breast to bottle - help having trouble and tears

[halemon]

after breastfeeding for nearl 4 weks now, it seems litle one is not gaining the weight she should and i think its because my milk supply has dwindled for some reason, in any case, i have made the decision to move to bottle feeding but am feeling terrible about it and could do with some help.

when she is hungry she will take a bottle - up to 120ml at a time, suggesying she wasn't getting enough from me! anyway, last night she kept refusing me, searching for boob, scrunching up her face and spitting and coughing our the bottle milk. i was in tears, so let her have boob but i dont think much in there so she fussed and got cross. i feel so guilty.

she has been co sleping and just lately has been doing much beter at sleeping through night in between feeds, but i felt i disrupted our usual calm cuddles last night and she woukldnt sleep withoput bob in mouth so couldnt get jher in moses basket as i want to - does this all make sense? pleas offer any advice on how to make this transition easier for baby and for me!!!

 

[babynumbertwo]

You sound as though you don't really want to stop? If you are wishing you could continue BF have you contacted a breastfeeding specialist for some help? It might be worth a try before taking a decision you're not happy with. They might also be able to help you get babys weight gain back on track if you are worried about that. I gave up with my first before I really wanted to and I gave myself a hard time about it for quite a long time afterwards.

If you do want to stop then try not to feel bad about it (easier said than done i know!)
Some things I tried were letting someone else give the bottle and using teats that are designed for mixed feeding as they are supposed to be more like nipples! With my first child I found that giving the bottle just before a feed was due helped a lot - hungry enough to feed but not starving.

Good luck

 

[nori]

Oh hunny i so feel for you as i was in tears when i saw ollie get the whole nipple confusion thing (that maybe your problem?) Which bottles are you using? I was using Avent ones and wish id gone for ones which are like the boob so i could have done a bit of both.

I wont add too much else as i know the breatfeeding ladies can give you far better advice than i can.

Just remember you have done amazingly well and with a bit help you can continue if its what you want. When you stop (for whatever reason) it can be hard going emotionally..

Claire x

p,s hope your well other than that. x

 

[purple13]

i had similar problems with connor when he was teeny - i had pethidine during labour and he was extremely sleepy for the first 48 hours after birth and wouldn't latch. he never got the hang of latching properly and by the time he was a month old he looked like a famine victim. i'd been giving him bm top-ups but came under a lot of pressure to give him formula instead as he was so underweight.

i really didn't want to, and although he had a few formula top-ups, i stuck to my guns.

i used nipple shields, against the advice of HVs, which solved connor's difficulty latching (i have v small flat-ish nipples). and i realised that the red book chart that my HV was so slavishly following (and connor was falling off the bottom of) was for formula babies not BF babies.

connor was a happy skinny baby, apart from feeding time struggles, and he had lots of wet nappies. he was probably about 2 months old when it all started going better for us - now he's nearly 11 months and we're still bf-ing.

if you don't want to carry on and are happy with that decision, then that's ok. but if you're not sure about stopping, i just wanted you to know that all is not lost!