I'm pretty new here at MDC, but it seems like there are a lot of experienced BF'ing mamas on here, so please help!
I'll try to keep the story short. DD is now 10.5 months old. Our BF problems started when she was born. She had pretty bad jaundice for a couple of weeks and was never awake enough to latch on past day 1. During those next 2 weeks we had to stir her enough to be able to fingerfeed her my milk. I was pumping every couple of hours. When she finally did get over the jaundice I couldn't get her to latch on. We started seeing a LC (that I now know wasn't much help). She worked with us for a couple of weeks but no luck getting DD to latch on. I was still pumping and my supply was pretty good so she was getting 100% my milk. Then poor DD was diagnosed with GERD (I won't go into details but severe issues feeding her, Sandifer's Syndrome, screaming, arching, etc). She was in pain for so much of the time she was awake. I think the stress of that started bringing my supply down?!?! Not to mention she wouldn't latch on. About 1.5months I ordered a Lactaid and tried using it. She would only latch on for a few seconds at a time. Finally at 2 months I got referred to a LLL Leader (amazing woman!) and she helped as much as she possibly could. By this time my supply was pretty much nothing. And she said that while DD was screaming and in so much pain from GERD and even drinking BM from a bottle she was screaming, arching, etc. that we weren't going to be able to address the latching issue until her GERD was under control. But she wanted to work as much as we could in the meantime to up my supply. I did everything she recommended (pumping every 2 hours, fenugreek, blessed thistle, More Milk Plus, massaging, warm compress, skin-to-skin, etc, etc) but to no avail. By about 5 months I was only getting less than 1 ounce per day and supplementing with donor BM. When DD was 7 months old GI specialist finally suggested maybe she was Milk/Soy Protein Intolerant. We (VERY reluctantly) agreed to try Neocate amino-acid based formula. DD improved dramatically within 2 days! I felt SO bad for her suffering that whole time. Oh...if I only knew then what I know now! Anyway, I've been able to get some donor milk from a mama on TED, but we're still having to use some Neocate
. In the meantime I've continued to pump as much as I possibly can but I'm still just getting just drops and that is usually only when I do hand expression.
So...my questions for you ladies are...since DD is 10.5months old now and we are just about out of donor milk do I just give up? Should I try Domperidone (which was never brought up to me as an option)? I can't even get 1/2oz per day. I want so badly want to be able to give her my milk for as long as I possibly can. The fact that I wasn't able to have a nursing relationship with my daughter upsets me so much. I just cry and cry to myself every time I think about it. DH is supportive and tells me not to beat myself up, that we did everything we possibly could do at the time, but I still do.
And, maybe this is a dumb question, but do you think it's too late to get her to nurse?!?!?
Any other thoughts/suggestions? I'm willing to do anything!!
Sorry for all of the rambling.
I'll try to keep the story short. DD is now 10.5 months old. Our BF problems started when she was born. She had pretty bad jaundice for a couple of weeks and was never awake enough to latch on past day 1. During those next 2 weeks we had to stir her enough to be able to fingerfeed her my milk. I was pumping every couple of hours. When she finally did get over the jaundice I couldn't get her to latch on. We started seeing a LC (that I now know wasn't much help). She worked with us for a couple of weeks but no luck getting DD to latch on. I was still pumping and my supply was pretty good so she was getting 100% my milk. Then poor DD was diagnosed with GERD (I won't go into details but severe issues feeding her, Sandifer's Syndrome, screaming, arching, etc). She was in pain for so much of the time she was awake. I think the stress of that started bringing my supply down?!?! Not to mention she wouldn't latch on. About 1.5months I ordered a Lactaid and tried using it. She would only latch on for a few seconds at a time. Finally at 2 months I got referred to a LLL Leader (amazing woman!) and she helped as much as she possibly could. By this time my supply was pretty much nothing. And she said that while DD was screaming and in so much pain from GERD and even drinking BM from a bottle she was screaming, arching, etc. that we weren't going to be able to address the latching issue until her GERD was under control. But she wanted to work as much as we could in the meantime to up my supply. I did everything she recommended (pumping every 2 hours, fenugreek, blessed thistle, More Milk Plus, massaging, warm compress, skin-to-skin, etc, etc) but to no avail. By about 5 months I was only getting less than 1 ounce per day and supplementing with donor BM. When DD was 7 months old GI specialist finally suggested maybe she was Milk/Soy Protein Intolerant. We (VERY reluctantly) agreed to try Neocate amino-acid based formula. DD improved dramatically within 2 days! I felt SO bad for her suffering that whole time. Oh...if I only knew then what I know now! Anyway, I've been able to get some donor milk from a mama on TED, but we're still having to use some Neocate
. In the meantime I've continued to pump as much as I possibly can but I'm still just getting just drops and that is usually only when I do hand expression.So...my questions for you ladies are...since DD is 10.5months old now and we are just about out of donor milk do I just give up? Should I try Domperidone (which was never brought up to me as an option)? I can't even get 1/2oz per day. I want so badly want to be able to give her my milk for as long as I possibly can. The fact that I wasn't able to have a nursing relationship with my daughter upsets me so much. I just cry and cry to myself every time I think about it. DH is supportive and tells me not to beat myself up, that we did everything we possibly could do at the time, but I still do.
And, maybe this is a dumb question, but do you think it's too late to get her to nurse?!?!?
Any other thoughts/suggestions? I'm willing to do anything!!
Sorry for all of the rambling.
