Forum home Babies Baby

☹️Trouble breastfeeding ☹️

Jenb85Jenb85 New
edited Jun 10, 2020 3:45AM in Baby
Hi I'm new on here and have a new baby boy whom I choose to breastfeed. It was going fine for like a month so so he was latching on, but the he wouldn't he would pull back and not want to latch on he would cry. The I pumped/ hand expressed milk and give it to him that way, the most I got that way was 4 Oz's and then as time went on it got little and Less to it was only half an Oz. This upset me, it made me a very in a way because I felt as if I was letting him down giving up and failing. I tried everything to get milk to come on, I was desparte trying to think of everything anything to get more milk. But I think I done wrong at the beginning, when I should of been pumping in between breastfeeding. I feel guilty of all of that. 
What do I do just stop altogether. He is getting fourmla. But I feel as if I do stop I am going to miss doing it all.☹️😭

Replies

  • Hun I feel you ! I had to stop breastfeeding because I had an over supply and had mastitis for nearly the whole time I was breastfeeding for a month... I’m still in the process of stopping my milk productions but I know that feeling that you feel like you are letting baby down ... there are many websites that tell you how to increase milk supply but I have learnt that the best time of day to help stimulate milk is between 1-5am so maybe try to get baby to latch between these times and pump too ..if you want to continue your breastfeeding journey. I personally stopped and she’s on formula ... I now enjoy my husband being able to feed baby too and not having to get naked all the time 😂 but I defo felt the guilt at first
  • I dont know if this helps but sometimes when my baby wont latch on, it is when she actually needs to burp, and after I've burped her she will latch on again.   or sometimes she seems to want to just be near the breast so I just leave her resting on it until she wants to latch on. it's definitely not easy but I'm trying to be more relaxed when she rejects it and wait for her to change her mind. good luck!
  • I'm so sorry you're having a tough time. It's important to remember how much you manage to express in volume is not an indication of how much milk baby is able to extract from the breast. Lots of mum's can't express a drop but breastfeed their babies for months. 
    The more you offer boob, the more your body will make - supply and demand. So if you feel your supply is dropping due to formula you could spend a couple days in bed together, kits of skin to skin, unlimited latching for baby and see if that helps to increase supply. 
    Also, baby can pull on/off the nipple when they have wind, or during growth spurts baby can also be very unsettled on off pulling back off the nipple etc. 
    You deffinetly didn't do wrong at the beginning, if you were exclusively breastfeeding your baby there would be no need to pump in-between as your body would produce enough in response to your babies suckling. 

    It sounds like maybe you're babys hit a big growth spurt at the 4 week mark and the fussyness of baby at the breast is common during these cluster periods when they are constantly  on off on off, and that been confused by you as baby's struggling to feed which has led to more formula...supply decrease...even more fussy baby...less skin to skin...less hormones to trigger the production of milk....

    Can you ring your health visitor or midwife? They will hopefully be able to talk with you over the phone and point you in directions of online resources to help with getting baby happy back on the boob and establishing your supply! 
    Also, take a look at UNICEF BFI online, there should be loads of resources on there to do with supply, what's normal/not normal etc with baby's feeding. 

    Good luck and hope you manage to get it sorted for you and your baby xx
  • Thanks guys, he is almost 5 months a. I haven't even tried any more to get him to latch on, I though maybe when he's teething at the min that that would have been. Good time. Pumping is only a few drops
Sign In or Register to comment.

Featured Discussions