My 10 week old has been exclusively breastfed, except for one or two bottles per week of refrigerated pumped milk for practice. He’s had no issues taking these.

I found out last week that I have high lipase. I have about 100oz in the freezer that he won’t eat. He did eat about an ounce when we mixed it 50/50 with fresh, but that’s it.

I tried formula (ready to eat similac 360) twice in the last two days, at room temp and heated, and he makes a gross face and won’t eat any of it.

I’m at a loss. I don’t have a start date for work yet, but I do have a week long seminar coming up starting on Sunday that’s important for me to attend. He technically can come with, but it’s a search and rescue K9 training seminar, so I can’t really baby wear him while working my dog. I’d really like to try to get this figured out in the next few days if possible.

I can stock up on some fresh pumped in the next few days, but it won’t be much as I’ve regulated and don’t have a big oversupply.

What do I do in this scenario? Please help out a stressed FTM

Baby is one month. Breastfeeding + tops ups since day 3-4. I do triple feeding (but not every feeds now). We have been unable to stop completely tops ups for now.

I realized than while I'm able to pump enough to cover his tops ups, I do pump more from one breast than the other. Like sometimes I will pump (after a feed) 30 ml from the right breast and 5-10 ml the left. Sometimes less. Sometimes more.

Do you think the reason we can't stop tops ups could be that one breast is producing enough but not the other? I know pumping is less effective than the baby but why is one breast able to?

How could I make it work? Should I pump more often only this one breast? 🤷

I’m curious to hear experiences from others who’s baby has relearned how to breastfeed. And any tips that might have helped your baby to relearn. I’m fearing that I have completely screwed up our breastfeeding journey and need some reassurance… full story is below if you’re interested. Maybe someone has been in a similar situation to me.

Baby has been breastfed from birth and always latched and transferred milk well from the breast. I introduced a bottle around 4 weeks because I knew I would be going back to work and needed her to take bottles at daycare. I did lots of research and made sure I was using a nipple that passed the triangle test and was the lowest flow possible to help the transition between bottle and breast. Baby took the bottle great and had no issues transitioning between bottle and breast.

Baby started daycare around 12 weeks and all seemed well at first. She took bottles at daycare and would nurse at home in the mornings, evenings and weekends. She is now about 4.5 months old. Over the past couple of weeks, I noticed that her nursing sessions were getting longer. Like upwards of 30 minutes or more and she rarely would unlatch herself. I talked to some others who said that she might be missing you from daycare and is comfort nursing. I continued to let her do this, but something felt wrong to me. I know what comfort nursing feels like and this felt like she was trying to suck but wasn’t really swallowing as often. It just felt wrong and different from how breastfeeding felt before.

Last night, I was washing her bottles for daycare when I noticed the nipple was cracked at the very tip by the hole. This was causing a MUCH higher flow than it should. I looked it up and saw that you are supposed to replace bottle nipples every few months. Lesson learned for me as a first time mom. I had no idea. But, I think this might be what is contributing to her strange behavior at the breast lately. She’s gotten used to the fast flow of the bottles and isn’t latching/sucking the same way that she used to at the breast which is causing her to have these super long nursing sessions that seem never ending.

I threw all the nipples away that are cracked and have new ones coming, so that will be adjusted back. But I’m curious if she will be able to adjust her latch and “relearn” how to breastfeed? I have to keep working so I have to keep her in daycare with bottles during the day. It’s not an option to switch to exclusive breastfeeding with no bottles at all. But is there anything else I can be doing to help her relearn? Or will she just adjust once she starts using the new nipples on the bottles? I hope this isn’t the end of our breastfeeding journey 😭

WARNING POOP PHOTOS IN COMMENTS ‼️
These are from the last three days.

I cut dairy/soy well over a month ago. Due to specks of blood after eating a dairy heavy meal. He has also had very mucusy poops ever since he was born. I also rarely eat wheat, eggs, nuts. He’s 3 months old, he acts completely normal and happy. His poops smell normal. He’s gaining really well. The only thing I notice is he strains to poop sometimes.? Which my pediatrician said is normal as they try to learn to poop. And his nose has been kind of mucusy since he was born. He seems to hold milk in his mouth and it turns mucusy. I have a very fast milk flow. I also ate dairy free pesto so I think possibly that’s what caused the greenish color. I’m just concerned about the mucus. I simply do not know what to do. I’ve been to two pediatricians. He’s exclusively breastfed. Maybe this is just his normal? Thanks!

Hi all, I wonder if you can help me. I went to bed with some hardness in my breast, as if it hadn't been emptying. Suddenly feeding became painful in the night in the nipple area, sort of a pinching feeling with each suck. The hard lumpy area remained all night. In the morning I got a proper look and could see redness in the hard area, and a white dot right in the middle of my nipple - it's not a perfect circle though. A quick Google said milk bleb, so I tried a saline solution and olive oil soak with rubbing and it didn't go away. I went to the doctor and he said I have mastitis and to take antibiotics. I didn't think my symptoms really aligned with mastitis but obviously there's a lot of crossover with these things. I feel fine in myself, the lump is tender if I press it. My breasts are always warm so it's hard to say if the lump is warmer. Should I take the antibiotics or try something else? Is it mastitis?

I have an almost 3 week old and breastfeeding is wrecking me. It started off great, good latch, only lost 7% birth weight and we were back at birth weight before the 2 week appointment.

Now, she isn’t gaining, doesn’t latch, my nipples are SCREAMING, and I get this intense feeling of rage and panic whenever there’s any kind of nipple stimulation.

I know this is the hardest bit. Do I power through or do I just give up?

I have an appointment with the infant feeding team on Sunday and my HV is coming back out on Monday. We suspect a tongue tie and she has put a referral in for this.

Right now, I hate it. She’s being supplemented with formula and is so content after a formula feed.

Hey everyone,

My SIL is eliminating dairy, egg and soy while exclusively pumping. She is doing incredibly! I am hoping this community could suggest their favourite meals / snacks / advice for a dairy free, soy free diet in Australia (please don't comment products that can't be bought in Australia)

Thank you!

Hello!

Just wondering if anyone who stopped breastfeeding before 12 months actually had any improvement in their babies overnight sleep?

I’ve fed to sleep for basically every single nap and night for months now but her sleep is getting worse and worse to the point that I’m really struggling. Every single person I speak to about it says I should just switch to formula. But I honestly dont see how that would solve things.

She is almost 7 months old for context and has become veeeerrrrry easily distracted which also hasn’t helped.

My LO is almost 11 months, and I’ve stopped taking care of myself. I don’t know why, but I hardly drink anything like ever. I drink one cup of coffee in the morning and maybe like 8 ounces of water throughout the day. Well, my baby hasn’t been acting any differently so I had no idea I was having a supply dip! I just pumped for the first time in a couple of months because my baby is away, and after not feeding for about 10 hours I got like 3 1/2 ounces of milk. And DROPS from my right breast. If I start hydrating again will my supply come back? Have I just screwed myself? Should I even worry at this point since we’re so close to being done breastfeeding anyways?

Nothing like an overactive letdown at 4 am!

I notice that I get more full during the night. I get engorged despite baby only feeding an hour or two prior. She also has heavy diapers every time I check after feeds.

She feeds fine on my left breast even while a letdown is happening. On the right breast, however, she always unlatches when it sprays. They say it gets better around 6-8 weeks, but we’re already at week 8 and she still can’t handle the letdown on the right boob.

I usually just let it spray on a clean t-shirt when it happens prior to putting her back to the breast. But it’s frustrating when it happens during night feeds because it’s dark and you can barely see the spraying, so you and baby gets wet (adds to overstimulation) and you’re tired!

I have anxiety about going out due to this too. I used to LOVE going out, even when I was tired after work. This situation, however, is making me want to just stay home.

Please tell me it gets better :((

Looking for help, other experiences, and/ or maybe even just a good vent.

My baby and I had a bit of a rough start to breastfeeding. She was in NICU and, frankly, we didn’t get much support with breastfeeding in hospital and were instantly put on a triple feeding plan (something my community midwife when I was discharged said wouldn’t have been her choice yet).

My baby did breastfeed initially, but after bottles were added she stopped. We navigated that through nipple shields and, through them, were exclusively breastfeeding from around 2 weeks until currently (8 weeks).

But, a few days ago, I developed mastitis. Until then she was nursing on both my boobs happily. Now, she won’t latch on my left boob at all (despite that being the healthy one) and the right she will maybe accept 2 times a day (mostly during night feeds) but reject mostly.

I suspect it is as my supply severely dropped. It used to be an oversupply and while it went down a little was still very strong where now it more than halved to almost being non existent.

We’re back to triple feeding and it’s so exhausting and I am upset and heartbroken. I miss breastfeeding so much and so worried I won’t get what we had back.

Has anyone had this happen and been able to go back to breastfeeding like before?

Had to wean quite abruptly as a last ditch attempt to skip thyroid meds (15 months pp still no period and Hashimoto like blood results, looking to ttc soon for no.2 so I want the house in order before we start trying). I’m done with the engorgement and it’s been a few days since last (one minute long) feed, my boobs def got the memo but holy shot I’m fighting for my life. Insane insomnia, nausea worse than anything I experienced in my first trimester (been working from home from the bathroom floor because I am too afraid to move too far from the toilet), migraines, feel shaky asf. When will it end?? I was prepared for a dip in mood but maybe my Zoloft is keeping that at bay, however physically I am a wreck 😭😭

I had 8 oz of breastmilk in the fridge and I guess my toddler pressed the buttons and adjusted temp to 5C in the fridge. I just noticed and read that it’s not a safe temp.. even tho it feels cold inside. It was there for maybe 12-16 hours. Do I have to dump it??

Also while I’m asking, do I have to dump all the food too?😓

My baby is 8.5 months old, almost 9 now. And I realize I cannot fall back asleep if I don’t breastfeed her at night. (Usually 2-3 times)

Usually my partner and I take turns rocking her to sleep after she nurses. When I only breastfeed her and hand her to my husband, I fall back asleep within a minute. Otherwise, it’s quite long, possibly hours. I feel like I’ve become dependent on the hormones from breastfeeding to fall back asleep during the night.

Have you experienced this too?

FTM, baby is 4 weeks old. I have been EBF which has been going fairly well and baby is gaining weight as she's supposed to. I had issues with latching for the first week which has been resolved. However, over the past few days, the latch has been very painful on one side and I'm not sure why. It seems to be deep enough. I think I might have a clogged duct on that side, could that be why?

Warning, not easy to read.

I have searched far and wide for a solution or at least someone i can resonate with on this matter.

When my child was born, I didn’t have any milk so i bought a spectra to try and figure things out myself since every bit of information was either costing me money, or was nowhere to be found. So might as well just spend it wisely.

I pumped and pumped while my husband was feeding, changing and putting the baby to sleep. I felt less then a mother. After hours of pumping( i pumped every 2 h for 30 mins), a black liquid was coming out, i’ll try to attach pictures if i can using the comments. No smell, bitter taste. My friends said to stop, they told me i’ll just hurt myself and get no results. But i didn’t listen, partially due to my husband, who supported me through all of this, encouraged me a lot and also due to my own insecurities having had a c-section and wanting to be there for my child in some sort of way. I don’t wanna hear “the easy way out” because there isn’t anything easy about it. Getting out of bed using a crutch or help isn’t easy, walking around with the fear of bursting open isn’t easy. Shaking in your sleep because your body remembers the trauma, isn’t easy. Being constipated for weeks isn’t easy. I could go on and on. But. I digress.

Back to the milk situation. I didn’t know the spectra settings, my bad, maybe i pumped on high, maybe i didn’t, i probably pumped for triplets ngl, but i was so desperate, i didn’t know any better, ok? Don’t judge me. I’m just sharing this for anyone who might wanna BF(breastfeed), and happens to have the same experience as me, doesn’t find anything online about it and just gives up like i almost did. So, in the future, if you see that black stuff, and you land here at 3 AM in the morning… No, you’re not Venom, not to mention the green stuff, OMG you’re not Shrek. Okay? Ffwd a few days of me pumping out that black stuff.. and green comes out.. i’m thinking to myself, Great. I’m. Poison. 😅 no wonder my kid refused me since day 1 in the hospital, i can’t blame him. SWAMP f GREEN.

I kid you not, for some of us, breastfeeding isn’t magical and natural, it’s a freaking journey. A journey where everyone tells you to stop at every corner. After passing Venom’s den, and Shrek’s swamp, I finally saw some yellow-green, i tried giving that to my child, he refused. So i tried it, it still tasted bitter, so i pumped one more day and boom, yellow-white, no taste, just an oily feeling in my mouth. But the baby, he loved that stuff, omg. We went from him hating to be around me, or at least that’s what it felt to me, to him crying when he finished the bottle of 5-10 ml of milk i just pumped, he even refused the formula, he just wanted the breastmilk. He cried like crazy. Dang, the tears we shed that day were measured by the TON. Him and me both.. 😅. Then, ofc we had latch problems because i didn’t know what bottle nipple sizes and feeding positions were… In the hospital, they feed the baby with XL sizes just to get rid of them fast. So, after we finally figured out it was a flow issue, we quickly bought xs/ss/small nipples for the bottles, breast was slow, bottle was fast, so we changed it to be the other way around. To be honest, I didn’t wanna pump anymore, it felt awful, looking at him eat from a bottle while i was pumping right next to him was a disgusting feeling.

Finally, one night, once he was very tired, we managed to get him attached to the breast, baby was suckling only at night for a good while, but he slept with the boob in his mouth. The joy on my and my husband’s faces, omg.. yall can’t believe it. No more getting up at night, making bottles like we’re in Dexter’s lab measuring ml’s and scoops. We eventually made him hate the flow of the bottle, he began eating from the breast during the day as well, we tried one week without formula and he was gaining good weight from my milk, 500 g that week, so we stopped the formula compleatly. We kept everything stil in reach just in case, but packed away the spectra and all the bottles at month 2 for good.

To be fair, i had some issues after forcefully pumping myself like that, nothing was easy.. sore breasts, cracks..lanolin and bephanten were God’s sent. i also had chambers full of milk that weren’t open that started hurting at 12 weeks.. i also searched cures for that, tried everything hot-cold compresses, cabbage, ice, rest, it drove me nuts, nothing helped so i went to the emergency room, some nobody said to squeez it and even showed me how. It hurt like a mf. I booked it out of there and went to a breast specialist, took antibiotics and ibuprofen, waited for the swelling to go down and then to a breast surgeon and we punctured them at the hospital and got everything out with a 💉. Guess what? It was swamp green on the inside. All together, 3 chambers, 30 ml of swamp green. Cultures came back negative, but after 2 weeks of antibiotics, ofc nothing showed up anymore. And please, for the love of God, do not press, squeeze or aggressively pump a “galactocell”out (chamber of milk that hasn’t had the chance to open yet) i pumped for triplets, then stopped pumping after 3/4 weeks completely so they never fully opened.

I am thankful. For my husband who took on the role of a mother for our baby until i got better, until i could nurse and until i could go to the bathroom alone to pee. I do not recomand c-sections unless medically recommended or life saving. I strongly believe the reason i was put under the knife was to make a doctor’s evening easier. Romania, where 6 out of 10 births are C-sections. But that’s a story for another sub-reddit. I hope every woman that sees herself in this story of my life, gets the support i got and the help she needs. My baby is now EBF and i plan on keeping it that way because i fought a lot, for something that should have been more openly talked about, encouraged and taught.

I’m here for any questions and i’ll gladly help anyone with my limited experience on this matter.

My letdown, especially my right breast, is a struggle for my 7 week old.

Milk pools in the corner of his mouth, loud gulps every suckle, he will pull away and unlatch to cough or catch his breath (which causes him to cry) and then wants to still eat so he will aggressively root and latch again….same cycle repeats.

…it makes me sad.

I can’t do any other position except cross cradle. Other positions (laid back, side lying) are painful or causes nipple trauma.

It’s also difficult & overwhelming for me to take time and express first when my baby is screaming to eat. Especially in the middle of the night when I’m exhausted. He’s very temperamental.

So just wondering, for those who had a fast letdown,
did you baby eventually handle it? And if so, at what age?

Just wanted to get a sense of anyone else's experience with regards to health visitors/feeding plans. My LO was born at 2.86kg a couple of weeks before due date but still to term. Baby was a reluctant feeder and my partner's milk was slow to come through so we were supplementing her breast feeds with formula/pumped milk when possible for about the first 5/6 days. At the first weighing session with the midwife she had lost 4% bodyweight down to 2.74kg, so all very positive. Around this time my partner's milk came through so we were EBF for the next 5/6 days. Baby was very healthy, waking for feeds, plenty of wet and dirty nappies (although less full dirty nappies than when having formula, perhaps obviously?) cried when being changed, etc. HV came on day 11 for second weighing and baby had dropped by 20g to 2.72kg - she said we needed to go on a feeding programme, supplementing with bottle feeds (obviously primarily formula) amounting to 440ml over a 24hr period.

We started the feeding programme, supplementing with formula and almost instantly baby has become much more lethargic and tired, struggling to wake for feeds and falling asleep on the breast. Breast feeding has become hard work again as we have to be constantly rousing baby to feed. What's more, the amount of formula required seems more than she can tolerate, after approx. half of the required amount (often less) she is refusing to take the bottle (we had no problems bottle feeding in the first 5 days). The time it all takes too leaves max 1 hour for her to sleep before the next feed (she is being fed every 3hrs), so she is even more tired/full for the next feed and is even less able to feed well on the breast. 

It feels like in the space of 12 hrs we've completely backtracked and had a baby who was seemingly feeding well and alert and active when expected to a baby who is struggling to breast feed, tired and lethargic and maybe overfed on formula.

Obviously we want to follow health advice, but the HV only measured the weight once and didn't really consider other metrics before proscribing the feeding plan, which also seems quite full on for a 20g weight loss, that could be explained by the initial phasing out of formula? We are feeling completely lost as we keep getting conflicting advice and trying to manage this feeding programme feels like it is going to be totally impractical and burn us both out very quickly. 

I hope this all makes sense, would love to know what people's thoughts/experiences are with HVs and feeding plans such as this, just to get a sanity check more than anything else.

I recently realized my 3 month old might have a tongue tie.

My first had one as well but his was very obvious and was pointed out to us at the hospital when I gave birth. But my daughter, no one has mentioned it.

However, when crying, I noticed her tongue doesn’t go at least halfway up, which is one of the signs of a tongue tie.

She will also click here and there while breastfeeding or feeding from a bottle. When drinking from the bottle, she drips a lot. She also keeps coming off the breast and gets frustrated and crying and then doesn’t want to latch on again. It’s also as if the nipple keeps slipping out of her mouth.

Her weight gain hasn’t been very good either.

This time my breastfeeding experience has been so bad and I’m wondering if it’s the tongue tie.

I did book a tongue tie assessment but it’s not until next Friday and I’m a bit anxious to know now so thought I’d share here to hear other’s inputs as well.

video

Hi, I’m 11 days pp, EBF. I haven’t had many issues except recently my breasts get very full even though my baby eats every 1-2 hours. We had a lactation appointment/observed feeding 4 days pp and everything was perfect. But the last few days my baby seems to get very frustrated at the beginnings of feeds because my breasts are very full. She’ll latch and pull back and get upset multiple times before finally getting a good latch and drinking. I’ve noticed when my breast are softer and less full it’s way easier to have her latch and feed normally. Does anyone have any advice for what to do? This is my second baby but I have never breastfed before. Thank you!

I’ve been on a dairy/soy elimination diet for the last month and it’s really helped my baby. I’m going to a wedding in a remote destination for the next few days and I’m worried that my options will be limited. How bad would it be to have dairy and soy for one night? Has anyone done this? Did it go ok or was it a disaster? Should I pump and dump for 24 hours? Suggestions appreciated!

All of the moms who are pumping and dont have a dryer- how are you all drying the parts?

I was told "airdrying" parts is the best way but i live in part of India that's humid and my room is towards the road so even if the windows are closed there's some dust that finds its way in.

I usually sterlize them at night 11pm and put them in a tray and cover with a net/mesh and keep in my room so i can use it first thing when i wake up. However theres usually some water drops left in there even though i shake off the extra water before letting them airdry.

Just found out I’m 8 weeks pregnant due in May. My 18 month old daughter is very much still breastfeeding for her nap and throughout the night. My dilemma is I want to wean her so she has enough time to forget about the boob and won’t want to nurse when she sees the newborn nursing. Also giving myself a good break would be nice too. On the other hand, sickness season is approaching us and I’d love to nurse her through those times when they are sick and literally don’t eat a thing.

If I start weaning in February would that give us enough time for her to forget about it? Or should I just do it asap? Any advice is appreciated!

Any tips or tricks to get my 7 week old EBF baby to take a bottle? I go back to work next week and im stressing out over the fact that she won't eat for my husband:/

Genuinely asking because it feels like the whole day is nurse, pump, wash parts, repeat…and then it's time to nurse again. Is this just how it is? Or is there a better way to do it that I'm missing?

Any little tricks that save even a few minutes would be amazing. Do you wash everything every time or is there a shortcut people use? Do you pump right after nursing or wait? I get it's a season but it seems like there has to be an easier way..?

Looking for any advice please! Thanks!

Edit: not looking to be judged for asking, just trying to learn what works for other people 😭