How soon can I introduce expressed milk?

[Bluebell]

Hi, I'm new to bf and so far so good (its just day 4 though).

My milk came in day 2 and I appear to have lots of it and expressed almost 1oz in 10min yesterday!

My dh is so desperate to be more involved and wants to feed it to lo, but I'm worried it too early now, when is the earliest you think I could?

 

[cosmicgirl]

I'd personally wait a bit longer if you can, it's still really early days and I find that the pump can really mess with your supply.
I found that if I pump too early I'd become engorged and it was awful.
Maybe wait a couple of weeks if you can x

 

[FirstBabyEek]

Huge congrats!! Can't really add any more to what Cos has said, just wanted to say your LO is gorgeous love their diddly hair it's soooo cute. x

 

[Lynds77]

I would defo wait.

during the first week my nipples were so sore due to incorrect latch, so Lo got bottles for a day. After that she got really fussy about latching on, and sometimes would just go mental once latched on if the milk didnt come through quick enough.
And even if I hand expressed a little first to get it going, she wouldnt latch on properly. i ended up with nipple shields, and it all went downhill from there.

I no longer breast feed and I quite gutted about it.

so try to keep on the breast as much as possible. I was literally dripping so also expressed, and was getting 50mls from each breast within a few mins at one point. The more i expressed, the more I got and I also became engorged. I thought i was doing the right thing. i wasnt!

 

[TORino]

I wouldn't express just yet.

Give it a few weeks until it has all settled down then it will be much easier to express and won't create engorged boobies and latching problems.

 

[Bluebell]

Thanks all ill wait, just getting so tired now only 4 hours sleep last night (have a toddler too) lo wants to be feed so often in the night, but I'll stick with it and hopefully he will settle soon.

 

[Lynds77]

Good luck to you. Breast feeding is such hard work but its so worth it

At the end of the day though you need to do what is best for YOU, your baby and the rest of your family. And don't beat yourself up if that means giving the odd bottle or switching to formula x

 

[jodied]

I was expressing from day 1 in hospital (Ella was in special care) and she had her first bottle of expressed milk at 11 days old by which time she had established bf and she never rejected the breast. I'd say try one bottle per day whenever you are happy that bf is established. My friend waited six weeks as advised but then her little boy refused a bottle xx

 

[KAW83]

Hi, gorgeous little one you have

I started expressing and giving my little one milk via bottle at 2 weeks. I haven't had any problems though every one is different.

My hubby is the same as yours, he wanted to be able to feed her, and also help me out at night as was finding it hard.

Congrats xx

 

[Andreabrad]

I fully express but having problems with reduced flow in one boob!!! My lo was in special care and I really wanted to breastfeed so expressed for him. They were topping him up with formula in the early days and everytime he was sick. He isn't sick with my milk so I express 6-8 times a day and have a breastfeeding specialist woman come out to my home to offer support. Gutted I can't actually breastfeed, but at least he is getting my milk. I've just got this problem with milk flow at the minute xx