Forum home Babies Breast & bottle feeding

back to breast after bottle?

My Lo is now 4weeks old & unfortunately after 2 weeks of breast feeding I had 2 bottle feed due 2very painful mastitis & then thrush..not 2mention the cracked very sore nipples. This really upset me & has been gettin me down as I was adamant I was going 2 BF. I have kept expressing even tho she has formula as well but can only manage 2 express 2/3 times a day. I went 2 a group 2day at my local sure start &every mum bar me was BF. This made me feel awful. I came home then2 try &latch on my Lo which 2my surprise she did & fed 4 at least 5minutes..I had expressed just a little b4 2help her a little but after the 5mins she started 2really cry &my partner ended up giving her 2 bottles of 90mls which she guzzled! I don't mind if I end up mix feeding but I wud really like 2 b able 2 BF her again..any tips or advice wud b greatly appreciated xx:\?

Replies

  • sorry not much time so just a quick reply...

    You could get a nursing supplementer from Medela. One of the girls on here told me about it recently. Not used it myself but looks like it would be perfect for you. Google it for more info!!! Good luck x
  • i was just about to recomend that again!! Basicaly you fill up the bag with milk, expressed or formula, and whilst baby is on your breast you slip the tiny tube into their mouth so they are getting enough milk and dont get bored at the breast, but it also is stimulating your breasts to produce more milk, so everntually you should be able to reduce the milk in the bag, and hopefully cut it out all together. There is a video on how to use it here
    http://www.nbci.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=6&Itemid=13

    http://www.medela.co.uk/UK/breastfeeding/products/nursing.php

    Keep having lots and lots of skin to skin contact, and also let your baby suckle just for comfort, not just when she needs feeding. I hope that is of some help i've got to dash off but let me know how things go and if you need any more help xxxxxxxxx
  • Brill advice from both comments..thank u! Been doin skin 2skin & like little o said have been letting her suckle 4 comfort! Will check out the supplementer! Keeping Fingers crossed..doin ok so far! Xx
  • Hi - I had a similar issue when my son was born. I had to stop BFing for almost a week due to cracked/bleeding nipples coupled with engorgement. I couldn't express very much for the first few days and my supply got really low so we were using formula which wasn't what I wanted, If you want to increase your supply you need to keep either feeding or expressing every 2-3 hours, even through the night. It was a really difficult time as for the first 3-4 days I was measuring what I was expressing by counting drops and was excited if I managed to get enough to fill a 1ml syringe! It was really demoralising and I was in tears more than once. But gradually I started being able to express more and more until finally after about a week I expressed 75ml which at the time was enough for a feed all by itself. Since then we're back to BFing exclusively and life is much better! So try and persevere - it's the hardest thing you will ever do but so worth it if you really want to keep BFing.

    Good luck!!!!

    C image
  • Thanks c I will keep goin as best I can. It's so hard I thort it wud b easy & enjoyable &so far its been neither of those!

    2 little o do u no where I can get breast supplementer from?xx
  • Thanks little o. Just had a look, a lot cheaper than I thought! Gona speak 2 my HV &partner then mayb invest in one! Thanks again Xx
  • also if you have a local breastfeeding group they might have one that they can lend you? I know ours does but it might be worth asking your midwife or hv xxxxx
Sign In or Register to comment.

Featured Discussions