Question:
My little girl is 4 months old. Over the course of time, a pretty short
course, she went from combi-fed to bottle fed. At each step of the way, it
seemed I was doing the right thing for her and for the rest of the family.
Now I am not so sure. It has been one whole day since she nursed at all,
with nursing for about 1 week being more for jollies than for food. Last
night I had her cuddled in the crook of my arm feeding her a bottle in the
middle of the night. It just did not feel right.
I am at near to no supply, of course. I think I have made a big mistake. I
wonder if I act quickly, can I resume nursing her? I am not comitted to 100%
breastfeeding. I work 3 days a week. Pumping is, at best, difficult. I know
that the secret to resuming nursing is to, well resume nursing. But I do not
know how to achieve this without starving her. To go cold turkey on bottles
when we are together would cause her to be very hungry. I would fear she
would either get too lethargic to nurse or too frustrated.
In this age of magic pills, what I wish was that there was some safe drug I
could take to artifically build a whopping supply and wean myself off it it
over time while continuing to nurse her allowing her to take over the
building of supply. But to my knowledge, no such easy solution exists.
How would you suggest I go about re-establishing a supply for nursing my dd?
Some things that bear considering:
- DD seems neither here nor there about nursing or bottle feeding. She will
nurse. But she is not a fanatic about it. She does not want to nurse for
pleasure. She seems to have no nipple issues. She will take it any way she
can get it. I think she would prefer nursing if it did not starve her.
- She is not a sleepy head. Going to bed for 3 days would be an option. But
it would be kind of weird. She is accustomed to sleeping in her crib. I
would prefer not to start sleeping with her, because this would not be a
long term thing we could continue. But it would be worth a try if I thought
it would work.
- I have an older son, 3 years old. I have to continue to care for him or
make other arrangements. Other arrangements would be hard since he is a
little needy right now and wants his Mommy.
I figure I could get an SNS. Resume nursing with it and slowly decrease the
amount in the bottle. Do you think that would work?
Any advice would be appreciated. An ounce of prevention would have been
worth a pound of cure. But alas, it is too late for that.
Answer:
-No, it's NOT too late! You should be able to get back to nursing as
much as you like. Here's now:
First, measure how many ounces of formula your baby takes in 24 hours.
Then decide how many you WANT her to take in 24 hours.
What you need to do is subtract one ounce of formula every 3 days. So:
Measure out her bottles in the morning. Have her nurse first, then
supplement with the formula from the bottles. Try to get your baby to
nurse as much as possible, even when she's not getting much.
After three days, you should be able to reduce the amount of formula by
an ounce. DO keep an eye on her diapers, though! Make sure she wets
just as much as usual. (Don't worry about the pooping; it'll be
different because formula is different from breastmilk.)
If your baby goes through a growth spurt, keep the amount of formula
steady. Do NOT increase it! You may continue to reduce it if it seems
that your nursing is keeping up.
Nurse constantly, and enjoy your baby's company. You should be able to
nurse as much as you like, in the end.
-Everybody else has given good advice I won't repeat, but one thing is -
what kind of pump are you using? You might try renting a
hospital-grade double electric pump for a month or two to see if that,
along with nursing more, can help. I've used the hospital-grade Medela
and Ameda pumps, and IME, something like the Avent ISIS isn't even in
the league next to the league of a hospital-grade pump. (You didn't
say what pump you were using, so this advice might be unnecessary.)
