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Breastfeeding - babies weight
9wk ds has not gained any weight in 2 weeks and hv has said 1. To give him two bottles of formula a day 2. That the breast milk I'm producing isn't giving him enough and that I'm not eating the right things.
I feel like I am not doing the right thing breastfeeding and that I am failing as a mum to my son
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Replies
I'm sorry to hear you are feeling like this - breastfeeding your son is giving him a fantastic start and you're definitely not failing him at all!
Having said that, clearly your health visitor is concerned about his weight gain and that's not something you will want to ignore. Have you tried going to a breastfeeding support group locally to see if they can give you advice on latch/technique/your diet etc which might mean you don't have to introduce formula if you don't want to? (Clearly if you want to bring in formula milk that's ok too, it's just I get the impression from your post that you are keen to continue exclusively breastfeeding for the time being). Your health visitor should be able to direct you to some support groups locally, or you might want to try the NCT website for support - there are a couple of helpline numbers at the bottom of this page http://www.nct.org.uk/parenting/breastfeeding-how-much-how-often
Good luck and remember that you are doing a fantastic job to breastfeed for so long!
It's unlikely that you're eating the wrong things as that shouldn't make a difference to the quality of your milk although eating oats can apparently help produce more. If you wish to continue breast feeding then offering formula is bad advice as if you replace a breast feed with a bottle of formula that could mean that you will be producing less milk if you miss a feed as breast feeding works on supply & demand. My advice would be to get as much skin to skin with your baby & feed as much as possible to increase your supply. I would contact the Le leache league who are a fantastic support for breast feeders & you can ring a support worker. http://www.laleche.org.uk/ But if you choose to switch to formula you are not a failure, just doing what you feel is best to help your son to thrive.
You need to google an article called something along the lines of 'read the baby, not the scales'. Weight gain is a bad measure for the successfuless of breastfeeding as those Charts are based on formula fed babies.
Feeding from the breast is the absolute best for your little one, and I think in your red book it says that they should be weighed no more than once a MONTH up until six months. Looking at weight week on week won't give you an accurate picture of baby's health.
Sometimes you have to trust your instincts as a mummy over the health visitors. They don't know your baby, you do. I had some issues with health visitors trying to tell me to supplement but we didn't - and my daughter is now a perfectly happy and healthy two year old!