage dog

fits wrote:

Lanolin cream. Use before and after every feed.

Thanks.
That's what I'm doing at the moment.

bee06

Sausage dog wrote: »

Thanks.
That's what I'm doing at the moment.

Is it teeth related? I have teeth related cuts for the last couple of months and I’m doing a saline rinse after a feed, followed by multimam compress for 30 mins and then breast angel cups. I’m also varying feeding positions so his teeth aren’t rubbing the same spot all the time and making and extra effort for a deep latch (but unfortunately its his crappy latch when he’s asleep that’s the big issue).

Purple Lemons

Little man finally diagnosed with reflux. Started zantac Wednesday and starting to see improvement today he was actually satisfied with a 40min feed this morning. He pulled off to cuddle in and fall asleep rather than scream and roar for more milk to sooth his throat and chest only to overfeed and puke which starts the vicious cycle again. He's gained exactly 4lbs and is up to 11lb7oz now so at least I know he's getting enough despite the vomiting. Fingers crossed here that we continue this way

Pocos

Radiant Cool Crazy Nightmare wrote: »

Hi, apologies if this is in the wrong section, it's my first time posting in this forum. My wife is feeding our fourth child and is starting to find it very tough the last month or so, we are starting to try wean the baby onto bottles but are having no joy whatsoever.
He will not take any bottle, we have tried 3 different brands (tommy tippee, dr browns and nox)as well as a kind of fake boob contraption thingy that he just will not latch onto. Hes 5 months old so I was going to start him on baby rice but again nothing. I am wondering if anyone here has any tips or tricks to get this moving a bit faster. There was no hassle with the other babies moving over to bottles.
I should add that we have tried breast milk, formula and a goats milk formula aswell in the bottles, I'd just like to be able to do the night feeds so she can have a decent nights sleep for a change so all and any advice is appreciated.

Hi

I have a 10 month old who would only take a bottle at 7.5 months up to that point full refusal... two things I think helped

1. She had a sippycup a Nuby one that needed sucking from 5 months onwards! Once she figured out the suck rather than just biting the nipple thing on it we tried a bottle

2. We use MAM bottles! On the side it says accepted by 94% breast fed babies! How true that is I don’t know but up to this point we had tried tommee tippee, dr Brown nuk avent and medela!!! So we had tried a lot but she took to the MAM straight away at 7.5 months!

Best of luck it’s very stressful

Naid23

Does anyone have any tips for sorting a blocked milk duct? Woke up this morning with horrendous pain - still have her feeding on the sore side and it is giving some relief but its still so painful.

Would a hot bath or a hot shower be better to help?

catrionanic

Naid have you tried soaking a nappy in hot warm and resting it over your sore area?

Naid23

catrionanic wrote: »

Naid have you tried soaking a nappy in hot warm and resting it over your sore area?

I currently have a heated pillow on it so hopefully it helps. Shes due a feed on that side soon so hopefully that helps.

Millem

Naid23 wrote: »

I currently have a heated pillow on it so hopefully it helps. Shes due a feed on that side soon so hopefully that helps.

Oh god love you. I still suffer with them.
Massage downwards in shower with the warm water. I get relief off hot facecloth too. Change feeding positions.....dangle feed if you can. Pump it out either. Or feed the bad size and pump other side.

shesty

Purplelemons, I presume they explained zantac only lasts about 28 days (despite the massive bottle!), and you need to get a new prescription and bottle then-unless your GP was kind enough to give you a scrip for a couple of months?

Best of luck, we had it on no.1 and the Zantac sorted her out, made our lives so much better and let us actually enjoy her.She's a larger than life four year old now and is flying.

Minier81

Maid, start feeding on that side for every feed today. Massage the area and stick a hot water bottle on it. I had one a few weeks ago and thankfully it cleared within a day.

annoyedgal

Had one of these with my son every few weeks. Poor you they are horrible. I tried all the tricks and definitely what worked best for me was getting baby to feed with their chin pointed in direction of the blockage. Chin massages the blocked area and usually unblocks in seconds !
Can require some gymnastics or getting your partner to hold baby in position.

If that doesn't work apply heat, dangle feed and massage towards the nipple while feeding. Also works very well.

I used to take ibuprofen for pain and swelling also. Good luck!


quote="Naid23;108543234"]Does anyone have any tips for sorting a blocked milk duct? Woke up this morning with horrendous pain - still have her feeding on the sore side and it is giving some relief but its still so painful.

Would a hot bath or a hot shower be better to help?[/quote]

annoyedgal

Had one of these with my son every few weeks. Poor you they are horrible. I tried all the tricks and definitely what worked best for me was getting baby to feed with their chin pointed in direction of the blockage. Chin massages the blocked area and usually unblocks in seconds !
Can require some gymnastics or getting your partner to hold baby in position.

If that doesn't work apply heat, dangle feed and massage towards the nipple while feeding. Also works very well.

I used to take ibuprofen for pain and swelling also. Good luck!


quote="Naid23;108543234"]Does anyone have any tips for sorting a blocked milk duct? Woke up this morning with horrendous pain - still have her feeding on the sore side and it is giving some relief but its still so painful.

Would a hot bath or a hot shower be better to help?[/quote]

Naid23

Thank you for the replies. I’ve tried the hot shower and the dangle feed. I have gotten some relief but its still very sore. Have the heat pillow back on it now after the feed/fpump.
Hoping it eases over night.

Millem

Naid23 wrote: »

Thank you for the replies. I’ve tried the hot shower and the dangle feed. I have gotten some relief but its still very sore. Have the heat pillow back on it now after the feed/fpump.
Hoping it eases over night.

Naid it might take two days to get sorted.
Don’t neglect other side so make sure to pump or feed.
The facecloth helped me too. Try and encourage baby to feed more if possible.
I found wearing a nursing bra helped too so they didn’t move much!! I just have the sort ones no underwire they look kind of like a sports top.

Naid23

Thank you all for the replies and tips. Have managed to clear the blocked duct thankfully. Still a bit tender but over the worst of it.
Thanks again for the help girls. Really appreciate it.