r/breastfeedingsupport

hi guys please I don’t want harsh negative feedback. this is very important to me to be able to bond with my baby we just adopted at 5 days. I previously breastfed 8 n half years ago, I have been doing so much research on relacting. has anyone successfully able to gain full sulky back? if so did you take anything? any pointers. I been trying to pump every 2 to 3 hours if I can. Tia so much I truly appreciate anything.

Hi second time mom here. My toddler boy is 22 months. He won’t wean. We are down to the feeding before bed and in the middle of the night. I tried cutting him off but he will throw a raging tantrum for hours. My first flipped when I stopped with her but after an hour of bouncing a few nights in a row she was ok.

I tried explaining to him no more milk, tried stuff animals or changing the routine but before bed he goes into I want my boob milk mode. I rock bounce etc.

Idk what to do … he really is refusing to drop this last feeding (or two if you count middle of night)

Any advice? Legit started taking peppermint tea to think maybe if I dry up he loses interest?

I was hit with the flu 2 days ago. I couldn’t keep water down, and wasn’t really able to eat. I was able to eat/drink like normal yesterday. My 5.5 month old is extremely frustrated when nursing, both yesterday and today. I’m assuming it took a hit on my supply. Should I let her just keep nursing even though she’s so frustrated? Will this help get it back? Or is it not worth the fight to have her fussy/frustrated/hungry and just give her bottles from the freezer? Worried that’ll make my supply worse since she can get more out of me than a pump. Anyone been through this? Also, my period is back for the first time which will also probably hurt my supply for a bit.

Hi all, I’ve been trying to combi feed since my milk supply is not up yet.

Feeds can be stressful with baby grunting, flailing arms and turning mouth away from bottle - even though we have tried to pre empt when she will be hungry and try to feed her asap when she wakes.

She now hates the Tommee Tippee bottles and our midwife said the teat might be too big for her.

She quite liked the MAM ones.

I have been recommended

Emulait, Nanobebe and Lansinoh Bottles

Does anyone have experience with these or recommend any others?

She tried to suck down the milk extra hard and sometimes coughs. Wondering if flow is too intense on some bottles.

Thank you!

I'm at my wits end. I've tried everything from going away for a few days, trying to give alternative stimulating things like silicone teethers (shell chew straight through), giving warm milk and water in her sippy cup, walking and rocking, letting her dad take over. She's barely eating, only wanting to nurse. I'm already touched out, stressed out, and so is her father. I've talked with her speech therapist, PT, and developmental intervention list. I've tried all of their resources and ideas and all I and her father get is screaming and hitting and biting and kicking and head banging in response for literal hours on end of I don't give in. I've tried gradual approaches and cold turkey. I even let her stay with family and that didn't even last a full 24 hours. She was acting lethargic and got pale and refused to wake up until I rushed to travel her way and bring her to the ER. Soon as I stepped through that door she was up and at em, bubbly and ready for nursing...and I gave in. Like a DA. I know it isn't helping but at this point I'm constantly hurting from positioning myself so my toddler and I can both sleep...and even then I'm always up. She has a 6th sense. Like she knows the breast has been put away while she is deep in REM and wakes up immediately to go straight back to it. Please help me!!!

ETA: She doesn't /can't talk.

For the past week, my baby has been waking up every 30 to 60 minutes all night, and only napping for 30 minutes at a time in the daytime. She’s 3 months old so I thought maybe it was just an early sleep regression, but I just found out that I have accidentally been eating cheese in a pesto sauce I thought was dairy-free. (I accidentally grabbed a similar-looking one at the store!)

Anyway, I haven’t been eating it for the past couple days, and last night she actually slept 4 hours at a time again and was a lot less restless! Plus, yesterday, she napped super well in the daytime again. I had only been 2 days without dairy again at that point, can it be that quick the reaction and dissipation of symptoms? What has your experience been like?

My baby is 6m and I have been breastfeeding from birth. About three months ago, I switched to combo feeding and he currently has about 60% breast and 40% formula in a bottle. I am now comfortable with other family members taking him a few hours here and there but I’m wondering if I need to carry on with the 8 to 12 pumps/feeding a day as I was told in hospital when I was trying to establish my milk supply. I’d really like to rest as much as possible when I have some free time but I’m still pumping to meet the target and was wondering if this is really necessary at this stage. Or if it’s okay to pump just when my breasts feel full and leave it otherwise?

So about two weeks ago I was SICK. I got food poisoning and was down for like three days. I was severely dehydrated. I couldn't breastfeed and then when it got to the point where I could, I wasn't producing much. For the last week I've really been trying to put the little guy on as much as possible to help my supply. But he's been doing maybe three 4oz bottles of formula a day plus what I give him from the breast. We usually always give him a bedtime formula bottle even though he still wakes up two times a night. He still seems satisfied during his twice a night feeds. But during the day he gets real fussy. And when I've tried to pump at work I get maybe 2.5oz.

He's also hit four months so his feeds are increased. It's just bad timing.

Has this happened to anyone else? Is there a way to bounce back? I'm worried I'll have to switch to formula. Which is fine but I worked SO hard to breastfeed him.

Hi all,

Seeking some urgent advice as I'm unsure what I've got! I know my baby has recently caused some injury to my nipple (she sat on it when I was lying down in bed) and around the same time, I noticed a white dot appear on the nipple. I wasn't sure whether it was the injury or a milk bleb, however a hard lump formed. i managed to clear it out with baby's help but still took a course of antibiotics because it was still sore after a couple days and the doctors told me to go on a course just in case it wasn't all cleared.

Now three weeks later, another hard lump has formed in my breast, pretty much the same site as the previous time. The white dot has not disappeared and now I'm unsure whether it is still a milk bleb or a healed (and scarred) part of my nipple. Tonight, I thought I'd be brave and break the top layer of the skin to see what's going on underneath. I saw some yellowy skin/ lump but blood was also pooling so I freaked out and stopped, really hoping I didn't introduce any bacteria into the site.

I'm in pain from the lumps in the breast, freaking out about the skin I just broke and just generally a bit stressed as the first bout of mastitis had caused my supply to drop drastically already! Any ideas what this could be and what I should do?

I am unsure of what to do.

My son has been refusing to nurse and will only drink out of a bottle. this has gone on for two days now. I am trying to boost my supply since I am pregnant again (unsure if this could be a cause). It seems like he wants to nurse but when he goes to latch he stops himself and starts screaming and crying. The last day he nursed I was stern with him about biting, I didn’t scream I just sternly said “no biting”. Has anyone had this issue and how did you resume nursing? I want to nurse until 1 1/2-2.

Looking for insight/advice/similar stories because I am just overwhelmed

My 3.5 month old dropped to the 4th percentile at her 2 month well visit. Previously hovered around 20th-23rd %. At her last 2 weight checks (3 months & 3.5 months) she is now in the 1%. She only gained 2oz in the last 2 weeks

She is exclusively breastfed & has always fed for short periods of time. Around 5 minutes & only on one breast. I have a very overactive letdown & at our weighted feed last week, she consumed 3oz in less than 5 mins from 1 breast.

She has green, mucusy stools often & has even had some blood specks in her stool. I am completely dairy/soy free & have stopped even eating things processed in the same facilities as milk and soy ingredients. This has been for 2 weeks now.

She is such a happy baby. She is completely content, not fussy. Sleeps well. Eats as much as she wants & then goes about her day.

I really don’t know what to do. Doc said if weight gain doesn’t pick up in the next 2 weeks, she will strongly suggest that I supplement with formula. Please help!

My baby is 4.5 months old, he’s been rejecting nursing on me since about 2 months old. He doesn’t take bottles, pacifier or anything other than my breast but takes it only when sleeping. He was vomiting large amounts of milk starting at about 2 weeks old. I cut out dairy, soy, egg and corn and rarely eat beef. His vomiting has decreased a lot and is now only occasionally but mucus is still there no matter what. He wakes up every 2 hours or so and nurses for a short time then falls back sleep. During the day he only breastfeeds when sleeping. It’s sooooo hard to put him down for naps. He needs two people to hold him in a bedsheet and rock him. I can’t do it on my own. He refuses his rocker and swing. He screams if I hold him in my arm and rock him to sleep. His wake windows are getting longer meaning he’s hungry before he’s asleep meaning it’s even harder for us to put him to sleep. I just don’t see a way out of this. I’m not sure what I’m looking for posting this and I’m sorry the writing is all over the place. My mind is not working anymore.

Idk what to do anymore because I feel like my milk supply has gone way down and there’s not much I can do to restore it. For context I am almost 7 weeks postpartum and my baby was in the nicu for a month. It was hard for me to manage pumping at first because it was hard to be in a routine knowing that my baby wasn’t home also all the time spent away from home visiting her. I was getting about 2 ounces total at one point but now I’m getting probably a quarter of an ounce if I pump every 3 hours. It’s getting to the point it almost seems pointless to pump all day just to get 1 bottles worth for her. I started power pumping yesterday to see if I can get my supply back up, but regardless it seems like if I miss a pump session or 2 because I’m out of the house for half the day that my supply tanks and it’s hard to recover. I also don’t see how I can keep up my supply when if I bottle feed her, specifically nights, and am expected to pump right after while it’s 3 or 4 in the morning. It would be nice to get to exclusively breastfeeding but considering she’s fussy while doing it since I’m assuming she’s frustrated, I don’t see how this can happen. Also considering she feeds 2 ounces every 3 hours now and 2 ounces was my max…which means if I did get back to my max she’d have to feed off both breasts to fill up?? I feel like my issue is deeper than just eating more oats or cereal. Has anyone dealt with a similar situation and was able to get their supply up regularly? How do you manage bottle feeding and pumping every 3 hours if that takes almost an hour each time? Fyi I thought about getting the portable pumps but since I’m struggling to get any milk I figured it wasn’t worth it to drop $100+ just yet.

My baby will be 6 months old tomorrow, and I think I just nursed him for the last time. He struggled to latch correctly from the very beginning, so that on top of my PCOS added up to me never supplying enough to keep him fed. For the first few months, it was all about triple feeding; nurse him, give him a bottle of formula to supplement, then pump to build up my supply. At most, I was only ever able to generate enough to cover maybe 1/3 of his needs while the rest was formula. Never enough to create a freezer stash.

I've been large-chested since I was 13, and I stupidly always assumed that meant that breastfeeding was a given, and that the years of back pain and expensive bras would pay off with an abundant supply of breast milk. Some of the greatest mothers I know were never able to breast feed at all, so logically I knew this didn't make me a failure, but knowing something and feeling something are so very different.

The little guy has always had bad sleep, so the frequent wakeups were leaving me so sleep deprived I was struggling to function. He found nursing so comforting that he was always falling asleep at the breast, but that meant that the night triple feeds were taking forever. It started with pulling back on nursing at night, then I gave up on overnight pumping, then nursing almost stopped altogether and switched to pumping and formula only. I tried to compensate with more frequent pumps during the day, but as he got bigger, it became harder to pump while caring for him (he'd try to kick the flanges off or grab at them, or just needed to be held and they were in the way).

Over the last two weeks, my supply inexplicably dipped a substantial amount, I started getting frequent headaches, and my skin broke out - something is going on with my hormones for sure. It seems like my body wants to wave a white flag and stop with pumping altogether, and I'm trying to manage the heartbreak I was never expecting.

I decided to nurse him this morning before I fully dry up, because I couldn't handle the idea that the last time had passed and I didn't know it. Then, of course, he nursed better than he ever used to. He made happy, relaxed noises, he played with my hand and mouth with one of his hands, and kept releasing his latch just long enough to smile at me serenely before turning back to latch again. I feel so deeply sad and like I'm failing him by not fighting my body on this one.

I know that stopping should make it easier to get pregnant again. I know that it will give me back time. I know I'll finally be able to sleep without a bra again. I know that the breast milk helped him get through the winter and most of the spring without really ever getting sick. I KNOW all these things. I just wish I didn't FEEL like I was failing him and like I'm too lazy and weak to keep fighting for him.

My LO normally only sleeps for stretches of 2-3 hours overnight like a newborn and it’s slowly killing me! I also have a 3 year old at home and my other half works full time, he is normally out of the house from 6am to 6pm so there is no time in the day to catch up on any rest. I feel like I am half-arsing parenting in the day time because I’m so tired from the night before, I’m running on fumes most of the time and definitely less tolerant with my son and my partner when I’m tired.

My 6 month old has been EBF, recently we have tried to integrate an evening bottle of formula at 10:30pm when she would normally wake in the hope of her sleeping longer and to give me a bit of a break but it doesn’t seem to have made any difference. Within 20 mins of me lying in bed she’s awake wanting another feed, I get the night time fear and then find it difficult to sleep even when she’s sleeping. I’ve tried sleeping on the other side of the bed but this doesn’t seem to have helped either and she still wakes 2 hourly. Ideally we would put her in her own room at this point but we don’t have the space at the moment as we are awaiting completion on a new place.

I realise I may be expecting too much as she’s still young but my son was sleeping through the night at this point, he was combination fed hence we thought the formula could help. We are planning on starting some solids soon which might change things but any advice or tips from others who have been in a similar position would be greatly appreciated!

Hi Everyone, Any response is appreciated.

I gave birth on 31st of march via forceps. My baby boy has high breathing rate since the day he was born. So he was moved to nursery after 4 days and the doctors realised his oxygen levels are in low 90's which led them to do an echo and he was diagnosed with mild pulmonary hypertension.

He breathes at a faster rate and gets worked up very easily due to which he does not spend much time on the breasts.

I started pumping and was having good supply. I still tried putting him on breasts even if he latches for 3 to 4 mins cause I really wanted to do breastfeed.

When he was discharged it was a rough 3 to 4 days because i was constantly worried about his breathing and couldnt pump.

Now my milk supply is gone and his feeds are getting more of formula based. I am getting stressed day by day. I really wanted to breastfeed for few months but i dont see that happening in future.

Also, he only latches on the left boob but avoid right one (which pumps more than the left)

I am 26 days postpartum. Is my journey of bresstfeeding over?? Or is there hope ?

Please any response is appreciated to put my mind to ease.

I don’t know that there is any help for me… I got my period and the flu at the same time and I kid you not my supply is droplets… I am a couple weeks out and nothing has improved

I am 9 weeks PP, i didnt get the breastfeeding lesson at the hospital coz im so out of it when i gave birth. Now looking back, its my biggest regret and me not trusting my body and always worry about my supply without trying to latch the baby. Now i really want to breastfeed my baby but im scared she wont latch at me because of low supply since i didnt breastfeed and didnt pump much until recently. I am working with a lactation consultant and working on my supply but i also want to latch my baby so try to remove more milk and maybe help with my supply. Has anybody here tried breastfeeding at 2mos even though the baby never latch before except from the hospital at day 1?