Need encouragement… Dr wants me to stop BF, close to failure to thrive, slow gain

[livingwater888]

@kars I just want to give you some reassurance that giving pumped milk doesn’t mean your EBF journey is over. I ebf’d my baby until she was about 7 weeks old when I had to start pumping almost exclusively (nursing only in the middle of the night) due to poor weight gain. She had a lot of difficulty nursing due to tongue and lip ties, muscle tightness, overactive gag reflex, etc.

As soon as I started feeding bottles of pumped milk her weight rebounded amazingly. I ended up having to EP for two straight months while we worked through oral tie revisions, cranio-sacral therapy, etc but as of this week we are BACK to nursing almost exclusively! We still give a bottle for her bedtime routine to make sure she doesn’t start rejecting them.

Your EBF journey might have a little hiccup, but don’t consider it over just yet

 

[rusak]

@kars Looking at the information. I would bottle feed. She simply isn’t gaining for whatever reason. Sending well wishes. A healthy baby is what’s most important

 

[elliehart]

@kars My sister supplemented with formula for about 6 weeks after her baby turned a month old just bc her postpartum time was so rough on her. But once baby got a little bigger and stronger and my sister was better rested and settled into motherhood, she was able to go back to EBF. They nursed til 2 1/2.

Breastfeeding doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Combofeeding with formula and breast milk IS breastfeeding. If you use your breast milk to feed your baby in any capacity, you can take full credit for that nursing time. Just remember that you are the mama. Your baby don’t just love you for your milk. Your baby loves YOU, I promise.

 

[naomilovespurple]

@kars I'm sorry, but this seems like it's above Reddit's paygrade. Weight issues can be serious and I recommend you follow the advice of the trained medical professional. They are recommending this so that they can tell how much baby is taking in, which seems perfectly reasonable when there have been weight issues.

I'm not sure how long your doctor is recommending you EP, but if it's only a few weeks I would imagine that you'd be able to go back to breastfeeding. Regardless, you should talk with your LC about what the options to get back to breastfeeding are after a period of EPing. I've heard stories about baby latching and breastfeeding even without having done so for a long time, so it's certainly possible. Though I'd imagine it depends heavily on the baby.

You're clearly doing everything you can for your LO already, so the only other thing I'll say is that this sounds incredibly stressful. I hope that you're also taking care of yourself as much as possible. You deserve support and care too. Good luck.

 

[katrina2017]

@kars I would suggest take the advice of the doc and do formula for a few weeks to see if her weight increases . Keep pumping to keep your supply up. The formula might only be temporary and you can go back to EBF after.

I had a similar issue with my babe but she was 95th percentile lol. She dropped significantly in the first week (she was lethargic, looked significantly less plump) and doctor recommended to pump as she has having some latching issues. My breasts were so engorged and she was having a lot of difficultly latching as they were so so rock hard when my milk came in on day 5 lol. I was distraught as I was so set on EBF. She regained sooo quickly after starting a bottle. We continued exclusively pumping for 3 weeks and I honestly thought she’d never breastfeed again as she was so young and was used to the bottle now. But I popped her on shortly after her doctor said it was all good to try to go back to breastfeeding and she latched immediately.

I am now exclusively BF her and she is 2 months old! Shes back up to her 95th percentile and is thriving. I give her the occasional bottle just so she remembers how to use it if I ever need to go out/leave her with husband.

With that all said, I’m so glad I just trusted the doctors/LC and gave up my preconceived idea of how I was going to feed my baby. Sometimes the emotion of possibly not bf gets in the way of the babies health. I was definitely guilty of that. Sometimes they need a little extra help. It’s likely not permanent!

Big hugs

 

[wodan]

@kars Lots of people get the baby to latch again after exclusively pumping. Just follow the doctor and do what is best for the baby and maybe you can nurse again later. Pumping is still breastfeeding

 

[barnabasp]

@kars I’d pump lots if you are able, mg girl is technically FTT (10lbs 3.5 months old) she had super slow weight gain due to tongue and lip ties and then thrush. She’s happy as a clam and hitting milestones, and is EBF. She won’t accept a bottle. I considered SNS with formula but I’d rather her gain weight slow and be EBF than hurt my supply. Weight gain is weight gain! My girl finally is in the 2nd percentile as of like 2 days ago. I say stick it out doing what you’re doing now unless you see weight loss or no weight gain. Sorry for your rough start mama. She’ll be okay and so will you deep breaths. You’re the right mom did her and it sounds like she’s doing well considering that she is gaining weight

 

[barnabasp]

Alain baby bring so sleepy at feeds is so normal at that age. Just keep feeding on demand and keep her up the best you can, but neijtger of you are broken cause she’s sleepy.

 

[alwaysfaithful18]

@kars I’m sorry you’re going through this. Many friends of mine had to pump for a month to get their supply up and then were able to move back to EBF.

My advice from my doctor, LC and various friends, rent a hospital grade pump if you are trying to increase your supply. Have baby drink from you first and then pump afterwards. It’ll take time to build the supply but it’ll come. The hard work will be worth it.

 

[ahnalia]

@kars My supply came in late with all 3 of my kids. The LC gave me this tube thingy one end goes to the formula and the other between baby mouth and your boob. They said my youngest wasn't gaining enough weight but my husband is 5'6 and 100 lbs how big do they think he'll get. He's 3 now and really skinny but people' don't bat an eye because they look at my husband.. My point is don't give up because my supply ended up coming in fully with all 3. Best of luck to you mama you got this

 

[suppur5]

@kars I was EBF (combo of directly at great and pumping/bottle), but baby dropped weight in first few weeks. So we went on formula for like a week to get weight back up. Once he normalized, went back to EBF.

Over the last few days, my supply tanked, so we are doing formula again for a bit at 4months while I work to get supply back up. It sucks, but I’m striving to get back to end asap.

I say all this because it took me a long time (and I’m still working on it) to understand that it’s not all breastfeeding or nothing. Do what you can right now, sprinkle in some breast time while giving formula to ensure baby is gaining wait. You can get that bonding by letting baby comfort nurse if they enjoy that. Once baby is back to good place weight wise, try EBF again. Pump in the meantime, build a freezer stash!! It’s soooo hard to come to terms with, I’m still still struggling with him being on formula while my supply is low, but I look fwd to not having to buy another batch of formula and bringing him back to EBF.

Sending you hugs. You got this!!

 

[donna_urry]

@kars I went through a similar experience with my son during the first 4-5 weeks or so. He’s 7 weeks now and doing well with his weight gain! I ultimately decided weight gain is more important to me than the bonding of ebf (I was also extremely sad to not be nursing for each feed) so I did pumped milk in bottles for all of his feeds except one during the day. I’d nurse for as long as he would go and then top him off with a bottle if needed. I continued to work with a LC and I slowly did fewer bottles and more nursing sessions. I watched his weight closely and found he was continuing to grow at a good rate. We nurse about half the time now and that’s because I love having the help for night feeds and don’t want to drop any more bottle feeds.

It’s so hard but if your baby will tolerate going back and forth from bottle to breast, consider more bottle feeds. You can work on getting back to ebf over time.

 

[willnotdim]

@kars My baby was diagnosed with failure to thrive at 6 weeks. I'd like to share our story to hopefully give you some hope. He has some medical issues that won't apply to you, but hopefully the feeding side is something you can relate too.

My little one was born at 6lbs and other than tube feeding for the first 3 days due to low blood sugar I EBF. He gained weight fantastically for 3 weeks then stopped. I won't go into all that we tried before in the next three weeks trying to get his weight up. At 6 weeks he was diagnosed with a heart defect, heart failure and failure to thrive and was admitted to the hospital.

He needed to start meds for his heart and we worked to try and get his weight up, then at 7 weeks, while we were still in the hospital, a liver problem was discovered and he had to start on a special formula.

I was devastated, I couldn't stop crying, the emotional hit is so so hard, but I knew it was being done in his best interest. I decided to pump, we didn't know at the time of his liver problem was forever and if I could go back to BF I wanted to be ready.

Pumping was hard. We were still in the hospital and trying to find time to pump in between his care needs was so difficult and I didn't manage to keep a strict pumping schedule and my supply dropped.

4 weeks later we got the go ahead to drop the formula and go back to the breast and this is where I knuckled down and focused on pretty much nothing but feeding.

It's been 4 weeks since then and his weight gain is now steady. My supply is up and I direct breastfeed every feed, with a couple of bottle top ups of expressed milk and a few pumps a day. I will probably not drop the bottle top ups until after his heart surgery just because he needs the extra easy calories.

It's hard, I'm glad I did it because I enjoy it so much, and now that his conditions are stable he gains the same amount of weight from the breast milk as he did the formula so I know I'm not hurting him.

All advice and guidance I've seen regarding maintaining and increasing milk supply tell you to pump at least 8-10 times a day with middle of the night pumps but it is a grueling schedule that isn't achievable by many especially if you don't have constant support. I did not manage that. Whilst formula feeding managed about 5-6 pumps a day and when he was back on breast milk about the same, but I had a freezer stash to fall back on. I slowly built my supply up over several weeks and even that was hard work.

Pumping tips:
-I have a hospital grade double electric breast pump. I cut two small holes in an old sports bra and I use that for some hands free pumping.

-Whenever I was feeding him a bottle I would prop him in some pillows pretty upright in front of me and pump at the same time. I did paced bottle feeding so could get a 15-20min pump in whilst feeding him his bottle.

-If he was having a good nap in his cot I would power pump, many a pump was cut short however if he woke. But anything was better than nothing.

I know I skimmed over a lot of details but if you have any questions feel free to ask. Also know that if you have to switch to formula it could just be temporary, getting your little one to gain weight is so important at this point. Also don't push yourself to hard. You don't want to work yourself into the ground and burn yourself out at a time where you should be enjoying your little one.

Good luck xx

 

[ikevin]

@kars Dairy or soy intolerance?
Green stools mucus and specks of blood was my babe’s symptom. Weight was fine.

 

[ciel]

@kars Pumping is hard but doable. I pumped for 6 months for similar reasons (actually our LO did not transfer milk well). Pumping without nursing for a short time (even a couple of days can also give you some info about how much you produce good to know for yourself (whether there’s a problem or so you can show the dr supply is not the issue). Then when nursing you can compare how much your LO is removing as well. Anyway, just thought I would share a pumping mom’s advice. I ended up pumping and comfort nursing (weaning now) so I totally understand how important nursing is emotionally. Don’t worry. You and your baby will figure it out.

 

[jwmcdani]

@kars This may not be relevant, but my baby was born 9 pounds and dropped 12% of her body weight very quickly. 4 days I think. It was scary and I felt like a failure, did triple feeding etc etc.

Different that she was already big I know but hear me out!

My labour was long, I was induced so on a drip for a very long time and also had GDM.

I felt like my milk was so delayed for such a long time but, she dropped from like the 90th to the 75th percentile. She’s just over 6 months now and has sat right on the 75th percentile breast feeding ever since.

One midwives said to me in the beginning, which I now think was true, that she was probably just dropping GDM weight and also fluid from being on a drip for so long in labour, and her true percentile was always actually going to be on the 75th.

Not sure if any of this could apply to you too but wanted to share just in case.

All the best with your journey and little one it will be ok, you will get there whatever time are you take. It’s always so hard in the beginning!

 

[davy_o]

@kars Have you tried anything to increase your supply? I’m currently taking goats rue and it has noticeably helped. Has your LC suggested anything?

 

[mjgh06]

@kars I feel you on this!

My 9 week old daughter had a tongue tie that’s been released but still impacts her feeding. We found out Monday that she’s dropped from the 15th percentile in weight to the first. So scary, also risk of failure to thrive.

I switched to pumping and formula in a bottle too. I know it’s heartbreaking to give up (at least temporarily) on EBF but trust me, once you see your LO happily taking in so many calories and getting milk drunk, you will feel a whole lot better. And there is genuinely a lot of peace of mind in seeing exactly how much they’re getting.

Plus, you can always nurse for comfort! I just nursed mine to sleep, and I’ll nurse her for the cuddles in the morning. Just don’t count it as a feed, but there’s no rule saying breastfeeding can’t be a ‘bonus’.

You can also talk to your lactation consultant about coming up with a plan to move back to EBF. I’m sure they can help — I’m doing the same next week.

Good luck and hang in there!

 

[husserl]

@kars I don't know if this is helpful at all but just sharing my experience.

My baby was born with jaundice and he was very sleepy. He was slow to gain weight because he was basically too sleepy to feed. We tried triple feeding but eventually decided to only bottle feed because trying to feed him the breast first made him too tired to feed from the bottle and the goal was to make him gain weight. We did this for around 3 weeks. Once he gained enough weight, he was a bit stronger and we were able to transition to exclusively breastfed. I was worried he would never want to breastfeed again because drinking from a bottle is easier and i thought he might get used to it, but we got there in the end even though it did take some time for him to learn how to breastfeed. So hopefully it's temporary for you too.

 

[babylon1606]

@kars My LO is 5 weeks. Within the first 4 days of having her she lost 9% of her birth weight. My pediatrician said I had to do formula for my mental health as well as her physical health. I pumped while I formula fed and got a small frozen stock up. I think it improved my supply. I kept latching her anyway as well to also just have that bond. After three weeks, I was able to produce what she needed. I don’t have an over supply and sometimes I produce a little less. I still supplement formula at night just for my own peace of mind as well as physical health. But during the day she latches and bottle feeds breast milk. I honestly think you could EBF down the road but it might take some time. Give her the slow flow nipples so she has to work a little harder kind of like the breast. Pump as often as you can. Keep latching her just so she stays familiar with it. Don’t beat yourself up over it. I know the disappointment is hard to deal with but you need to take care of yourself first so you can properly take care of your LO. Just my opinion and my take on it.