Has anyone here b'fed just for colostrom & switched to ff?

skinny-latte · Oct 16, 2010 12:08PM

Im 33 weeks this week & really want to give this baby at least the colostrom, Ive got major issues about feeding from the breast & bottlefed all my other 3 from the first feed. DD2 (my last one) was very very poorly & in hosp for a week when she was 5/6 weeks & ive always felt guilty & wondered had she got the goodness of the colostrom would she not have been as sick?

Ideally I'd like to express the colostrom but have been told & read that thats very difficult & will have to be topped up with formula. Has anyone else just bf for the first few days then switched to formula? or successfully expressed colostrom?

any comments are very welcome, but i really dont want to go into why id rather not feed from the breast, if thats ok, I hope you dont think thats rude!

thanks.
4fab.x

mrsbobster · Sep 7, 2010 5:16PM

Hi, my LO wouldn't latch on and after 24 hours I hand expressed some (literally one teaspoon), then started expressing with a pump (medela swing) from day 2. It was ok, the midwifes did advise me to give some formula (they said I didn't have to take the advice!) but I didn't and although she wasn't getting much for a few days she seemed fine, didn't lose more weight than normal for breastfed babies. There were a few points in the first week where I literally only got out a couple of drops which was depressing, other times when I got an ounce, but remember that newborns only need a very very small amount of colostrum at first, though watch out for dehydration. if you were trying to bf I would say don't top up but if you are going to ff anyway maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing to avoid worrying about that, after all as long as you pump as much as you can baby will get the goodness. When your milk first comes in it is still very rich in colostrum then it becomes more white - mine was very yellow for a few weeks. It might be hard work expressing with 3 other kids but if you can I would suggest giving her a couple of weeks worth of milk, even if you top up. I didn't start topping up until her '2 week growth spurt' when she clearly needed more (she regained birth weight at 17 days) and pumping generally won't get you as much as a baby would manage if bfeeding correctly. I would recommend hiring a hospital grade double pump, will stimulate more milk if doing both at same time and quicker to do, (I hired a medela one after the first 2 weeks) they will get it out to you next day if you order before 2pm, and the first 2 weeks are ??????40 then ??????40 for every 4 weeks after that. When you stop using it they will pick up.
There's good advice on various websites about stimulating milk production google for 'exclusively expressing'. I 'think' that you can start stimulating the milk from before you give birth that might mean you had more colostrum to start with - but not sure? Lastly, you do need to do it every few hours and through the night as you would if baby was breastfeeding. xx

piggypops · Sep 9, 2010 11:00AM

hello

i had great diffculty breastfeeding so in hospital i was given a sterile pot and hand expressed my colostrom and fed with a syringe,

apple-pie-73 · Sep 11, 2010 1:18PM

I didn't plan on only giving colostrum but I only managed to BF for about a week so that's all she had - and she still got a cold at 9 days old!!!

I guess you could do this and give her that initial goodness before your milk comes in - the amount you'd express is very minimal but you could look at hand expressing which we did once or twice when struggling getting lo to latch (or stay awake!).

nkotb · Sep 21, 2010 2:03PM

Hi love, I hated the idea of bfing, was convinced if I forced myself I'd get pnd. But as I also know all the good stuff it has felt guilty; so I expressed. I'm not suggesting you do this as I believe it's not recommended (although I also believe diabetics do incase their lo's have bad sugar levels), but I actually expressed whilst being pregnant, from my 39th week (I wouldn't have done any earlier as I think it can cause contractions leading to labour or something like that). I used a medala swing and it took 1/2 hr to get a syringe of 1mm full! I'd pump & then when colostrum drop appears suck it up with the syringe. I did this for 3 days after birth, until my milk started to come in & higher quantities meant I could express into a bottle normally. I took 6 or 7 1mm syringes into hospital. I had previously frozen them & they stored them in their fridge. After giving birth (it was my first time) the midwife fed baby straight from the syringe & she took it fine. I didn't need to give any formula whilst still producing colostrum & as it happens I continued to express for 4 wks or so & got enough freezer stock to give bm until 8 wks old; however formula fed at night. I've since read that frozen bm is no better than formula, don't know if that's true though. Anyho! In summary it can be done. Xxxx

laura23 · Oct 16, 2010 12:08PM

hi,

Iv just noticed this as was looking at older posts for some info, i wanted to BF but LO wouldnt take to it - she had tiny drops of colostrum finger fed, when i tried expressing it took 15 mins from each side (with a hospital pump) to get about 1.5ml which was syringe fed, it left me very sore and so i tried hand expressing and managed about 1ml which was again syringe fed - it wasnt enough for her though & her blood sugar droppd & she started to go jaundice so she had to have top ups of formula.
We eventually got her BF feeding with a nipple sheild but it was too much hard work with her being such a wriggler and after 4-5 weeks started exclusively expressing & giving her bottles of BM & now combi feeding so every third bottle is formula. Hope this helps xx

Oh and iv just looked at the dates & guess you probably dont need this info now but it might help someone xx

[Modified by: laura23 on October 16, 2010 05:13 PM]

Has anyone here b'fed just for colostrom & switched to ff?

Replies

Featured Discussions

Promoted Content