Hi, I have a 4 month old baby girl. I had trouble latching her in the breast and I had to express milk for her. I’m still keeping on exppresin but I find it very hard and it takes a lot of my time also I do like so much breastfeeding her and I feel sad I can’t. I’m thinking to try again latching her and I like to ask if had anyone done it after 4 months and if it’s been successful??! I would appreciate if someone can give some advice
Thank you
Not myself but I know someone who tried again successfully later on. She still had pain in the beginning but found it easier because the babies mouth was bigger and the latch was therefore better. When she tried again she was told the baby might either refuse the breast (they don’t have to work as hard to drink from a bottle) or might not have the right technique anymore to feed from the breast but it worked out for her. She continued to express in the beginning so there was no pressure if a feed wasn’t successful or very long. It was all about practice in the beginning. Have a chat with your HV to get their views. You’ve done amazingly to be pumping for four months!
Give it a go, well done for expressing for so long, you’re doing fab x
Have you considered a breastfeeding consultant? They might be able to help. Sadly at 4 months I think it will be harder as baby will be used to the bottle but no harm in giving it a try!
Thank you for your reply’s
I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum. I mixed fed my baby for the first 8 weeks as I was exhausted. Since then she's been breast fed (she's 4 months old).
I find it hard to go out without her as she refuses to drink from a bottle so hard to leave her with someone. She will eventually drink expressed milk if she is starving and been refusing for a few hours but she appears really distressed.
I can't wait to start weaning her and I hope she will drink my milk from a sippy cup soon x
Hi Georgina
Have you asked hv about starting weaning earlier than 6 months? I did and they say to wait until 6 month.
Hopefully she will drink from the bottle I have heard is hard to introduce the bottle as well but at the end babies do drink from bottle as is easer for them. X
Hi, I am in the same position! My now 10 week old baby never latched so has had to be bottle fed from the start although we have tried breastfeeding she's never got the hang of it, even with lots of help from professionals. I am expressing her feeds but am so exhausted from it as it takes such a long time and I feel we can't leave the house for long so she is missing out on socialising. I'm going to wind down expressing in a few weeks but feel really sad about that so would love to breastfeed her. So I understand your predicament. What have you decided to do? Have you been trying to bf?
Hi bobreyro
I have tried but she doesn’t even open her mounth when I give her the breast, she cries and pulls her head away. I don’t like leaving her crying and without feed as she is a tiny baby. But yeah is true pomping is so tiredness, when she takes more milk you will have to pomp less. I’m now popping 4-5 times a day and giving her a bottle of formula as well as she needs more milk and my breast aren’t producing enough. After how many hours did you feed her for the first time? I did feed her after nearly 3 hours as she had an infection and was under medical control, this maybe affected her latching on the breast. I stayed 5 days in the hospital and she didn’t latch even with the help of all the midwifes in ther 
Hi, it sounds very similar! My baby also screams and pushes back from the breast so I can't even get close to latching her on. I keep trying! In hospital I tried breastfeeding for 12 hours before I gave her a bottle. She was really sleepy and not interested in feeding at all - was barely interested in the bottle! She wasn't sick just sleepy maybe from epidural or forceps.
Re: expressing what machine are u using? I hired one it made a big difference and took fenugreek tablets for 3 weeks to increase my supply, meaning I don't have to pump for so long each time.
Are you doing lots of skin to skin? I am trying but it's hard to find the time. I really want to breastfeed! Have you been trying again the last few days? It's so hard when the baby cries when I try and I know I can just give her a bottle and she'll be happy.
I’m using medela single electronic pomp. Also I give her a bottle of formula. I have got feeding problems with my lo, she doesn’t seems she enjoys the milk she eats a little bit and after refuses to have more. I try hard to give her more but she gets stressed 😩 I have an appointment with the doktor to discuss this situation.
How often are you expressing? You mention you bottle feed too... if you do not express regularly as you supplement with formula instead it will cause the milk supply to go down. To up your supply you just have to pump more often and make sure your drinking lots
I need to give her some extra milk but I haven’t reduced pomping. Giving her a bottle of formula really helped me organise her feeding time and have less stress.
My lo is 5 months in 2 days and I express 4-5 times a day. If I express more often I just get less milk.
Is anyone giving lo water when bottle feed expressed milk?
No issue in giving formula ... but you need to pump more to get more milk, pump until breasts feel empty it might seem less at first but if you persist a few days your body will produce more... it's like when babies go through a growth spurt they are constantly on the boob until they increase your milk supply.
Also you shouldn't be giving her water at 4 months just milk unless she's struggling with bowels, you can start water at 6 months with meals
Should I keep pomping even there is no milk coming out?
How old is your kid? You seem to have a good experience?
Thank you for ur advice
Make sure you are eating well and drinking plenty too... my kids one is almost 2.5 years and the other turning 6 months soon ... will be starting baby led weaning next week 😍 she seems so keen when we eat
are the tablets you’re having helping on your milk supply???? I wanna give a try
Gosh the feeding issues sound stressful I hope your doctor helps. Yes the fenugreek tablets really helped me produce more milk, I got them from Amazon. I just took them until I ran out but my increased supply continued.
I'm about to stop expressing though as I can't cope with it any longer.
Hi I’m not sure if this will help you. But I couldn’t get baby to latch on. I was advised to try nipple shields to have a teat like nipple. They are a god sent.
Hi, I tried nipple shield as well they didn’t help me. Midwife said they don’t recommend and I lost the hope. Which one are u using?
Yes the midwife’s don’t recommend them but they said to me use them and still use the breast rather than go to the bottle.
I’m using MAM ones. Unfortunately baby has tongue tie that’s why the latch isn’t great.
Hi Ana_ana, sounds like you’ve had exactly the same problem with nursing at the breast as I have. My baby is only 5 weeks old but I had to breastfeed, give expressed breast milk from previous feed and then top up with formula for first 4 weeks. I’m now officially exclusively pumping with the very occasional nurse at the breast. I’m producing around 35oz every day and counting, but it’s taken a lot of patience and hard work to get to this point and I’m praying it doesn’t decrease any time soon! I know you’re talking about getting baby back to breast rather than pumping, but in terms of milk supply I can offer some tips. 1) As previous posts have mentioned, I cannot stress enough hydrate, hydrate, hydrate - you can’t be thirsty at any time of day or night! Make sure you’re drinking throughout every pump and feed. In terms of diet, avoid caffeine and other lactation inhibitors, make sure your iron isn’t low with a blood test at Doctors and you need fats and proteins - 3 square meals plus snacks in between and through the night with feeds and pumps. Google foods which promote lactation - I’ve found porridge/oatmeal for breakfast, oat based snacks like flapjacks throughout the day, plenty of dairy, and lactation promoting tea like Pukka motherkind baby 3-4 times daily all really help! 2) ditch the single pump and get an electric double. Ardo Calypso is reasonably priced and has a cycle and vacuum settings, meaning if you follow the instructions you can set it to a let down function which will help you loads with those moments of ‘no milk coming out’ - remember there is ALWAYS milk in there if you’re still getting milk sometimes, it’s just a case of stimulating a let down each time. Double pump over single because stimulating both breasts at the same time increases milk supply and it reduces you’re overall pumping time. 3) PUMP PUMP PUMP. Even though baby is 4 months old maybe attempt pumping as frequently as you would feed a newborn. You can approach this as 2-4 hourly OR at least 8 times in 24 hours. Annoyingly prime time for lactation is between the hours of 1am and 6am and first thing in the morning so try to get at least 1 pump in then. Pump for 20 mins or until milk has slowed to a tiny drip every 3-4 pumps, or stopped completely but try to carry on for a few mins after flow has stopped as this tells breasts to make more.Try breast massage before and during pumping. Try warm compress on breasts before pumping. Attempt to get baby to nurse before pumping even if just for a few sucks or just having her near to your nipple skin on skin (in fact have as much skin on skin throughout day as possible generally too!). Make sure you can see baby when you’re pumping or able to smell her but best scenario touching her. Avoid looking at the collection bottles whilst you pump - it’ll only stress you more if it seems like a little amount! 4) go hands free. Either buy a hands free pumping bra or make your own ! Cut holes over the nipples in an old nursing bra. This will make pumping a lot less stressful and means your hands are free for baby. Get everything you need in reaching distance! 5) fenugreek. 3500mg per day at least and if you’re not stinking of maple syrup within a couple of days, stop taking it - sounds weird but if you don’t smell, it isn’t working and won’t ever work for you and could actually decrease your supply. 6) try to avoid formula at all costs. This will keep your supply low as your body knows baby doesn’t need as much as you want to give because you’re topping up. Even if it means baby skips a feed as hard as it is to listen to hungry baby crying, give her whatever you can from last expressed feed and keep her occupied and comforted until you can pump again. Obviously only do this if you’re only topping up with a few oz across the day, anything more than this would be very very cruel. I had points for a day or two trying to get the last 4oz per day formula top up off the table where I was literally pumping with him crying in front of me and every half ounce quickly pouring into bottle to feed him!! It’s so difficult but it worked for me and could work for you! If you can get your supply up to what baby needs you may find she’ll feed better at the breast, or so I’ve been told - only time will tell if that’s the case with me and my little! Good luck xx
I know this was 6 months ago, but i just want to say ive been exclusively expressing since my daughter was born as we had issues latching. I tried a teat on my nipple after 8 weeks and she managed to feed but it took ages, I kept trying to see if she would latch and after 11w6d she managed to latch 🎉. Im still expressing so she has bottle and breast now, she manages fine with both, every baby is different but I would say keep going if you want to.
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