Minti - Recent Comments on Question "Feeding worries"

Re: Feeding worries

MumKim — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 05:33:31 -0700

Hey Chele
Don't worry about the low star rating. You are in good company. Mummabear and I have been getting lots of low votes lately. I just smile and think how small their minds must be.
While I am very pro breastfeeding and anti the formula companies (NOT the people that use the formula, just the companies that use unethical methods of promoting their product) I would not give you a low vote for sharing your experiences. I am sorry that you did not have a better experience with breastfeeding. I am sorry that there was not more support readily available to you. Good on you for trying so hard.
Kim

Re: Feeding worries

kseers — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 06:27:43 -0700

I know - it's hurtful and when I spotted it I marked you up - unfortunately you can't help some people who just want to score an easy target.... you had a tough time and made some tough decisions - good on you and thanks for sharing.

Re: Feeding worries

MummaBear — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 04:01:20 -0700

I get that too. Even if someone writes a comment that is given 5 stars and i respond to the comment with "I agree with everything here" I sometimes get less than 2 stars for that. Some people just have nothing better to do with their time. I would say don't let it worry you but I get awfully upset over it and when I say it upsets me, I'm given a poor or very poor vote for that too. Very sad that people are like that isn't it.

Re: Feeding worries

blossom24 — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 03:36:55 -0700

Hi! Don't listen to people who tell you your child isn't gaining enough weight and don't give up breastfeeding unless that is a last resort. My daughter always pulled away and then started sucking again as that was her way of getting the milk to start flowing - the let down. Once the let down started, she would stay on the boob. So my best advice would be not to swap boobs until you feel a let down. I had problems with milk supply, some days I was feeding her every hour and this was when she was 6 months!!!!!! Make sure you drink lots and lots of water - that was why my milk was low. Just stick in there and everything will be fine. My older sister has to let her 15month watch tv whilst she is feeding. My little girl is now 17 months, and I think the breastfeeding is over. She hasn't fed for two days now. It is sad to have given it up, but babies grow up so try and make the most of it! You can also drink fenugreek tea if you are worried about your supply. That worked for me. Good luck with everything! Hope it all works out for you.

Re: Feeding worries

jaxsycam — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 21:07:16 -0700

talk to the mchn and ask if you can go to a breast feeding clinic basicly you just sit there with other mums having trouble you learn all different positions to feed them and the latching on of bubs. if he doesnt latch properly he may not get enough but at the clinic i went to at rosebud hospital on the mornington penninsula they provided lunch for us while we sat and chatted with 3 other mums and a lactation nurse. hope this helps you try expressing and feeding him on a bottle of your milk to see if he is latching on if not then you know where to start and try holding his hands down till he realises its him pulling not you

Re: Feeding worries

avanliamsmum — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 19:32:40 -0700

My daughter was also slow at gaining weight, but I continued breastfeeding her until she weaned herself at about 13-14 mths. She had quite bad reflux (does he show any signs of that, or even silent reflux), and even when I did try the odd bottle of formula (after my mother in law promising me she'd hold it down and therefore gain weight) she still threw that up anyway. Is your son gaining weight every week/month? And not losing it? If so, don't worry. I was in the same situation. My daughter always gained weight every week, even if it wasn't much. With my son, I don't even bother getting him weighed that often, and I don't stress, as I know things will turn out fine. My daughter is at the correct weight and height for her age now, and is rarely ever sick, so I am glad I continued with breastfeeding. My 4mth old son pulls away from the breast when I have a let down, as my milk flows quite fast. Maybe this could be the problem? Are you feeding him too often? My son feeds every 3-4 hours, if I try to feed him more often than that, he's not interested. Don't give up breastfeeding just yet!

Re: Feeding worries

sarahkate2202 — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 15:58:14 -0700

Hey Bec, Levi does that as well. It tends to be when he gets agitated, upset or tired half way through a feed. It may not help you, but I tend to play music or sing not that im any good, and pat his butt at the same time when he does that after a while he decides that he will return to eating properly, and then tends to fall asleep after wards. I hope that helps you some.. If i think of any other things i'll let you know.. good luck.

Re: Feeding worries

cheleinkal — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 09:18:38 -0700

I just wanted to add, that my daughter was alert, she had plenty of wet nappies, she wasn't lethargic, and she didn't LOSE weight, she just barely gained any. And I spent a fortune on a lactation consultant through ABA, I went to the Dr. I did everything I was supposed to do and thats what I meant by exhausting all your options before making an informed deccision. I changed my mind on what I was going to do every 2 hours for a month. It is not an easy deccision to make.

NOW

I don't understand why you don't like my advice when I said everything everyone else did and you liked their's...was it the typo's?

Just wanted to say that who ever low voted my advice, it was hurtful, you low voted MY EXPERIENCE...how can you vote on that? MY experience can't be poor......I answered a question with good intentions, I gave valid advice. Who ever it is going around low voting responses to questions answered has got the wrong idea on how Minti works. have a think about it..this isn't a written piece of advice that "works for you or doesn't" this is me being nice enough to take the time to try and answer someone elses question, with a response gleaned from my personal experience.

This is happeneing too often and not just to me, but to many and who ever is doing it needs to put themselves in the position of the person they are about to low vote, before they do it...would you like it? Grow Up! You are not being helpful.

Re: Feeding worries

kseers — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 07:09:13 -0700

My son did this too. He has a tongue tie and I think he just liked the fast flowing milk at first - when the hind milk came in ( which is fattier) and the flow eased he would give up. he couldn't get a good suck and would just give up.

So I just changed sides and would do that multiple times a feed, figuring that overall he was getting a good feed.

In that way it worked and we kept feeding until 21months. However he obviously wasn't getting enough of the fatty milk that comes later in the feed and he was a slow grower.

i don't know if this is why your little one is doing it and I only worked this out much later on in the piece myself. So, get onto a counsellor and check out all your options.

The main thing I think is not to obsess over the weight charts - if they are growing (all be it slowly) and they are settled and doing wet nappies then they are OK.

Re: Feeding worries

PHOENIX — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 04:43:47 -0700

Ditto on everything mumkim and mummabear have said.
Please give an ABA breastfeeding counsellor a call. They will be able to help you see if there is actually anything to be worried about and give you some tips to help with the breast refusal.
It is common for things like this to happen at any age.
Some weight gain is fine no matter how little. Breastfed babies weight tends to plataeu anywhere between 3-6mths so this may be whats happening.Feeding often willhelp bring your supply up as will expressing after feeds, but really if there is nothing wrong you should be able to keep doing what you have been. If he is gaining some weight has enough wet nappies in 24hrs has good skin tone, fairly settled after feeds, bright eyed and alert then it usually means they are getting enough.
So put your mind at ease and ring a BC the number should be in your phone book or its on the ABA site www.breastfeeding.asn.au (follow the links to contact us) and next time you see the nurse ask her if she is using the new charts or the outdated ones?
Hope this helps adn hope all goes well

Re: Feeding worries

MumKim — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 04:22:38 -0700

Hi
As Mummabear has mentioned it may depend on the chart being used. It depends on which state you are in. Here in WA they now use new charts because the old charts were done on bottle fed babies and they have a different growth pattern to breast fed babies. For this reason the charts have recently be reviewed.
There is a great article on the Breastfeeding Australia article that talks about how to know if bubs is getting enough and how to increase your supply here.
Also available through Breastfeeding Australia is free telephone or email counselling and you don't have to be a member. Here is the link for more information on that.
I am just at the 6 month mark myself. I had similar difficulties to what you describe and tried similar methods with success. The other thing I tried was expressing. I had quite abundant milk supply earlier on so I figured that bub probably wasn't used to sucking very hard so I used my hand pump. The other thing that has really helped me is the herb fenugreek. A friend of mine was put on to fenugreek tablets (available in the health food shop) by her lactation consultant. I have found that taking one when supply seems to be low is helpful.
I also found that when supply was low my nipples take a beating. She bites them in frustration. I am very lucky the physio at my local hospital has a laser that helps them to heal. This was a free service with a referral from my child health nurse. You may have to hunt around to find a physio with such a laser but it does help. The other thing I did was to cancel what I could so I could stay home and rest for a few days and spend lots of time holding and cuddling baby.
Hope this helps
cheers
Kim

Re: Feeding worries

Snooty-Farkleboob — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 04:14:17 -0700

WHO Chart for boys age 0 - 6 months.

Even with these charts, there is a lot of training that goes into how to interpret them. Just because a baby's growth doesn't follow it exactly doesn't mean there is a problem.

Re: Feeding worries

MummaBear — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 04:02:28 -0700

Those charts in the baby books are based on formula fed babies in the 50s and do not give a clear indication of healthy weight gain in breastfed babies of today. The World Health Organisation has put one out that is far more accurate.

http://www.who.int/childgrowth/standards/w_f_a_tables_p_girls/en/index.html

Hope this link helps you, i know it says girls but there are lots of charts on here. I was told the same thing at child health and on 2 occasions I was given formula simply because my baby wasn't following the chart. One visit indicated she was growing too fast, another visit indicated she was not gaining enough weight. If your baby is healthy, bright and active and producing enough wet and soiled nappies you'll be right, keep doing what you're doing.

Re: Feeding worries

Snooty-Farkleboob — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 03:02:22 -0700

Sounds like a nursing strike. How long has he been doing it for?

If you want to read some information about nursing strikes:

La Leche League

Kellymom

Re: Feeding worries

cheleinkal — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 02:45:37 -0700

I was the last person to believe that my baby was skinny, I just didn't see it. I look at the photo's of her then and cringe thoguh. I wasn't making enough. I had lactation experts help me oput and everything and when I wasn't feeding her I was pumping, I was on couch ALL the time with my boobs hanging out, it got depressing and impossible. Our daughter has a couple of mouth rellated issues that prevented her from getting a good suction when she latched, and my boobs are big and apparently thats a bad thing as well. Bubs roof of her mouth is too high, they push the nipple to the roof of their mouth to milk it and her mouth is very high, so this was difficult, plus (I forget the propper name) piece of skin that goes from your inner top lip through your front teeth to your pallet..well that was big but tight and her lip couldn't curl up which they have to do to get the good suction thing going. It was a nightmare. After 3.5 months I had to take her with me across the country to be in a wedding and I just new I couldn't keep this sitting on the couch boob brandishing thing any longer, so I switched. WOW. Bub thrived from that day on, she porked up within a week...7 days, it was before your very eyes stuff. She hasn't looked back and neither have I. Exhaust your options and then make the right decission for YOU. If thats continue to feed him, then great if it's to switch to bottles, then thats great too. Breast is not always best, it nearly broke me mentally, so how can that be best.........a happy mummy makes for a happy babe.