Any tips for switching back to breastfeeding exclusively?

[JoyfulStar]

Hello all

I really need some advice.

I have been initially exclusively breastfeeding my baby girl who is currently 3 weeks old.

During the midwife visits, she had lost 8% of her birth weight and did not seem to be gaining weight on breastfeeding alone. Two main factors were contributing to her not gaining weight in breastfeeding alone. We had a delay in establishing a good breastfeeding routine. After it became established, She did not feed for long and fell asleep not long after she started feeding.

We were advised to top her up with formula but I wanted to include some pumped breast milk as well so was pumping 3 times a day. So she was breastfed then topped up with breast milk or formula or both!

She is now back up to her birthweight and I am keen to get her exclusively breastfeeding again and where needed, topping up with breast milk only because the formula affects the regularity of her bowel movements which caused her much discomfort and pain sometimes.

I would therefore appreciate advice from anyone who has been through something similar. How do I rely less on formula and for baby girl not to lose weight?

She is still falling asleep way too quickly so bottle feeding is our way of ensuring she has enough.

[Lumisheep]

You can help her stop falling asleep during feeds by rubbing her cheek or blowing on her face to wake her up. The other thing I found helpful was taking her off the breast when she fell asleep, burping her to wake her up and then putting her back on (possibly in a different position). I don't have much experience with stopping them from the formula but hopefully someone else can answer that part!

[JoyfulStar in reply to Lumisheep]

Thank you Lumisheep, I have tried all the above with little success. My darling daughter will be on such a deep sleep even when she is burped that she will not stir. I even change her half way through but as soon she is put on the second breast she goes straight to sleep., All Ican do at the mo is continue with these tactics until she stays awake

[Cheekymonkey85]

Join uk breastfeeding support on Facebook. It’s an amazing group with so much support. The advice above is good, and I think along side that you just need to keep offering boob whenever baby seems to want it. I don’t remember any sort of routine at 3 weeks, mine were literally on demand whenever and wherever we were. With regards to the bottle, are you pace feeding?

[JoyfulStar in reply to Cheekymonkey85]

Great idea and thank you. I will join and see if there are any new tips I can apply. We are definitely pace feeding and we are definitely feeding on demand.

[Purpledoggy]

Maybe a bit ‘woo’ but there is some sketchy evidence hops and barley help milk supply. Do you drink alcohol free IPA or other hoppy AF beer? I have some gluten free/AF beers I drank while pregnant and also as soon as we got home after birth just in case they did something (and because I like them!). Probably nothing to do with it (and more antenatal colostrum harvesting) but my supply has been surprisingly good for a planned C-section. Worth a shot if you enjoy them! Xx

[JoyfulStar in reply to Purpledoggy]

Hi Purpledoddy, thank you for the tips. Not drank any alcohol or alcohol free alternatives since commencing IVF. My milk supply is fine for the most part but I do want to pump more to top her up with breast milk instead of formula so willing to give milk boosting foods a try. I will research your suggestion. Thanks again ❤️

[Seb9]

If you're wanting get back to exclusively breastfeeding a couple of things you could try.

Lots of skin to skin up build up your oxytocin levels, maybe plan a few days at home without too many plans and have lots of cuddles, letting baby have easy access to best so they can up your supply.

If she's back to birth weight I'd let her feed to sleep and not worry too much about waking her up, if she's hungry when she wakes up you can offer boob again. I let mine fall asleep on me and quite often she'll keep sucking for ages. People sometimes say it feels like baby is using you as a dummy, but it's all stimulation to encourage production. Contact napping if you can, stick a boxset on and enjoy some time cuddled with baby.

One thing I find helped me was to know that you always have milk, it's made from your blood so you've always got it but it's how fast it flows and how much is available.

I you think of it that boobs are rivers not lakes, the flow of the river when baby first feeds is fast and there's lots of milk, but the flow at the end is slower. So you can keep going longer at each session but that baby might fuss and get cross at how slow the flow is. It's not that it's not there, it's just slow. I found by letting baby get to the stage that they're a bit cross your body knows to increase production for the next feed.

[JoyfulStar in reply to Seb9]

These are great tips. I did plan to have a few nursing days with her so glad you mentioned it and yes I have heard of that river analogy.

I think my issue is I am too impatient so yes I will resist the urge to take her off the breasts to wake her up.

Thanks again for the tips 💕

[Seb9 in reply to JoyfulStar]

I'm not great with patience either so I feel you 😀

The great thing is if she'll breastfed and take a bottle, she's getting fed and doing well, so whatever you do don't stress, boob or bottle baby is going to get what she needs to thrive x

[JoyfulStar in reply to Seb9]

You are so right! I just want to be in a place where we are no longer using formula. So that she has regular number 2s.

[Seb9 in reply to JoyfulStar]

I found my little one goes more regularly with formula, if she had formula I can guarantee a poop a day, with breastmilk, she can go for days without one, you never know when she's going to blow 🤣 but she is older than 3 weeks and I know before 6 weeks they should be going several times a day. Good luck with it, sounds like you're doing really well, especially if you're pumping several times a day, that's dedication xx

[JoyfulStar in reply to Seb9]

Thank you! 💕

The aftermath when they do not go for days is something else right? 🤣

I think she finds formula harder to digest. She was going 3 times a day before we started topping her up with formula. She generally goes for 2 or 3 days and then we have a massive blow out! Once she was in a lot of pain which broke my heart 😢

She seems to be handling it better but still is in discomfort. I would have happily continued with mixed feeding otherwise as breast pumping is hard work indeed.

Thanks again for your support 💕

[Cinderella5]

One if my boys used to fall asleep so quickly with breastbfeeding too. I didn't quite manage to feed exclusively (twins so tricky) however we used to have to tickle his feet, pinch his toes gently, blow in his face or just strip him down so he wasnt so cosy....all of which sounds a bit cruel but helped!xx

[JoyfulStar in reply to Cinderella5]

Thank you so much for sharing your experience . I have done all of the above except strip her down. I will definitely add that to my arsenal 😊

[Cinderella5 in reply to JoyfulStar]

I think the other thing that maybe didnt help was I was waking mine up to feed religiously as the midwives told us to (every 3 hours), perhaps if I'd let them sleep a little longer they would have been more ready to feed and not so tired!xx

[Purpledoggy in reply to Cinderella5]

We had this kerfuffle re trying to wake him to feed at the start, and also really conflicting advice. One MW in hosp and also our NCT breastfeeding coach told us they mustn't go over 3h (cue setting timers), a nurse in hosp told us 6h, then when we got gome the MW that came to see us said the MW in hospital are too prescriptive, 3h is excessive, and as long as he doesn't go more than about 6h without a feed just do it to demand. We were left a bit discombobulated and stressed for the first week in terms of whether we should be setting timers, and when, but in the end he largely never goes more than 3h without a feed so we're a little more chilled now (except this morning when after hours of nighttime cluster/getting really cross about slow flow going back and forth between boobs, he slept for 5.5h leaving me in a panic when I woke up and saw the time, not to mention rather full boobs 🤦‍♀️) xx

[Cinderella5 in reply to Purpledoggy]

Omg, your are so right! To be fair we didnt go over the 4 hours eventually but that was due to a weight loss in hospital and also I couldn't sustain the lack of sleep!

[JoyfulStar in reply to Purpledoggy]

I also had conflicting advice from my midwife and health visitor. The midwife wanted me to stick to every 3 hours but stick to 8 times a day health visitor said we should feed on demand so no set number of sessions.

Good thing is we have been discharged by midwife do can be led by health visitor. My slight worry is she would loose weight with these method because she sleeps easily when breastfeeding, Hoping things will resolve themselves soon x

[Purpledoggy in reply to JoyfulStar]

Hopefully she'll be more alert soon as she gets over the super sleepy new baby phase. Mine is just shy of 3 weeks and I have noticed a big difference in how awake/alert he is in the last couple of days. Much easier to keep awake at the boob than he was, and in turn harder to convince to go to sleep after a feed. Be careful what you wish for 😂 xx

[JoyfulStar in reply to Purpledoggy]

You are so right! Things are beginning to change. She is staying awake a bit more overall.

However, Baby girl is awake when you want her to sleep and asleep when you want her awake! She is definitely beginning to assert herself

Can I ask you how long your little one breastfeeds for on average before falling asleep or showing no more interest?

[Purpledoggy in reply to JoyfulStar]

It varies so much - he can start to get really quite sleepy even after 5 minutes and needs repeated prodding to keep awake for a 10-15 min feed (usually day feeds), or feeds for 25 mins on one boob just stopping and starting without really going to sleep then starts rooting for boob 2 and often a few more side switches (usually night feeds). The rather obsessive non-stop behaviour I believe is quite normal at night as prolactin is higher at night so he's working with me to build milk supply. I can't say it's much fun when he's still going at 4am without having been to sleep though! I have started to hand express a bit throughout the day so he can have a small 50mL bottle feed at about 3am if I get desperate and just need to sleep, as holding him to feed for that long gets exhausting. I guess the big difference for me though is he is gaining weight fast with loads of W/D nappies, so I know he's getting enough. I can totally understand your worry when she's getting sleepy and it's not clear enough is going in. If it's a continual problem could you go to a local drop-in for some advice? HV are knowledgable but breastfeeding counsellors or lactation consultants just have that extra experience - I found our local drop-in really helpful with his suspected tongue tie and going to see a LC tomorrow for further assessment as for me BF is continually really painful even with improvements in positioning/latching xx

[JoyfulStar in reply to Purpledoggy]

I can relate to the night time issues only for different reasons. My baby girl does not like to sleep in her Moses basket. She will be fast asleep after breastfeeding and if you put her down she opens her eyes and then starts to cry. We can sometimes go through this several times before she goes down.

Your advice about the lactation expert is a good one. I’ll look into it. Sorry you are finding breastfeeding painful. It does take some getting used to. I hope you get the breakthrough you need.

Really appreciate the time you’ve taken to offer advice and share your experience. 💕

[Ell493]

I had to do the same thing with my first born. I was determined to not let him have a bottle and he got so upset. He eventually gave up but it was a struggle. He ended up incredibly fat on breast milk alone. He was a healthy baby, although I thought he was going to starve at first he wanted a bottle so bad. It just takes patience. Try eating a few more sweets to make it takes better.

[JoyfulStar in reply to Ell493]

Thank you so much for sharing your experience. What you describe is what I was previously afraid of.

However, daughter is happy to be given either bottle or breast. The issue for me is she does not stay awake long enough when breastfeeding. I am happy to give her the bottle as to ensure she has enough each time she eats well but just pumped breast milk. This means DH can feed her at times as well.

The formula has increased her appetite so my milk supply is gradually catching up. At 3 weeks, she can have up to 100 ml sometimes on top of breast feeding.

I want her to keep growing but the formula does affect the frequency of her bowel movements. So my plan is to get to a place where I can completely eliminate it from her diet.

Anyhoo, I will get some advice from my health visitor. I am pumping 3 to 4 times a day. But it looks like so will need to do more.