talk to me about home made formula and bottles

[koalove]

two unrelated questions. one is, we are about to start supplementing with formula. ide like to do a goat milk formula that i make, but for ome reason i am having some serious issues trusting that it will nourish my baby. someone convince me please! i think i have been well programed by the formula commercials or something. and recipes. theres so many! can someone give me a link for a tried and true one that isnt terribly time consuming or complicated? is there such a thing? my second question is about bottles. we now use born free and dr. browns with the slowest flow nipples. ds2 is 3 weeks old and the level one flow is too fast for him. is there a nipple/bottle that has a slower flow? im continuing to breastfeed and he is definately getting a preference for the bottle flow, eve though it chokes him. plus, he swallows tons of air with the bottle from gulping it so fast. advice is appreciated. thanks mamas!

[evinmom]

Can I ask why you feel you need to supplement? Are there true issues or just insecurity? The first 6 weeks or so is the time to build up your milk supply. Supplementing needlessly will only undermine your supply and probably end up causing the low supply you fear.

[Chamomile Girl]

Originally Posted by evinmom

Can I ask why you feel you need to supplement? Are there true issues or just insecurity? The first 6 weeks or so is the time to build up your milk supply. Supplementing needlessly will only undermine your supply and probably end up causing the low supply you fear.

She posted about her issue here: http://www.mothering.com/discussions...=#post14131812

Koalove I don't know any recipes, but I wanted to give you Plus not only are you from my DDC but you also live in my neck of the woods

[koalove]

Originally Posted by evinmom

Can I ask why you feel you need to supplement? Are there true issues or just insecurity? The first 6 weeks or so is the time to build up your milk supply. Supplementing needlessly will only undermine your supply and probably end up causing the low supply you fear.

this is the breastfeeding challenges forum, right? i truly tired of folks (mostly irl) telling me to just give it a try and hang in there etc. i starved ds1 for 2 mnths trying to build a supply. im not doing it again. breastfeeding ISNT natural for all women. to answer your question, i feel i need to supplement because i dont make enough milk to feed my babies. and yes, im hugely insecure about my milk supply.

[Megan73]

I'm so sorry you're going through this
People who suggest that you just need to take a "nursing vacation" or "just relax" do not help :
First, I'd really urge you to stop using bottles since flow preference is clearly becoming a problem. Were you having problems using an at-the-breast supplementer? If so, there are lots of mamas here who would be happy to help. Using the SNS or Lact-Aid will stimulate your supply, make sure baby gets the most BM possible and make your baby associate getting all his food at the breast.
If you'd really prefer to use bottles there are suggestions for nipples here www.lowmilksupply.org/supplementing
Second, I really, really, REALLY get why you don't want to use commercial formula. I didn't either – but I did. That's because as much as I loathe and despise the formula companies I think we can at least be sure that their product is nutritionally adequate and that contamination is rare in developed countries. There are so many opportunities for cross contamination and bacteria growth in a home kitchen – and babies, especially newborns are SO vulnerable – and no way of knowing if an untested, unresearched mixture really contains all the nutrients babies need.

[annettemarie]

I'm sorry you're having challenges with breastfeeding. If you could please repost your homemade formula question in our Nutrition and Good Eating forum, that would be the best place to get some good answers. You could also search that forum, as I'm pretty sure this topic has come up there before and there are some good resources in the archives.

Best of luck to you!
Annette

[evinmom]

Originally Posted by koalove

this is the breastfeeding challenges forum, right? i truly tired of folks (mostly irl) telling me to just give it a try and hang in there etc. i starved ds1 for 2 mnths trying to build a supply. im not doing it again. breastfeeding ISNT natural for all women. to answer your question, i feel i need to supplement because i dont make enough milk to feed my babies. and yes, im hugely insecure about my milk supply.

I'm sorry if I offended you. That was really not my intention. I just happened to see this thread in the "New Posts" and was not aware of your specific situation. My question was merely to get information. I wasn't judging. I had a different situation with my DS, but it took us 9 months to get to the breast so I understand the frustration of not having breastfeeding work out the way you want it to. Hang in there and I hope you get some answers that help.

ETA: After reading your original post, I just wanted to add that I exclusively pumped for DS from 6 weeks til he was 9 months old. The decision to put away all the bottles for good was a hard one despite him beginning solids. I was really scared that he wouldn't be able to nurse enough since he had severe latch issues from birth. We later found out he has a posterior tongue-tie, but not until he was 2 years old. I weaned him off the bottle in 3 weeks and then a hurricane hit and destroyed my frozen milk stash. It was a good time as ever to take the plunge. In our case things ended up working out since DS had grown enough to compensate for his tongue-tie (his latch was never great though). It's scary taking the plunge, but it sounds like your supply has increased significantly. You can always try going without supplement and weigh him after a week or so to see if it's working out. You can always decide to supplement again if you discover he's still not getting enough. Best of luck!

[alegna]

For a 3 wk old baby I would not personally be comfortable with a homemade formula. If I felt it was needed I would use an organic commercial formula and try to avoid bottles.

-Angela

[Panserbjorne]

Hugs, mama. I did make formula for my first and had a nutritionist and several docs help me with the recipe. I wish I could find the darned thing but it was many years ago. My ds totally thrived on it-though I will echo the pp and say that I switched a bit later than you. Mainly because he reacted terribly to the store bought stuff AND the hypoallergenic () stuff.

Anyway, things that helped were using a lact-aid (which was better for our situation than an SNS) and a habermann feeder. Even the habermann was used cautiously and I made a huge effort to NOT allow him to recline. I kept the bottle at a 90 degree angle, parallel to the floor so there was no crazy flow. What I also did for awhile (and it may sound nutso-but I was pretty nutso during that time) was give him donated and expressed milk in the lactaid and the formula in the habermann. I had hopes that this would someone give different associations with the two substances.....but like I said. I was a wreck and dont' know that I'd recommend doing that to anyone else!

I haven't read your backstory, so I apologize if none of this is helpful. I hope you find what you need, mama. It's a difficult thing to have feeding issues and I hope you can come to a place where you KNOW deep down that you are doing everything you can to help your little one. I know I'm still trying. I think everyone is meant to breastfeed, but not all of us can. (I never experienced lactogenesis 1 with any of mine.) There does need to be some understanding of that fact. Thank god for the existence of formula when it's truly necessary.

[LorenaAZ]

Hugs to you Momma!!

I know how hard it can be. My baby lost 11% of her weight by day 2 and I was told to either supplement or take her to the hospital. I saw several LCs, all told me latch was fine, I was also told I had IGT and PCOS. I started taking all herbs I could get a hold of, ate oatmeal every day, etc......I went online and tried everything I could find to increase supply. In addition, my nipples were torn to shreds (scabs, horrible pain like I had broken glass inside my nipples). I continued to supplement with an SNS, took herbs, pumped as much as I could to increase supply (which left me with very little sleep at night). Baby never took the bottle. It was the most difficult and painful thing I have ever done in my life, but with my husband's support we worked through it. I cried at every feeding. Finally one day I decided to stop supplementing and exclusively breast feed. We are at 6 months now and haven't looked back. Baby is between the 30-60% in weight (both husband and I are small) and we have a solid and enjoyable breast feeding relationship

I am not writing this as one of those "every woman can EBF" posts, but just wanted to let you know that I too was told I couldn't do it. Determination sometimes is stronger than prognosis. Lactate Support made by Gaia worked miracles for my supply and pumping pumping pumping (I hate pumping).


I don't know anything about home made formulas, but I do know about a really slow flow nipple. When I was supplementing we tried every nipple under the sun to see if she would take a bottle. http://www.babyearth.com/nuby-non-drip-nipples-6pk.html This nipple does not drip, it needs the baby to bite down a tiny bit making a similar movement to when they feed at breast in addition to suctioning.
Hope that helps!!! Hugs!!