She gave dd formula:( - Page 3

[JudiAU]

I would very very angry. But that assumes I left adequate food (rejected or not).

D
But...you said you didn't leave enough to feed her and left some rice milk to stretch it. You put your mother in a terrible position if that is the case. This is for a four month old? This does not sound like an adequate plan to me. Rice milk is not adequate nutrition for a four moth old but formula supplementation would be. Has this happened before? More than once? Did your mom buy the formula knowing that this could happen again?

I strongly support nursing and pumping moms and I don't know anything about your relationship with her but on the face of it it sounds like she is a deeply worried grandma trying to do what is right (but not making necessarily wise choices).

[JudiAU]

I really do understand the pressure to get the bottle filled and I understand that the rice milk helps you relieve a little pressure. But again, a hungry baby needs food and rice milk is not food for a baby.

[Ammaarah]

I'm with the others who said formula is an appropriate breastmilk sub, while rice milk just isn't.

[rachelsmama]

I would be mad too! It's not like she even supplemented with formula, she substituted! That's worse! I don't for a moment believe that she did it out of some concern that rice-milk is inappropriate, if that was the case she would have used the breastmilk first, or if she was a healthy person she would have discussed her concerns about the rice milk.

OP, I also agree that rice-milk is not ideal, but I can totally see where you're coming from too, and if it truly is a case where having formula in the house would result in the quick end of breastfeeding and worsening of depression then I can even see how the rice-milk might be the lesser of two evils. There were some suggestions about trying to make the EBM go further up-thread, I hope something works (and you manage to get your mother to comply) so you don't have to make any more hard decisions about supplementation.

[leafwood]

first, i would be a mess if someone did that (even my mom). second, can you get a freezer stash going? at around 2m pp i started pumping for 10-15 minutes each morning. at first i got nothing but then i quickly got up to 7-10oz per morning session which added up quickly b/c most of the time the baby did not even eat it. then, i would still pump while away if he took a bottle. long story short, i wound up donating the extra milk but we never ran out. hopefully this can be an option for you.

[texmati]

OP, just an FYI, breastmilk not used at one feeding can be used at the next feeding.

[dalia]

OMG I would be furious. You must be a saint!!

[futurmama8]

Um...it seems like you are ignoring all the posts telling you that rice milk is NOT an acceptable substitue for breastmilk. Formula isn't an evil substance used to slowly kill your baby and in this case is much better for the proper growth of your child.

I am going to put this in caps just so you can see it.

RICE MILK HAS BEEN FOUND TO HAVE ARSENIC IN IT. YA KNOW, CANCER CAUSING ARESENIC, THE KIND USED IN PESTICIDES.

http://www.nowpublic.com/health/stud...enic-rice-milk

So now you decide if formula (a good substitute for breastmilk, nutritionally adequate and a proper food source) is worse than Rice milk (a horrible food source for infants with no nutritional value and many risks).

[rachelsmama]

So, just out of curiosity, is supplementing with a little bit of rice milk significantly different than early introduction of small amounts of rice cereal and water? I'm not saying it should be anybody's "plan a", but there are several generations of functioning humans that had rice and water, and many other things, early on and most survived in reasonable health. Is it really a bad enough choice to warrant the hostility and aggression in some of the previous posts?

[Banana731]

Jack Newman feels like actual food is appropriate to supplement a 4 month old who needs to be supplemented. He is very anti-formula.

I would be livid if someone fed my child formula. I think formula is better than starvation, and that's about it. From the OPs post, I don't think that her dd is in danger of starvation. She works for 5 hour shifts, 3-4 times a week. She most likely feeds her baby immediately before and after. Her mother is obviously wasting breastmilk if it's going down the drain, she might not even need to supplement with anything with better care and feeding practices.

OP- if your baby doesn't like to use a bottle, you can try a dropper, cup, or syringe. And breastmilk does not have to be thrown down the drain if she doesn't finish it at a feeding! If for some reason she just doen't want to take EBM, you might want to check to see if your milk has a high lipase content. Taste some milk that you have expressed in the fridge and if it tastes "soapy" or funny in some way, that may be your problem. The lipase in breastmilk helps break down fat to make it easier to digest, for some moms with high amounts of lipase it happens right away in pumped milk and baby doesn't always like the taste. It can be remedied by scalding the milk as soon as you pump it before long term storage. Scalded breastmilk is still far superior to formula in terms of nutrition.

Please get in contact with some of your local LLL leaders. They will be able to help you get the most out of your pumping sessions and expressed milk.

[ErinYay]

Originally Posted by rachelsmama

So, just out of curiosity, is supplementing with a little bit of rice milk significantly different than early introduction of small amounts of rice cereal and water? I'm not saying it should be anybody's "plan a", but there are several generations of functioning humans that had rice and water, and many other things, early on and most survived in reasonable health. Is it really a bad enough choice to warrant the hostility and aggression in some of the previous posts?

Since both rice milk and rice cereal contain unacceptable levels of arsenic, I'd say they're both pretty crummy choices for an open-gut babe.

And sure, the people who survived and are healthy survived and are healthy, but we don't hear a lot from the ones who died of malnutrition or early cancer.

[Smithie]

I have always found it impossible to have "enough" pumped breastmilk on hand when leaving a baby with a caregiver who didn't understand how to handle it and wouldn't accept my explanations. Basically, some people, including otherwise lovely people, WILL dump a half-finished bottle and WILL feed a baby more EBM than they should have, to the point where they throw it all up. Same baby + same amount of EBM + educable pro-breastfeeding caregiver = no problem.

OP, if you need to keep using your mom as a caregiver, I suggest that you get some organic non-soy formula for her to use and TAKE HOME WITH HER EVERY TIME. Then you can pump at work and freeze the milk you pumped when you get home, and build up a stash for use with other, more congenial caregivers.