Friend need help, was bfing and supplementing but want to just bfed now

[dex_millie]

Hi all,

I need help with this as I thought I read somewhere that for a mom to establish good supply(for the baby first year) she had to be nursing exclusively for a few weeks?(I could be wrong).

Anyways my friend baby is 1 month. But she have been gaving formula and breastfeeding. It seems anytime she goes out she gaves formula and even at home at times she gaves formula. I am not sure how much she actually nurses. But her baby recently had a fever and diarhea and the dr. told her that she needs to eighter formula feed or nurse. So she wants to nurse and has even cancel her one week trip to see her DH(his away on military business) as she was going without the baby for a week.

How realistic is it that she can get a supply that will feed her baby without sumplementing. The baby had her first bottle at the hospital because she thought her milk wasn't coming in fast enough(at only 1 day), she then told me her milk came in on the 3rd day but she didn't know that was normal(and she didn't know until I told her recently). And of course those nurses was no help.

I told her about fenugreek and oatmeal. I guess my concern is, can she get a supply that her baby can survive on alone at this stage?

Thanks

[Quinalla]

She most likely can, but depending how much she is supplementing (sounds like you don't really know) she may not be able to just drop formula cold-turkey. I had to supplement some at the start and slowly phased it out so my supply had a chance to catch up. I would have her contact a lactation consultant ASAP!

[tinybutterfly]

I'm going to move this out to the regular Breastfeeding forum. You may get more responses there and it seems to be a demand/supply issue.



tinybutterfly

[dex_millie]

Originally Posted by Quinalla

She most likely can, but depending how much she is supplementing (sounds like you don't really know) she may not be able to just drop formula cold-turkey. I had to supplement some at the start and slowly phased it out so my supply had a chance to catch up. I would have her contact a lactation consultant ASAP!

I really wish I could say we have good LC on this small caribbean island but I would be suprise if we did. It is terrible down here since all these new modern techniques have come in.

I don't even know anyone that have breastfeed exclusively pass 2 weeks on this island.

Maybe I should become a LC for when I plan to move down here

[Climbergirl]

Try to see if you can touch base with LLL. Having support around you is helpful.

To answer your question, yes, it is possible. My son was fed formula for 1 month while I pumped and dumped (long story). It took a while to get him on the breast (latch issues), but after 2 months, I was exclusively breast feeding.

One thing to try is a "nursing vacation" (but this really depends on how much formula the baby is getting, if it is a lot, then this may not be the best approach). Basically, you nurse. All the time. Anytime the baby wants a pacifier, you nurse. Anytime the baby is upset, you nurse. You pretty much have the baby on the breast for as much as possible so the body realizes to make more milk.

Otherwise, she can drop a few ounces of formula every few days and as long as the count of diapers is appropriate, then she should be fine.

I would probably do a combination of both. Nurse the baby as much as humanly possible (with lots of skin to skin time) and then supplement a few ounces here and there to keep the baby somewhat happy. But, she has to understand that the baby will be hungry and she has to offer the breast first. Then maybe enough formula to calm baby down and back to the breast. She could also consider a SNS where the baby gets formula through a tube while breastfeeding. That way, she is stimulating the breast at the same time and can control how much formula the baby is getting (basically dropping it down slowly).

She is still in that window of 6 weeks where the body is trying to figure out how much to make. Now is an excellent time to really get things going.

Good luck to her! It is a hard road, but so worth it

[dex_millie]

Originally Posted by Climbergirl

Try to see if you can touch base with LLL. Having support around you is helpful.

To answer your question, yes, it is possible. My son was fed formula for 1 month while I pumped and dumped (long story). It took a while to get him on the breast (latch issues), but after 2 months, I was exclusively breast feeding.

One thing to try is a "nursing vacation" (but this really depends on how much formula the baby is getting, if it is a lot, then this may not be the best approach). Basically, you nurse. All the time. Anytime the baby wants a pacifier, you nurse. Anytime the baby is upset, you nurse. You pretty much have the baby on the breast for as much as possible so the body realizes to make more milk.

Otherwise, she can drop a few ounces of formula every few days and as long as the count of diapers is appropriate, then she should be fine.

I would probably do a combination of both. Nurse the baby as much as humanly possible (with lots of skin to skin time) and then supplement a few ounces here and there to keep the baby somewhat happy. But, she has to understand that the baby will be hungry and she has to offer the breast first. Then maybe enough formula to calm baby down and back to the breast. She could also consider a SNS where the baby gets formula through a tube while breastfeeding. That way, she is stimulating the breast at the same time and can control how much formula the baby is getting (basically dropping it down slowly).

She is still in that window of 6 weeks where the body is trying to figure out how much to make. Now is an excellent time to really get things going.

Good luck to her! It is a hard road, but so worth it

I might be going over by her today to see how things are going.

There is also one LLL group down here, I almost fainted when I saw we had one, must be new.

I hope it work out for her. Most of my friends just end up gaving up with the same old misunderstandings(even if their babies was gaining weight, ect...) - they seemed hungry to fast like they are not getting enough, but when all you have is people around you telling you that is not normal for a baby to be hungry so fast it discourages them.

[dex_millie]

So I popped over by the house today and found out that she did leave to see her DH for a week. The baby was there, I heard her crying/screaming for the 10 minutes I was outside and talking to my friend MIL(who lives with them). I guess she changed her mind about not going. I did notice she moved up the date she left as she was to go next week. Maybe she took a pump to try and keep up her supply over there and plan to be serious when she comes back...Guess I will know next week when she is back

[sparklefairy]

Her doctor is wrong. It would be better to feed both than to not breastfeed at all.

There may be some useful information here: http://www.asklenore.info/breastfeeding/abindex.shtml
I thought of this site first because we don't know if this mother has ever had a "full" supply and so some of the things that apply to inducing lactation may be useful for her.

Originally Posted by dex_millie

Hi all,

I need help with this as I thought I read somewhere that for a mom to establish good supply(for the baby first year) she had to be nursing exclusively for a few weeks?(I could be wrong).

Anyways my friend baby is 1 month. But she have been gaving formula and breastfeeding. It seems anytime she goes out she gaves formula and even at home at times she gaves formula. I am not sure how much she actually nurses. But her baby recently had a fever and diarhea and the dr. told her that she needs to eighter formula feed or nurse. So she wants to nurse and has even cancel her one week trip to see her DH(his away on military business) as she was going without the baby for a week.

How realistic is it that she can get a supply that will feed her baby without sumplementing. The baby had her first bottle at the hospital because she thought her milk wasn't coming in fast enough(at only 1 day), she then told me her milk came in on the 3rd day but she didn't know that was normal(and she didn't know until I told her recently). And of course those nurses was no help.

I told her about fenugreek and oatmeal. I guess my concern is, can she get a supply that her baby can survive on alone at this stage?

Thanks

[dex_millie]

Originally Posted by sparklefairy

Her doctor is wrong. It would be better to feed both than to not breastfeed at all.

There may be some useful information here: http://www.asklenore.info/breastfeeding/abindex.shtml
I thought of this site first because we don't know if this mother has ever had a "full" supply and so some of the things that apply to inducing lactation may be useful for her.

I told her the dr. is wrong too, everything my friends usually say that they got told from drs or people just frustrates me. I have no idea if she ever been full eighter I am thinking not. She gave the baby formula while in the hospital thinking that the baby was hungry(of course) and because she thought her milk took to long to come in, which it came in on the 3rd day even with her supplementing.

I get really frustrated with down here(don't live here anymore, but thought of coming back) and just in general with my friends who got so much wrong information about breastfeeding.

I can see how some people start to gave up on people in general, no matter how much info you gave them, ect... the doctors and everybody else who has NOT breastfeed advice gets their attention.