Breastfeeding trials-Any suggestions?
By ammyers05
@ammyers05 (71)
United States
February 16, 2007 5:59am CST
I have an 18 month old little girl, I didn't breast feed her. Now I'm a stay-at-home mom and I just had another baby who is 5 weeks old. I decided to breastfeed him. Everyone who advocates breastfeeding makes it sound so enjoyable and easy. I am finding it less than enjoyable and frustrating. The lactation consultant isn't much help either. I eat plenty (I'm like a bottomless pit), I drink 32 ounces of water between every feeding and I still do not produce enough milk. I produce a total of 4 ounces when I pump, my son drinks about 3 more ounces of formula. At first I thought that maybe he just wanted to suck, so I gave him a pacifier-that absolutely does not work . He's not gassy, nor does he get gassy when he eats that much.
Even though I'm still doing both breastfeeding and formula, my thoughts are that it would be so much easier just to give him a bottle because it would only take a half hour to feed him and he's satisfied. That compares to the 20-25 minutes of nursing on each side (so that he actually gets 10 minutes of sucking on each side) plus the 20 minutes to drink the bottle.
Am I ever going to produce more milk? Or is this going to be all?
13 people like this
9 responses
@XxAngelxX (2830)
• Canada
16 Feb 07
If you are producing 4 ounces of milk already and the baby is only 5 weeks old, I wouldn't worry about it. That's a lot in such a short period of time. Your milk will come in more the more he sucks. Remember babies can get more out of us than we can ourselves. It's the hind milk that is most important for them after the colostrum so let him nurse as long as he wants.
2 people like this
@Mamaof2 (574)
• Canada
16 Feb 07
Check with your doctor about this situation. I had a friend that had the exact same problem and the doc was able to perscribe her a medication that was safe and very effective in increasing the amount of milk that came in for her. She was then able to nurse her baby without any troubles and he was completley satisfied! Hope this helps :)
2 people like this
@deebomb (15304)
• United States
16 Feb 07
My first 2 children were like yours 18 mo apart. I throughly enjoyed nursing the older one. It was an oppertunity to sit and cuddle him. The second was hungry all the time and It seemed like all I did was feed him. Just as I would start to nurse the baby the older one needed something. I do wish that I had nuresed the younger one longer. It would have been a great time to cuddle and bond better than a bottle does. No One told me that the milk would come stronger and that there would be more of it as time went by. We didn't have lactation consultants back then. Maybe you should find a different one.
@limosonia1 (1559)
• United States
17 Feb 07
First you need to relax if you are not comfortable it will be harder to produce milk. Try putting a warm cloth across your breath and find a place were you can relax. A comfortable chair or lay in your bed. Think of it more as bonding than something you must do. Before you know it. Things will be flowing and it will be second nature. It is hard to get started at first.
1 person likes this
@kegski (20)
• United States
16 Feb 07
It gets easier, give it a few more weeks.
It is certainly not easy nor enjoyable in the beginning, but if you are consitent with it, you should start producing more milk. My son ate like every hour so he kept things moving pretty good.
After awhile it does become enjoyable and easy.
Good luck!
2 people like this
@cap_leo18 (357)
• India
17 Feb 07
This is the only gift that the child get from the god.Never deny this to your child feed your child until 3 years , this the only nutritio that will get our childeren more healthy
