Breastfeeding in this heat!

Hi is anyone else struggling with breastfeeding in this weather? I have a 4 week old and last week when it was hot I fed him so much as I was paranoid he’d get dehydrated. This week he’s started cluster feeding in the evenings and he’s just been kicking me and squirming and I’m sitting in bed stuck to the sheets! I nearly gave him some formula last week as I couldn’t cope anymore but we managed to hang in there. I’m just dreading the next few days !!

[roxannacar]

Make sure you are drinking enough too! Breastfeeding and heat is also dehydrating for you, so you need to be drinking a few litres a day. That will also make sure you milk supply stays up.

[Ribena1987]

In this weather definitely invest in an air cooler or air conditioning unit (although use sparingly as I’ve heard they are not good for babies) Windows wide open. Feed in the coolest part of the house. I also use a feeding pillow otherwise me and my baby stick to each other! It is hard feeding them in this weather but keep going. It’ll be winter soon! x

[Hidden]

My son (8 months) is much the same in this heat, he has always run warmer and is struggling in the heat. What I've found is to keep him dressed in a very thin cotton romper, and to drape a thin muslin over my arm whilst feeding, the less skin to skin the less sweaty he gets.

Formula won't help at all, generally speaking, our body temperatures rise as we digest, formula is harder to digest than breast milk so may make things worse after feeding rather than during. You could buy a haakka or similar off brand silicon milk catcher, they suction onto the opposite breast whilst feeding and draw out your let down, my son sometimes prefers a cold bottle out the fridge rather than warm from me. As there is no nipple stimulation from the catcher it won't cause an over supply. If you do decide to do this, just bear in mind that the milk flows faster from a bottle, so baby will need to be pace fed, Kellymom website has lots of information regarding bottle feeding, amounts etc.

[Hidden]

I have these lovely thin muslins that we’ve been using and that does help. I’d like to be able to express but finding it really hard to find the time when he’s feeding unpredictably. I don’t have leak issues so would the haakaa work for me?

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Haakka would work, at 8 months pp I pretty much never leak, I have to have skipped a couple feeds to be leaking, but it gently suctions on which sort of pulls the milk out.