Im about to give up BF

[maldives]

As if i am BFing i was BFing for the first 3 weeks with 1 or 2 bottles of formula a day only...now .It's the reverse..2 or 3 Breast milk bottles a day.. does it do any good to him? or shall i give up and give him formula only? please tell me what to do as I feel my hormones are messed up now with little supply and i don't know if 2 feedings from my breast milk a day is any good

 

[beanie]

aww hun

right first of all what do you want to do? You have 3 options.

1. carry on as you are doing. Its fine to mix formula and breastmilk. There are someon this board that have mixed fed (me included for a short while) and have enjoyed doing so. The breastmilk will be great for baby and goodforyou too.

2. exclusively formula feed. If you do this, I would advise dropping a breastfeed every few days as to avoid engorgement.

3. exclusively breastfeed. Now tyhis will be difficult but it is possible. You will have to go back to basics, lots of skin to skin, and jusdt put baby on the boob as much. you will have to top up in the early days/weeks but do so after baby has been on the boob for a good while and put them on again after. Make sure you are getting plenty ofrest, and eat lots of oats to help boost your supply (a great excuse to sit on sofa and eat flapjack).

I can't tell from your post what you want to do but choose what feels right. if you need any more advice just ask away

 

[Sherlock]

If you want to breastfeed then you need to be prepared to tough it out for a little while.

Go to bed for a couple of days, lots of skin on skin contact with your baby and let him feed from your boobs only. Demand feeding so let him feed whenever he wants. It really is the best way to build up your supply of milk. The more he feeds the more your milk supply will increase. Your baby will get far more milk from your boobs than you can expressing so let him do so. If you give him a chance to feed from your boobs only for a few days he should build your supply up just fine.

If you continue to express you probably won't ever get as much out expressing as he can himself.

You seem to want to breast feed but it appears you think expressing and giving it in bottles is not going well. If it were me then I'd give up on that and go back to boobs only.

 

[maldives]

hi girls,
yes i really wish if i could breast feed him or at least mix feeding but with more breast milk ..the problem is Sherlock whenever i put him on my breast he gets little milk then he is pissed off coz i know he isn't getting any or maybe he wants the bottle as its easier...
I would really want him to have as much from my breast milk as possible even if it wasn't exclusive but my problem now is that my supply is really low ..so far i expressed only 6 oz for the whole day . i am going to try again now..
i just feel really bad as not being able to BF him for at least 3 months..its only a month and a half and its not exclusivly BF it was both...i will try my best and let it all happen naturally.

 

[kalia]

In my experience with expressing, if you want to increase your supply you have to express more often rather than for longer. Every 3 hours during the day and at least once during the night should increase your supply though it may be a week before you notice. You also need to get plenty of rest and eat well - you'll get noticeablely more after sleeping, even if it's just a nap. You don't have to express as often as that once your supply is up. If you don't have a very sleepy baby or someone else to help all day this is probably not doable. If you can't manage to express very often or get lots of rest, don't beat yourself up about it - with a newborn to care for there's not always time to do this

You've done your best and you have to remember that!

My brother was only ever formula fed and he's a sporty fit doctor so it didn't do him any harm! There are lots of decisions we will make about feeding our children. I'll give my little girl sweets when she's older even though I know they're bad for her.

What's best for your baby is that you are happy so don't fret

 

[Squiglet]

babies are inherently lazy things and if they can get their milk quicker and it makes them feel fuller for longer... then thats what they will go for...which is why your LO is preferring bottles... To get milk from the breast requires great strength in the jaws, and its tiring.

Even on bf a day is better than none... and if you enjoy it and your LO enjoys it keep doing it.. but you will probably find that your LO will drop the bf'ing in favour of the formula over time...

Tbh you could make sure your LO is bf'd exclusively for 6 months but if you end up feeding him McDonalds everyday when he's older.. what was the point?... if you get my meaning

 

[Sherlock]

hi girls,
yes i really wish if i could breast feed him or at least mix feeding but with more breast milk ..the problem is Sherlock whenever i put him on my breast he gets little milk then he is p*ssed off coz i know he isn't getting any or maybe he wants the bottle as its easier...
I would really want him to have as much from my breast milk as possible even if it wasn't exclusive but my problem now is that my supply is really low ..so far i expressed only 6 oz for the whole day . i am going to try again now..
i just feel really bad as not being able to BF him for at least 3 months..its only a month and a half and its not exclusivly BF it was both...i will try my best and let it all happen naturally.

Chances are he's gotten used to bottles and not having to work to get the milk out and is therefore lazy at the boob and fusses. Sounds like it never had a chance to in the beginning as you went to bottles very early on IIRC. So your supply never had a decent chance to establish either.

Kalia gives soem good advice re expressing. Personally its a lot of work for a few feeds if you want to BF. Kalia has reasons she expresses all her breastmilk and has done a great job to get such a good supply going on. Impressive lady

However as had been said on a few occasions now if you want to BF then you have to be prepared to tough it out a bit and stick him on your boob and just let him feed. If he feeds on one for a while and then fusses, change boobs and let him have the other. The more he sucks and feeds the more he will stimulate your supply and it should increase. Also skin on skin contact and a couple of days on/in bed with him will help. He'll smell your milk also. All of those things will help build your supply.

As squiglet said mixing breast milk and formula often doesn't work and is the beginning of the end.

That is why its advised to not mix bottles and breastfeeding in the first 6 weeks as a) it messes with building and increasing your supply as baby cannot demand feed and tell you when he is hungry and b) bottles (and formula) can make babies lazy and feel more full. Then when given breastmilk or the boob they fuss and don't seem keen. I did express a few feeds for my LO around week 3 but gave up as I didn't like how it messed with things and he got more milk from me.

Personally if it were me and I wanted to solve this and continue BF'ing I'd stop the formula totally and all bottles, even expressed milk, and just let him feed off my boob until the supply kicked in. Its the only way to do it and make it work. How else is he supposed to get enough milk from your boobs without feeding from them when he needs and wants to. Let him guide you. Chances are he is fussing as he has to do some work to get the milk from your boob, not that he isn't getting any. Stick with it and don't think he isn't getting any from there. There is no easy option with BF and we've all been there in those early weeks with baby constantly needing to feed.

If you can get him back to feeding solely on your boob then you could manage to 3 months well I'd think. And chances are to 6.

Whatever you decide to do, good luck with it

 

[purple13]

good replies from the others there hon, there's not anything else to add.

if you are absolutely determined, there's a good chance you could exclusively bf - use the advice given here, forget the formula and go to bed for a couple of days.

even just keeping a couple of bf's a day is doing your LO good - but at the end of the day formula isn't poison and you have to do whatever will make you happy.

good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

[kalia]

I just reread my post and I think because of what it said about sweets it sounds like I'm saying formula is bad for babies - that is so not true! And definitely not what I meant

I read the WHO report that said that babies should be exclusively breastfed for 6 months. You should have a look at it. As it's the WORLD health organisation this suggestion seems to be made partly because of the risk to babies from contaminated water. We don't have that risk. We have clean water and nutrient balanced formula.

 

[kalia]

Also, if you'd like to breastfeed you need to keep putting LO to the breast. It's been 8 weeks since we last tried breastfeeding and although we've never managed a full feed she did feed then. I tried again yesterday and she didn't understand what was going on at all! She obviously has no recollection of breastfeeding so even though I have a massive supply we can't do it. The poor girl was so confused

 

[happy-chick]

The girls have give great advice

If you really want to breastfeed it is possible but be prepared for frustration and determination, you can do it hun! Good luck with what you decide! x