[SeanaRain]

Hello folks! My almost 3 week old and I are having some issues. He wouldn't latch on at the hospital, so I ended up starting him on formula until my milk came in and I could pump. The LC there was no help. I went back a few days after discharge for some more help, but all she did was talk. She didn't even try to help me with latching on.

I've emailed and called my kinda local LLL several times and I've had no response.

DS will occasionally latch on. Most of the time he ends up screaming. I try at least 2 or 3 times a day to latch him on. If I'm lucky, he'll get one. Otherwise, it's the screaming. I'd try more often, but the screaming kills me. When he does latch on, it seems to go well. Because all I've been able to really do is pump, it seems my supply is kinda low. Even pumping at least 8 times a day, I'm barely able to keep up with DS's needs. I still have to occasionally supplement with formula.

I'm currently taking fenugreek 3 pills 3x/day. They are 610 mg capsules. It's only been a few days, but I can't say that I've seen any improvement at all.

Please please please help me here!

 

[Lucysmama]

Just wanted to say HANG IN THERE! Call another LC. Call any mamas you know who BF. Call another LLL chapter. Call anyone you can think of if you need help!

No advice from me....sounds very similar to how we started, only I gave up getting my dd to latch and decided to just pump. I have immensely regretted giving up every day since, and she is now 28 mos. Just wanted to say Don't Give Up! A lot of mamas struggle for weeks, but overcome obstacles in the end to have a great BFing relationship.

 

[Tonya]

I don't know if I can offer any advice, but I hope you will hang in there. I also had problems with my son latching on and staying on. Even til this day and he just turned 7 months old. He latches on, then off and on again. Somewhere around 4 months or so the peditrician made a comment about his "large" tongue and that he will probably need braces one day because his tongue will push against his teeth. His tongue always hangs out, it's kind of cute. So anyway, it made me think about his latching problems and it makes sense. It seems that his tongue gets in the way and it cause him to have to reattach himself. Of course he needs my help, so breastfeeding him in public is always a challenge. Also in the begining breastfeeding was very painful. I think I had thrush or he had thrush, but I think that also caused some problems with him latching on. If I can offer any words of wisdom ,what help me was I just took it "one feeding at a time" Good luck and don't give up. If I made it this far, so can you.

Tonya

 

[corysmilk]

Hi I too had major problems with my first getting him to latch. He never did (well for 2 weeks with nipple sheild-I DO NOT recomednd this) BUt anyway I did "give" up and just pumped for 3 months and then heartrenchinly started to feed formula
I know that there can be many resonsfor a baby to not latch wellor not at all.
for us it was because my son was toungue tied- his tougue never came out of his mouth, it looked heart shaped at the tip. Plus he had a short toungue and couldn'r MILK the breast.
WITH MY DD I had to stick my toungue out at her she would pull it back when she nursed. it worked, I would stick mine out at her she would stick hers out at me, then I would latch her on quickly
I would suggest that you don't give any bottles but finger feed instead, or cup feed or even use a lataid or SNS feeding system.
try putting your finger in babes mouth finger nail down, to check his suck, can you feel his toungue? is it a powerful suck?
my last bit of advice is to stay in bed, set yourself up with lots of water, and snacks, and take off your shirt and only have babe in a diaper and just offer to nurse every 2 hours, lots

of cuddling time skin to skin. good luck, all the best!

 

[Quirky]

OK, the best thing do to would be to find a board-certified lactation consultant (with the initials IBCLC after her name). You can find one local to you here (assuming you're in the US, but the site has international listings as well): http://www.iblce.org/us_regional_registry.htm

Keep trying LLL. The women who staff it are volunteers with families so be persistent in trying to get help.

You really need to get in-person help (forget that useless hospital LC) to figure out what's going on with your baby in terms of latch issues, nipple preference, etc.

Go to kellymom (here: http://www.kellymom.com/bf/index.html) and read through the getting started, the latching, and the milk supply pages. Great information and great links!

What kind of pump are you using? To get your milk supply in you really need to use a professional (hospital) grade pump, not a Pump in Style. You can rent this from a lactation consultant for a couple of months (it won't be forever, we hope). You should also make sure to have the LC show you the setting it should be on as well as check to see whether the horns fit you correctly (if your breasts are smaller or larger than the "average" the horns are designed for you will have better luck with different horns).

Try pumping every two hours during the day, and don't go any more than 4 hours at night without pumping. It's a pain to try to juggle pumping and breastfeeding and supplementing, but it generally goes - try to latch baby on and get him to nurse, and then whether or not he nurses pump afterwards. If he nursed, pumping afterwards will help boost your supply; if he didn't, the pumping should help maintain your supply.

Talk to the lactation consultant about weaning your baby off bottles - the drinking method is different and it can cause nipple confusion (it takes more effort to get milk from a breast at first, so babies used to the bottle can get upset when put to the breast). There are a number of different methods - cup feeding, syringe/finger feeding, using a Supplemental Nursing System/Lact-aid (a tube that you tape to your breast so baby gets supplement on the breast).

Do you smell like curry/maple syrup? If not, increase the fenugreek to 4 capsules 3 times a day. Also, blessed thistle is a great herb to take with fenugreek - same dosage. Even better is one of the tinctures from www.motherlove.com.

Try to spend as much time relaxed with your ds next to your (naked) breasts as possible. Don't try to do anything else, like housework, cooking, getting out, whatever - your top priority is to hang out with your baby and convince him that mama's breasts are the source of good things, like comfort and milk.

Are you co-sleeping? This is the best way to get lots of snuggles and hopefully some snacks in - try to get him to latch when he's sleepy or sleeping, he may not get so upset. When you're awake and tired of hanging out in bed, sling him in the house next to your breasts.

Don't get too discouraged - lots of us here have taken weeks (if not several months) to get our babies to the breast exclusively. The first weeks are hard! The fact that you're only having to supplement your baby a little is awesome - that means your supply is doing quite well even though you're mostly pumping.

Please hang in there, get help, and keep trying! We're all here to help and support you.

 

[Sleepymama]

ITA w/Quirky. Go rent a hospital grade pump and all the other stuff she said, esp pumping after BFing. Pumping after, instead of in between feedings, will be best for increasing supply. You can rent pumps at medical supply places too--call the local hospital to see what they have. I used a medela classic and it cost me $40 per month. (Also, your insurance *might* pay for it if you get a dr. note saying it's necessary)

Definitely feed a little-cup, finger, syringe, whatever-first before latching. he's probably mad because he's hungry.

Have you tried the nipple sandwich? It was the only way my DS would latch on. I did the cross cradle hold (same side hand holding his head and opposite hand makes the sandwich) Compress your nipple with index and thumb and really jam it in, using your hand to push his head onto your nipple. You might even need Dh's or someone's help to tickle his mouth open first.

The only thing that really got DS to like BFing was nursing side lying in bed. As soon as he got the hang of that he really started BFing all the time. It's frustrating trying to find support though!!

 

[SeanaRain]

Thanks so much for the help ladies!

The hospital LC is an IBCLC.

It still bothers me that she didn't do more to help.

Amazingly, the day I posted the cry for help, DS decided he wanted to begin to latch on. YAY!!

Now I really think I have an actual latch problem. I thought my nips hurt from all the pumping, but it is nothing compared to what I am now experiencing. It hurts the worst when he latches on, but fades. Then it hurts again for a bit after he pops off. Probably normal, but I still want to find an LC that will work with me.

The pump I have now is a PIS Advanced. I thought that the PISs were just as good as a hospital grade pump. Phooey! I'm not sure we have the money to rent a hospital grade pump after buying the PIS Advanced. I also did not know that there were different sized horns. I have rather large breasts and large areolas, but small nipples. (I was a 42G pre- and post-pregnancy.) The only problem I have with pumping after feeding (or attempting) is being able to put DS down somewhere. Sometimes I can, but most of the time he ends up wide awake and fusses/cries when I put him down to pump. I do a lot better after DH is home and able to take care of DS.

I occasionally smell maple syrup, but it's not all the time. Guess I'll bump up the fenugreek and see about finding some blessed thistle. I may try some of the tinctures, too. Thanks for the link.

We do co-sleep. We have a co-sleeper, but DS often ends up in the bed with us. I think he likes it there better.

I've considered trying to nurse on my side, but DS and my nipples just don't line up. Probably goes back to the big bbs problem.

Anyway, thanks again ladies for all the help! It's nice to know that there are people out there willing to help. Anymore advice is more than welcome, too.