I need help...

[crackers24]

with breastfeeding. Who do i turn to for physical support??? what are my options??

 

[purplebluered]

What help do you need hun? I personally found the NCT breastfeeding counsellor very helpful, she spoke to DH on the phone and came to see me a couple of times. Otherwise there are other organisations you can get support from, like the la leche league, I'm sure someone else will come along and suggest others. There may be a breastfeeding cafe in the area, I went to one and they were fab. I'm certain someone else will come along and suggest some others

 

[Fly]

I can't recommend la leche league highly enough hun - they run a breastfeeding group every week just down the road from me and its been an absolute god send. I wouldn't still be breastfeeding now if it weren't for the support and encouragement from that group. Our counsellor is lovely and available almost 24/7 for one on one or telephone support. Definatley give them a ring. Also when i was having trouble in the first few weeks my health visitor arranged for the nursing nurse to come out at home to visit me. She's part of the health visitor team but specially trained to support nursing mums and she was great.

 

[millie15]

La Leche and NCT are brilliant for phone support, however, they rarely send someone out in London (I noticed that's where you are) as they just don't have enough counsellors to cover the areas. My local hospital have a BF support group and there are also several children's centres in the area that have groups. I've had lots of probs with BFing and have found these to really help. Feel free to PM me if you want anymore details.

 

[Charlie:-)]

Lots of recommendations already given but thought I would post a link to the baby cafe so you can see if theres one in yoru area, I found them excellent. Theres usually a midwife and a health visitor that will be there to support you but also at my baby cafe theres someone from la lech league and 2 nct breastfeeding councellors but not sure if this is teh same for every baby cafe.

http://www.thebabycafe.co.uk/

 

[crackers24]

I've checked some of the websites for support groups and hopefully i can get somewhere with them.
Let me explain my situation briefly.

I started BFing LO in hospital with an occasional top up (advised by the silly MW). after 2 weeks of agonising pain and a few top ups i decided to ditch the formula completely and LO was Breastfed exclusively with the pain continuing up to six weeks. During that time LO had the occasional bottle.

The reason i gave her formula was because i had a feeling my milk wasnt enough for her. Everytime we would go for a weighing i would put her weight gain down to the few bottles of formula she had. Even now it seems as though my milk is not enough for her or she hasnt latched on properly.

After much thought i made the decision to completely stop formula. 2weeks into this decision i gave LO a botlle of formula due to unseen circumstances and when she was weighed 2 weeks ago she had put on 200g which again i have put down to the formula.

Now i've made an even stronger decision to stop any formula and have given LO expressed milk where before i would have given her formula. It's been over 2 weeks and we were due for a weighing today and she put on 180g over the last 2 weeks and babies her age should b putting on that much weight in one week.After the first six weeks the pain had stopped but LO was still always hungry after each feed and she still is even now.

Most of the time i cant hear her gulping the milk, and i think my only choice now is to seek help, which i should have done a long time ago.

Sorry about the long post. Thats where i am at the moment.

Last thing i want to do is start giving her the occasional formula milk.

 

[Suzie and Faith]

I'm sure someone will offer you more advice soon, all I can say is that i know weight gain is different in breastfed babies than formula ones - and that you can actually get special breastfeeding weight charts.

I hope you get the support you need xxxxx

 

[purplebluered]

I had a "problem" with Isaac not putting the weight on as he "should". He was exclusively breastfed with EBM bottle at night, until a few weeks ago when i stopped expressing and switched to formula bottle at night. Since he regained his birthweight, at 7 days, he's never followed the line and has gone from 50th centile to below 2nd. The thing is, no one is concerned because a) breastfed babies don't put the weight on in the same way as bottlefed babies do and the charts are very diffeerent and b) Isaac has plenty of wet and dirty nappies which is a good sign and c) he is happy and alert and incredibly active.

Like you, I asked for help, I saw the NCT counsellor and went to a breastfeeding cafe and they helped with refining the latching on. Despite his feeding going well and latching on well, his weight didn't improve, we just concluded that as he's sooooooooooooooo active and moves his limbs like a 10000000000000 times a day - he was simply burning it off.

Seek the help and get reassurance, but at the end of the day, as long as your baby is happy and alert and producing wet and dirty nappies, I wouldn't be worrying too much. Babies will let you know if your milk isn't enough. Is she happy after a feed? Or crying for more? Babies aren't robots nor are they to be compared to bottlefed babies. They can be quite different in how they put the weight on. Really hope that gives you some reassurance