"Bottles At Night"

[MarcyC]

Lately, I've been giving DS bottles at night. I should start by saying that DS has recently been diagnosed with Class 3 tongue tie. He was not diagnosed early on. Had he been diagnosed early, I may have found a more willing ENT to fix it. Also had he been diagnosed early, my milk supply might not be close to nil.

But I digress.......

During the day I have the patience to take him off, relatch him, and work with his horrible latch (oy vey -- what am I going to do when he gets teeth?). Seriously - during a "typical" nursing session he's on and off and relatched at least 15-20 times.

I've got it down though - I nurse him on one side with the SNS and pump the other side. By the end of the day, I've got 4-6 oz. of pumped milk and that's what we give him in a bottle overnight. He's gotten to where he usually only wakes up once during the night and since I'm so tired and don't generally have the patience to work with his latch, a bottle is just the best route for now). Plus, DH can get up with him on the weekend nigths and let me sleep a little bit longer.

We've been doing this for about a week and it seems to be working so far.

But I got to thinking, when DS was newborn and I had him in the peds office a million times for billirubin and weight checks, I often heard other parents of newborns say that they were breastfeeding during the day and bottle feeding at night. But since a newborn needs to feed so frequently, not just 1 bottle, don't they realize how counterproductive those nighttime bottles are to breastfeeding? I mean, if a newborn is nursing say 8 times day (minimum) and getting say 2 bottles at night, that's 1/4 of his or her feedings coming from a bottle. And then in later weeks people wonder why their "supply" is only meeting about 75% of their baby's needs.

How do you educate people about this?

[jeanine123]

Does your drs office give any BFing literature to their patients with new LOs or is there anything available in the waiting room for them to take? If not do you think they would be open to the concept of offering something like that? I'm thinking you could point them in the direction of some literature of why early bottle introduction can cause problems and how frequent nursing at the breast in the first few weeks is so important to establishing a good, long lasting supply. Then there's always the just strike up a conversation route but that can be such a minefield. If you do decide to try that route maybe keep it pretty general, instead of saying "did you know that bottles at night can mess with your supply in some cases" (not that I think you'd be that blunt but you never know what a sleep deprived new parent may "hear") say "are you aware of the internet resources available for you at any time?" and then list off a couple. It's a hard line to walk at times. isn't it?

[JamesMama]

My hospital gave out an awesome phamplet, it was all "The more you nurse the more you make." "Giving bottles in the early days without pumping can have a serious impact on your supply." "The vast majority of women can breastfeed successfully" It was awesome!

[llamalluv]

Originally Posted by MarcyC

But I got to thinking, when DS was newborn and I had him in the peds office a million times for billirubin and weight checks, I often heard other parents of newborns say that they were breastfeeding during the day and bottle feeding at night. But since a newborn needs to feed so frequently, not just 1 bottle, don't they realize how counterproductive those nighttime bottles are to breastfeeding? I mean, if a newborn is nursing say 8 times day (minimum) and getting say 2 bottles at night, that's 1/4 of his or her feedings coming from a bottle. And then in later weeks people wonder why their "supply" is only meeting about 75% of their baby's needs.

How do you educate people about this?

Your math is wrong.

8 day feedings + 2 night feedings = 10 feedings.

2 night feedings/10 feedings = 20%

100%-20%=80%

Not that the numbers matter a great deal to the actual issue...I'm just a numbers geek.


My question is: How do you know what they are putting in those nighttime bottles? It could be breastmilk.

[Qtopia]

Originally Posted by llamalluv

My question is: How do you know what they are putting in those nighttime bottles? It could be breastmilk.

As far as milk supply is concerned, it doesn't matter if the bottles have breastmilk in them- NOT nursing (or pumping) during those feedings would impact a woman's supply because her breasts need the stimulation provided by suckling (or pumping) in order to produce milk.

[llamalluv]

Originally Posted by Qtopia

As far as milk supply is concerned, it doesn't matter if the bottles have breastmilk in them- NOT nursing (or pumping) during those feedings would impact a woman's supply because her breasts need the stimulation provided by suckling (or pumping) in order to produce milk.

Oh, I didn't realize that. I thought if you were pumping x number of ounces your body would try to keep up with that.

But what you are saying makes sense! My mother started to dry up after less than a month of pumping for my baby sis - but she was only pumping during the day, when it was convenient for her.