Breast feeding help please!!

N

noella

Registered User
My baby is now 8 weeks old we breast fed exclusively for 4 weeks but she was losing weight so at the recommendation of our paed ( and she is very pro breast feeding) we went to formula feeding. My milk supply has never been that good but I would now like to introduce more b/f then bottle now that her weight is good. So my question is is it possible after a break to get a good milk supply going again?? Many thanks.
 
noella said:
My baby is now 8 weeks old we breast fed exclusively for 4 weeks but she was losing weight so at the recommendation of our paed ( and she is very pro breast feeding) we went to formula feeding. My milk supply has never been that good but I would now like to introduce more b/f then bottle now that her weight is good. So my question is is it possible after a break to get a good milk supply going again?? Many thanks.
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Hi !

Yes, of course it is possible. From what I know, you just have to put her to breast as often as possible. I guess it would be a little like when the baby goes into a growth sprout. After one or 2 days, you milk supply should meet up with the demand again ;-)

For more infos or expert advice, I would advise you to take contact with a LLL leader ;-)
 
The feeding process should stimulate your body to make more milk. Might have to keep some formula on hand until you build the supply back up. Pumping between feedings should also prompt the body to make more, which would be a way to catch up.
I second the need to talk with La Leche.
 
my baby is 14 mths & she's been exclusively breast fed until 1 yr old. so i speak from experience.

yes, it's possible. do put her on the breast as often as possible to stimulate milk production. drink Mother's Milk Tea (can be bought at mothercare, bumps to babes, healing plants & healthquest at citysuper, times sq). drink according to instructions. fish soup, and lots of water also helps. stimulation of the nipple is best. expressing also helps, but nothing better than baby's suck. w/ breast pump use Avent hand pump, it's the best & it doesn't hurt your nipples like electric does. do get help from Mrs Chee (my lactation consultant 94176366, leave her a message, it's always on voicemail, but she'll call u back asap (but she's out of town now, will come back next week. my baby wasn't gaining weight well at 2-3 mths, but after her help, she's 95% in weight at 6 mths. both my breast were blocked & she cleared them all for me over a period of several weeks.) meanwhile, u 'll have to mix feed until your supply is up.

do also call LLL Maggie or Sara on their hong kong website
 
Yes it is definitely possible to return to full breastfeeding. In fact I?ve helped some mothers who have been completely formula feeding return to full breastfeeding. This does, however, take determination as it is not always an easy thing to do.

Is you baby latching on and sucking well at the breast? If you don?t understand what I?m asking watch the video clip on the site http://www.breastfeedingonline.com/newman.shtml called First Latch (Scroll down the page until you come to the correct video clip ? it is under Latching.) At the end of this clip the baby is breastfeeding well ? you can see the whole of the bottom jaw moving in big, deep, slow movements ? this indicates that the baby is getting milk when he drinks.

If your baby is latching fine but not drinking that much or you are supplementing a lot ? I would suggest that you feed the baby with a Supplemental Nursing System (SNS). You can find a SNS at http://www.meridianhk.com.hk/special_feeding_main.html (near the bottom of the page). This allows you to give your baby formula milk but at the breast ? this means that the baby will be able to increase your milk by breastfeeding even though you don?t have a full supply yet.

Jack Newman has another video clip called Lactation Aid, under the heading Supplementing, which shows the lactation aid working. (He doesn?t hang the bottle around the mothers neck but it is usually easier to do so.). There is also a handout at http://www.breastfeedingonline.com/5.html which explains how to use a lactation aid.

If your baby isn?t latching I strongly recommend that you contact either a lactation consultant or a LLL Leader who can work with you face to face. In fact I recommend contacting someone who can help work with you as support is really very necessary in such a situation.

There is a handout which nicely explains how to go about reducing the amount of formula milk you give and increase the amount of breastfeeding at http://www.kellymom.com/store/handouts/concerns/wean-supplements.pdf. And there is a log sheet that you can fill in so that you know exactly where you are at http://www.kellymom.com/store/freehandouts/wean-supplements-log-sample.pdf
These are good tools to help you because then you know exactly where you are and what is happening.

As a general rule when you are trying to increase the amount of breastfeeding and reduce formula it is easiest to put the formula on a schedule. This way you know when to give it and there is less likelihood of increasing the formula because you were worried that the baby wasn?t full.

Topping up with formula is the very worst way to supplement your baby. The message the baby gets is that if he messes about with the breastfeeding you will give him formula and so because bottle feeding is so much easier for the baby than breastfeeding he messes about. This leads to the formula increasing and the breastfeeding decreasing.

So once the formula is on a schedule you breastfeed whenever the baby is willing to feed at all other times. With luck you might be able to get two breastfeeds in between the formula feedings. Also if the baby isn?t asleep after the formula feeding you can breastfeed to settle the baby.

I really would urge you to contact someone who can give you support during this time either a lactation consultant or a LLL Leader, http://www.llli.org/HongKong.html

Best wishes,
SARAH
 
If you want to get a Supplemental Nursing System (SNS) they are available from the Medela agent in Hong Kong.

Meridian Hong Kong Limited
Head Office
21/F., Tins Enterprises Centre, 777 Lai Chi Kok Road,
Cheung Sha Wan, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Tel: (852) 2328 2662 Fax: (852) 2358 0263
Email : [email protected]

And also from their retail shops Celki Home Health Care Centre
(I recommend that you print the page from the web site and take it to the shop with you ? that way it is easier for the sales assistant to fully understand what you are asking for.)

Hong Kong
Causeway Bay:
Unit 2102, 21/F, Causeway Bay Plaza 1, 489 Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay
Tel: 2915 3388 Fax: 2574 0168

North Point:
Shop 111, G/F, Metropole Department Store, 416-426 King's Road, North Point
Tel: 2555 9388 Fax: 2590 0955

Kowloon
Tsim Sha Tsui:
Shop G34, Tung Ying Building, 100 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: 2191 9122 Fax: 2191 9199

New Territories
Sha Tin:
Shop 52D, Level 3, Shatin Centre, 2-16 Wang Pok Street, Shatin
Tel: 2692 8666 Fax: 2692 8660

Yuen Long:
G/F., 75-A2 Castle Peak Road, Yuen Long
Tel: 2443 3554 Fax: 2443 3557

Tuen Mun:
Shop C-D, G/F of Atrium Block, Tuen Mun Hospital, Tsing Chung Koon Road, Tuen Mun
Tel: 2453 3686 Fax: 2453 3360
 
yes, sarah is right, it will be hard work, but i assure u, when u see your little chub chub healthy & happy & you're her/his sole nutrient supply, it's the best feeling EVER.

it's worth all the while. do come back & share your experience & get support from us. and sarah's also right about getting help face to face. it's the best emotional & physical support & it's the best thing you can give your child =)
 
Thank you all for your replies. I am very interested to hear from sarah about the mother being able to fully breast feed again after stopping. I am just worried that my supply is really not that good!!
 
Dear Noella,

Please contact me by telephone on 2548-7636.
Or if you prefer e-mail at [email protected]

I am not comfortable with discussing your personal details on an open forum. All LLL helping situations are confidential. It would be much better for us to talk together then I can really understand exactly what is happening. We will then be able to identify the problem and I can suggest specific solutions to help you.

Best wishes,
SARAH
 
Well another week has passed and not much luck. Every time I try to put her on she makes like a gagging face and will not latch. Is this because there is very very little milk?? What can I do to encourage her? I know the more I can get her to suck the better chance of establishing a supply again but she seems to prefer a bottle?
 
Dear Noella,

This is not a problem that can be solved through e-mail. It really needs a face to face consultation. The person helping you needs to see exactly what is happening when you are putting your baby to the breast and work out a programme you can follow to get back to full breastfeeding.

If you are not happy to contact me or one of the other LLL leaders I recommend that you contact a lactation consultant. The lactation consultants I know who are working in the community are:
Mrs Chee from Everdawn Midwives - 2705 9322
May Hui - 9070 2668
Dr. Sophie Leung ? 3194 6803
There are also lactation consultant working in the Well Baby Clinic at the Matilda Hospital (Tuesday and Thursday) 2849 1500

Best wishes,
SARAH
 
Hi,

Have you considered stopping the bottles? And cup feeding instead?

When my baby was little we gave him lots of bottles and soon he refused to breastfeed properly. I got help to return to full breastfeeding. But the first thing I had to do was stop giving bottles. This was making the problem worse.

So I started cup feeding him. This sounds difficult but it was really quite easy when I got the hang of it. You need to hold your baby on your lap in an upright supported position and then hold the cup to baby's lips and tilt it until the milk just reaches his lips. Then let your baby lap up the milk and swallow at his own pace. I used a small flexible plastic cup about the size of the bottle lid and filled it to the half way mark.

After a couple of days my baby didn?t mess about so much when I tried to breastfeed him. I got help from a lactation consultant and she taught me a special hold called the asymmetrical latch. This let the baby get as much milk as possible when feeding.

Once my baby was latching well again I used a nursing supplementer because my supply was so low because of all the bottles. This was great because I was able to let me give formula to my baby and breastfeed at the same time.

Over the next four weeks I slowly replaced the formula with expressed milk and more breastfeeding. And from ten weeks onwards Brad was a fully breastfed baby.

It was really worth all the effort. I just love the happy smiles he gives me while I?m feeding him.

Good luck,
Chinchilla
 
There is a video showing cup feeding at http://www.breastfeeding.com/aaavideo/cup1.mov

And instructions on how to cup feed at http://www.foleycup.com/pages/support.html

Medela sell two products to help you cup feed: http://www.meridianhk.com.hk/special_feeding_main.html

Soft Cup Feeder (this is shown in the video) and is basically a spoon.

Cup Feeder ? this is basically a small cup.

You can use a normal spoon and a normal cup but Medela have designed their products to be easier to use. After all who would buy them if there was no advantage to them? Most mothers I?ve talked to who used these cup feeders liked them, especially as there was less wastage of the milk ? a very important factor when it is your own expressed milk.

Best wishes,
SARAH
 
Huge Problems

Hey

I also had huge problems in the first three months. We cup fed Miah for 8 weeks. I ended up getting advice to change my diet and within 24 hours we were reducing the top ups signigicantly. So I'm a believer in what you eat helps create a great milk supply.

Good luck

Amanda

ps Don't forget MONDAY
 
do try to contact Mrs chee so that she can come to your place to help you. Sarah is right, it is best to get face to face help. Also, seeing Mrs Chee also give you emotional support & let you know that it is possible. I highly recommend Mrs Chee because she's the one to help me w/ my problems when i was struggling during the first several months. Her cell phone is usually set to the voice mail, leave her a message & she soons reply. I regretted not leaving her a message when i first contacted her when my baby was 3 wks old (cos everytime i called her, it was on voice mail). i contacted someone else (who's also mentioned here) cos she answered the phone right away. this other person not only didn't solve my problem after a lot of pain, she was rough & unsensitive. anyway, do call mrs chee.

good luck!
 
Also, the WHO has just issued new guidelines on what constitues a "normal" weight and height for all children from newborns to 5 years old. They have based it on samples of children from all over the world (not just the U.S. as the previous chart) who have been EXCLUSIVELY breastfed for the first 6 months. So what normally would have constituted an 'underweight' child, (usually an exclusively breastfed one) is really probably at a normal weight.

The same thing happened to me, after 6 weeks, I was told that my baby was very underweight and strongly encouraged to give her formula. When I was only giving her 2 bottles a day, I was told "not to be so stingy" and to give her more bottles, much to my dismay. I don't think this is advice peds. would give in countries such as my native Canada.
 
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