Low-Milk Supply Tribe - Page 2

[Victorian]

my goodness, my dd is amost 5 and just pushing 40 lbs! Skinny little thing!

[Free49]

I dont remember exactly what happened when I started to supplement my first I think she did gain weight quite a bit faster. I am going to have my drs office send me a copy of my first dd growth chart. My husband and I are both tall and medium build, but my husband was very thin for most of his life (till he got married haha). My first daughter is 2 and about 28 pounds. I am thinking that this is just the way our babies grow as infants. Thanks for all of the support when I have her weighed next week this will probably be the first place I come.
Caroline

[Panserbjorne]

Hello. I'm new here, though not new to the problem. I had serious supply issues with ds which resulted in me making formula since I couldn't feed him. Now we are back in the low milk arena with dd. I am currently taking domperidone at a very high dosage as well as more milk plus and pumping CONSTANTLY. Unfortunately I just found out yesterday that dd is below her birth weight and not getting nearly enough food so our LC asked me not-too-gently to start pounding the milk into her. I'm very lucky to have a great friend who donates six ounces a day of breastmilk so I can avoid formula at least for now. Aaaargh. It's just so frustrating! I have such guilt about not being able to provide for her. I did everything I could to be totally natural with both kiddos. After a great homebirth with no drugs, skin to skin contact and co-sleeping I still have almost NO milk. So now I get to take drugs which I am hugely opposed to doing to feed my child naturally. And even that isn't working. I'm so depressed. DH says I just need to snap out of it-that I'm no fun to be around anymore and it doesn't have to be this stressful. Why can't he understand that it DOES have to be this stressful until there's a resolution? That I need to take it this seriously until I can get a supply going and feed our lethargic baby? I'm at least glad that I found this group. Now at least I don't feel so incredibly alone and like an absolute failure. Thanks for listening-er-reading.

[Nosy]

I have read this thread with great interest, and I just wanted to say, "Me, too!" Elisabeth, I just wanted to say I'm right there with you. I had a natural birth and wanted to feed my baby completely naturally. He is currently 9 weeks and gaining weight but I'm having to supplement with formula and take domperidone. I cried the first time I had to give it to him but at least he is gaining weight.

Here is my (abbreviated) story. DS was born tongue-tied and we couldn't get him to latch (didn't figure out the tongue tie until day 3). Consequently he got almost no fluids and got jaundiced which led to his being lethargic and not wanting to eat. I started pumping with an electric pump beginning with day three so eating took almost all the time by the time he tried to eat for 45 minutes, then I pumped for 20 minutes, then he ate again. Unnatural intervention #1 was a nipple shield which at least enabled him to latch, but he still wasn't getting enough. He somehow managed to get back to his birthweight by 2 weeks, though he got down to 5 lbs 15 oz after a birthweight of 6 lbs 7 oz.

At 4 weeks after much agonizing we got his tongue clipped which he slept through and did not seem traumatized by. After about a week I had completely weaned him off the nipple shield. Still only gaining about 2 oz./week. I started fenugreek but it gave the baby and me terrible gastrointestinal distress, so I quit taking it, and immediately my supply dipped. I started taking domperidone and am currently taking 10 mg 4x daily. I hate taking it. I worry about the chemicals, that there will be some kind of long term effect on him (like the daughters of DES, for example). He also gets 2-8 oz of formula/day. Since I started the formula supplementing and the domperidone, he has gained 1.5 lbs in 3 weeks. I've pretty much quit pumping after feedings because it is so demoralizing to pump for 20 minutes and get nothing. I'm also eating oatmeal daily and drinking water and gatorade like crazy, but I can't tell that they make a difference. I've read the "low glandular tissue" thread, and I really think that's my problem, in addition to initially having problems establishing supply because of the nipple shield.

It is so frustrating to see my friends' babies gaining like crazy with no supply issues. And the ones who leak and become engorged...I would love to have those problems. I am hanging in there but I do feel like somewhat of a failure because my body isn't doing all it's supposed to do.

Good luck to all of you, and if you come up with a new way to increase supply, please share.

[scubamom]

hi
well i have just brought some fenugreek, how should i take it? one a day, 2 ?
they are 500mg strenghth
also are they ok to take along with domperidone?
im just hoping this helps, i think my body getting too used to the dom as my tiny supply getting even smaller, im using so much formula its crazy, but he always get at least one good breastfeed in the mornings, and still getting a bit of yellow seedy poo!!!lol
anyhow thanks in advance
heather

[aussiemum]

Elisabeth, I so know where you are at right now!! Struggling with low milk supply & difficulties with breastfeeding had a really negative effect on my marriage- DH just did not get how important it was to me to be able to do the bfing thing. I would just sit & cry & cry & cry when giving DD her bottle of formula- I think DH felt frustrated that he couldn't help. And I did have the LCs saying that they thought that I just wasn't going to be able to fully bf DD- I really had no choice but to supplement. And I so believed the 'books'- if you just try hard enough then everyone can breastfeed. Can I say something here?--- I think that's a bullshit lie, repeated to get other mothers thru who maybe don't have supply issues, tissue damage, underdeveloped breasts, or whatever else that might affect supply. And it's devastating to think that maybe you're just not trying hard enough...........

In the end I choose to go over to formula entirely, mostly because I was worried that the kids weren't going to develop properly, that there might be some sort of brain damage if they didn't get the correct nutrition early on. That & I couldn't figure out how to get them to stop biting me rather than sucking-- I changed over from being the comfort device (a pacifier) to the teething device!!

I know a lot of mums here persist thru difficulties & use a SNS & whatever for years. That's fine & good on ya, but I also want to say that it's okay to choose to end breastfeeding. Repeat after me. It's okay. If that's what a mum feels she needs to do, then it's okay. There is no point in sending yourself mental trying to achieve the impossible, when sometimes you just need to step back & say to yourself 'this is just not going to be my path in life.' Acceptance & trying to move on have been a big part of recovering from the breastfeeding nightmare for me. Dunno if that helps anyone, but as always, take or leave what you need from this post. If it helps you achieve peace with your situation, then in the end that is what is important. My youngest is going to be four soon, & I'm just starting to talk this over in therapy (for Gawd's sake! Therapy over bfing!!) so I've got a long way to go..............

As always, to us all.............


BTW, did anyone see the letter in the last Mothering mag about breastfeeding difficulties? The author of the letter was suggesting that maybe Mothering do an article on this very topic. What do you guys think? I'd be willing to talk about it more publicly, if it would help others..... maybe we should get a posse together & send some suggestions over to the magazine end of things??

[Victorian]

Aussiemum- I respect where you are coming from here. I too stopped nursing my daughter because of this issue. I too went to therapy over it (maybe this is common?). I have never stopped mourning the decision to stop nursing DD, which is one of the reasons that I am becoming a IBCLC, and one of the reasons that I started this thread supporting women who are choosing not to give up. I think however, that society as a whole is always telling women that it is OK to stop, and certainly it is a woman's choice to stop or continue. For instance, at 4 months, I choose to quit pumping.

I would like to offer a different viewpoint.

I think that what women need to hear is that it is OK not to stop. IT is OK to nurse and supplement. I think that sometimes women feel that it is "weird" to nurse without "needing to" to feed a baby. But isn't ANY breastmilk better than NO breastmilk? Isn't breastfeeding about more than just the amount of milk that you are putting into your child? DS is now almost 10 months old and breastfeeding him is wonderful! Does he need a supplement now and then? Yes, he does, but mostly he is at the breast. It has been a hard path to follow, yes it would have been easier to stop, if fact I did a thousand times. But the help and the reassurance that breastfeeding is bestfeeding that my support group gave me is what kept me putting him to the breast.

Once again, I don't mean to minimize your imput here, I just wanted to offer another way.

Victorian

Originally Posted by aussiemum

I know a lot of mums here persist thru difficulties & use a SNS & whatever for years. That's fine & good on ya, but I also want to say that it's okay to choose to end breastfeeding. Repeat after me. It's okay. If that's what a mum feels she needs to do, then it's okay. There is no point in sending yourself mental trying to achieve the impossible, when sometimes you just need to step back & say to yourself 'this is just not going to be my path in life.' Acceptance & trying to move on have been a big part of recovering from the breastfeeding nightmare for me. Dunno if that helps anyone, but as always, take or leave what you need from this post. If it helps you achieve peace with your situation, then in the end that is what is important. My youngest is going to be four soon, & I'm just starting to talk this over in therapy (for Gawd's sake! Therapy over bfing!!) so I've got a long way to go..............

[aussiemum]

I see what you are saying Victoria, but I do think it's also important to be supported in choosing not to battle on with pumps & equipment & supping & growth charts & endless trips to hospital/doctor's surgery. It's interesting, I've always thought that in Australia everyone just breastfed, but I just heard figures on the news that stated something different. It's around 92% when mothers leave the hospital (homebirth is frowned upon/illegal here), dropping to around 40% by 6 months. That surprised me, because (IMO) we don't get the sort of anti-bf crap that seems to be so prevalent in US society. I suppose if you breastfed a 5 year old in a restaurant, you'd prolly get some strange looks (which is a problem for some of course). But bfing a two year old, or even three year old- no worries. Or maybe it's just the part of Aus I live in, I dunno.

I can start another thread for support for mamas who have entirely switched over to formula, if you'd like this one to just be for low-milk supply extended feeders......

[Victorian]

You are of course welcome to start your own thread (I think that there might be one called "support for those that can't breastfeed"). But you are more than welcome to stay here too. I always enjoy reading your posts when I see them around the threads.

It is just when I quit nursing dd everyone said "good job, you tried your best, sometimes things just happen this way, etc.". No one encouraged me to keep trying. I think that if they had, I might have continued to.

BTW - what did you mean by "endless trips to hospital/doctor's surgery"?

Victorian

[aussiemum]

Ah, that was my first child (DD). Because she was diagnosed with failure to thrive we agreed to have some blood work done on her to check for cystic fibrosis, etc. etc. Some of the results came back abnormal- liver something or other. So, for the next 6 months we were in & out of the hospital, as the drs wanted to keep checking her blood work. It was pretty awful having to hold my screaming, skinny baby with her ribs sticking out while the nurses tried to find a place where they could actually get a vein to take blood. DD didn't regain her birth weight until she was 3 months old (after beginning supplements) so she was pretty sickly. Twice a week (I think? from memory) I had to go to the health clinic to get her weighed, which was very painful to me to measure progress in terms of one or two ounces of weight gained each week (that is, the weeks where she actually didn't regress & lose weight). I guess I felt like everyone was watching me to make sure I didn't...... I dunno... go post-natal psychosis or something..... So I had to turn up. And I was really worried about her health, so it was comforting sometimes to have medical reassurance that she wasn't at death's door, so to speak. And one night we made an emergency trip to the children's hospital after the GP was pretty worried by the sight of poor DD. It was just a really bad, bad time, & it was a such relief to have her gain some weight from formula. I was/am so sad that bfing didn't work out for me & my kids, yet so grateful to think that she might actually survive, & even thrive one day (which she has done).

I did get support to continue bfing even tho she basically got all nutrition from formula. In the end I was just emotionally & physically beaten down to the ground by it all, & had to call it quits. At 27, it was probably the first time in my life I'd ever given up on anything, & it really rocked my self-image. Well, shattered that image into little pieces actually. And so, I rebuild my image of myself day by day. A new & improved version, I hope.

I'll keep posting here, to be sure! Might check out that other thread you mentioned too.

[Victorian]

I can certainly understand how scary that must have been to you! But you know, you say that you gave up breastfeeding, but I think that to continue to nurse through all that is amazing! You are a breastfeeding success IMO.

[aussiemum]

Hugs right back at you Victorian. And thank you so much for your kind words.

[Hey Mama!]

Aussiemum, I just went through the rounds of tests with Bethany a couple of months ago. The wait for the CF test about killed me! I have people telling me all the time, "why don't you just wean?" I still bf her at least three times a day, and she wants it so I am not going to stop. It is so disheartening to realize that my body is not working the way I want it to, that I am not a milk factory like other women. Oh well-it's been a long road but I'm finally at peace with my decision to supplement as I see how it is benefiting her.

[Curious]

I just found this thread. I will have to take quite a bit of time and read thouroughly, but I'm eager to post. Boy could I have used more support 2-1/2 years ago. I never had a full supply, cried more tears than I had milk. I used organic formula, supplementer, haberman feeder, until Dd started taking a good amount of solids at 14 months, and was also able (and willing) to drink water out of a cup.

We are still nursing. I'm amazed. From an early age, she clearly knew how to time things to maximize her milk access. Now she lies in funny positions and when I complain about the awkwarness, she says, I get the milk better this way. She tells me sometimes that I have to go and eat, so that I make more milk. But she also tells me the milk is delicious. It's so great to hear her tell me all my persistence was worth it, which her excellent health proves too.

I was pretty scared that any amount of formula, and any use of the bottle, would undermine all the benefits of breastfeeding. I learned through my experience, that small amounts of breastmilk can override the disadvantages of formula, and a close nursing relationship can be had despite the use of paraphenalia. If I'd know that years ago, I'd have been a lot more relaxed instead of crying every time I mixed formula.

I want to add that it was a big turning point for me to come to terms with the fact that nothing I did would bring any miracle. Some accused me of giving up, but this enabled me to stop swallowing bottles of herbs that did nothing, decrease my pumping, and move on. It took me about 6 months to get to this point, and that was when I was able to let Dd come to enjoy nursing for it's own sake.

[Panserbjorne]

Wow does it help to hear from all of you! Today was a bad day, and I vaguely considered quitting all the crap (pumping, drugs, herbs etc.) Thank you for reminding me that there is an option-that I can nurse and supplement. I saw another doc who thinks that maybe I have a chance at nursing full time once dd regains all of her weight. I forgot to post that I had found out that she had actually weighed in below her birth weight at the doctors office when I had been told that she was gaining just fine. So I had a mild freak out but the doc went on tho say that perhaps she COULDN"T nurse because she was too weak. So once we get her up to snuff she may be able to stimulate more milk production. I'm not holding my breath though. When I couldn't nurse ds I made my own formula which was just as easy as mixing up store bought stuff. So...if I need to do that I will. Oh the frustration of it all! Thanks to everyone involved in this thread. It's a HUGE help. By the way-those who supplement and BF, how do you do it? Nurse then supplement? Just curious as to how it all works.

[mom2kbeth]

to you from us, Elisabeth.

I've been thinking of you ... and then I logged in and your name jumped out at me! I wish I had some advice (or was able to actually get any milk when I pumped, cause I'd be running it up to you now if I could!). But I just wanted to say that I'm thinking of you and hope that you and Selkie come out of this happily soon. I miss you - hopefully we'll see you sometime in the near future. Everyone was asking about you at the meeting on Friday and at playgroup today. Just wanted to let you know that you're well thought of and very much missed

[Hey Mama!]

Originally Posted by elisabeth

By the way-those who supplement and BF, how do you do it? Nurse then supplement? Just curious as to how it all works.

I nurse her in the morning, around noon, at bedtime and again late at night before I go to bed. She usually gets a bottle (6 oz) around 10ish and again at around 3ish. Sometimes she gets another bottle in the evening. She also eats a couple of solid meals during the day as well. But, my babe is 7 months. I've been told you should breastfeed and then offer a couple of oz afterwards.

[Victorian]

when we were supplimenting a lot, we would nurse and then have 2 oz in a bottle every time. We tried the SNS, and he just started to refuse the breast if there was a tube. Now we nurse and do 3 meals of solids a day - giving him a bottle when he just acts fussy at the breast and wants one. We have always nursed about 10 times a day.

Victorian

[aussiemum]

Yep, ditto to what Victorian said. I nursed first for as long as I could take it (up to 2-3 hours each session) until the kids just got really fussy, & then I'd give the bottle. Usually I had to give more than 2 oz tho. Also, I would nurse from one side, pump the other at the same time, then give in a bottle whatever I managed to extract from the pumped side- usually about 1 oz after, oh, an hour or so. Then I'd just swap sides & keep on going.

A note of caution from experience: if you pump by hand for long periods of time (Avent pumper here) you risk RSI & very sore wrists.

[Curious]

All the advice I got was nurse first, then bottle. But Dd was so agitated when she was hungry and had to deal with my piddly drops. What worked better was to let her take the edge of her hunger with the bottle, then she was ready to enjoy nursing.