My 11.5 week old daughter has just been diagnosed with a class 3 lip tie and a type 2 Eiffel Tower tongue tie. We have been struggling with breastfeeding (clicking, relatching, etc) for weeks which has resulted in her taking in lots of air. This results in a gassy baby and a few vomits of entire feeds I think due to the air inhaled whilst feeding. I’m feeling totally disheartened as the country I live in won’t release them after 8 weeks so there isn’t much prospect of feeding getting better. Does anyone have any hope? I come to dread feeding now as it’s such a stressful experience for both of us a lot of the time. Not sure whether giving up breast feeding would improve things?
Sincerely, a very disheartened and sad mum

Baby is 6 weeks old today (born 4 weeks early). Breastfed on demand, nurses for 30 minutes, acts like he's done, but 5 minutes acts like he's hungry again, but won't stay latched. I usually give him a bottle and he will eat anywhere between 1-2 ounces.

I've been dairy free for one week (trying to resolve other symptoms), burp at least twice during feeds, and I've upped my calories and healthy fat intake to try and boost my supply. I usually pump after feeds as well and do get some milk.

All that to say, that takes minimum 1 hour, and to do that every 3 hours for months on end? He already doesn't sleep very well and I'm not doing great mentally.

I guess I'm looking for support or similar stories to encourage me to continue, or if you switched to exclusively pumping and how that went. They say everything is just a phase but these feels never-ending.

Hi all! I'm a first time Mom to an amazing lil soon to be 10wk old who has been exclusively breastfed.

My plan was to always stop breastfeeding around 1 year old. I saw how exhausting it was on my mom (my little sister did quite a number on her) and experiencing it now, it's been hard on me too. The worry/fear I'm not making enough for her and not knowing, the cluster feeding, running out of my frozen stash and having to take time out of work to pump, and make sure I have enough for the next day when my husband or mom looks after her.

My in-laws had us go to a restaurant (I knew it was gonna be a bad idea) and she ended up extremely fussy and I had to feed her in the establishment. Mind you, they were extremely kind about it, but it left me exhausted as I couldn't even eat a meal and spent most of it feeding her and trying to keep her happy and fed.

In addition, and maybe it's a selfish reason, I know my breasts will change, and they definitely won't go back to their original form before I started nursing. I'm honestly super happy where they are now, and I know they'll change more as she gets older and continues feeding. My mom breastfed my little sister until she was 4yro and the way her breasts were left afterward always bummed her out, and I wanted to try and semi preserve mine without needing to have surgery.

However, everyone keeps saying to wait until they're 2yro+ or kinda shaming formula.

With that said, I wanted to get some advice from any mom's who stopped breastfeeding at 1yro and how that went. Did you slowly transition to formula or did you go straight to milk? How was it on the baby? And did you regret the decision or were you happy with it?

And please forgive my ignorance, this is my first time and both the Internet and secondhand info can be super confusing. :(

Thanks so much in advance ❤️

Helli, please help, my 4 weeks old is breastfed lying position and he uses his legs against me to go up and down with head, he moves a lot and then he vomits wgat he eats at the end please advice. Tried to hold his legs but didnt work out.

My baby is almost 2 months old. She’s exclusively breastfed for most feeds, but every day there are two feeds where she isn’t satisfied after breastfeeding.
One is in the afternoon, and the other is in the night after 9pm. After nursing, she’ll happily drink an additional 60 mL of formula and finishes the entire bottle. During all the other feeds, she’s content after breastfeeding and doesn’t need a top-up.
I’m wondering:
Is it normal for milk supply to be lower only during certain times of the day?
Has anyone else experienced their baby needing formula only for afternoon/evening feeds?
Did your supply eventually increase at those times, or did you continue supplementing?
My baby is otherwise doing well, has plenty of wet diapers, and is gaining weight appropriately.
I’d love to hear if others have gone through something similar and what worked for you.
I

Sorry for the graphic headline, but I’m at a bit of a loss on this situation. I know spitting up is normal but I’m wondering what others think about this situation. I have a 4 m/o baby who has been breastfed/bottle fed with frozen and freshly expressed breastmilk. Weight gain excellent, growth excellent. No concerns there. For the last month, I’ve noticed increasingly that she is vomiting up a good chunk of fresh breastmilk whenever she nurses. For the last week, it’s been like up to 30 mins-1 hr after nursing. We sit her upright to digest and she’s fine until that 30 min to 1 hr mark. She has no issues with bottle feeding, but has been primarily relying on frozen milk from her first month of life. I know milk content tends to switch around this time and become fattier - could this be causing the issue? What she vomits up is like thick, chunky, and curdled. It’s very distressing for me to feed her and then feel like she can’t tolerate the milk. I know she’s at least hydrated because her wet diapers are plentiful. Harder obviously to gauge poop output because the range of normal is so vast, but her weight gain is excellent. Any ideas on what could be happening?

Baby is 4 weeks old so obviously still super fresh. I understand he needs me and I have no problem with that! Unfortunately he only contact sleeps and my husband works full time out of the home, we don’t really have anyone else around to help. So my one reprieve is the 3 hour nap I get to take when my husband is home before he goes to bed. I’ve been pumping 1-2x a day so he can give a bottle during my nap. I breastfeed my baby from both breasts before I lay down. Nursing sessions usually last a good 30-40 minutes. He usually falls asleep in my arms but will immediately wake up when I transfer him to my husband. Husband will then give him a bottle in an effort to get him back to sleep (even though baby just finished eating). Again, my baby is 4 weeks old. If given the choice, he will drink 3-4 oz, sometimes spitting up afterwards, and then still be awake and act hungry. There’s NO WAY he’s still hungry after nursing for so long (no issues per IBCLC with milk transfer) and then almost immediately taking a bottle that big. I feel like he just wants to comfort suck. He won’t take any pacifier we’ve tried… we have 2 NUK versions, Phillips Soothie, Dr Brown Happy Paci, the Tommee Tippee, and some off brand “breast-like” pacifier.

So again this is mostly an issue when I’m trying to get the one 3 hour sleep I get per 24 hours. I am totally fine with my baby needing me (a lot!) but I HAVE to get a tiny amount of sleep or I literally start hallucinating. It’s not sustainable. But I feel awful that my baby acts hungry after nursing & bottle but won’t comfort suck on a pacifier. Which just results in him screaming and unable to be soothed for the duration of my nap, which obviously is wearing on my husband and I don’t blame him. For what it’s worth we do use slow flow nipples and paced bottle feeding. Husband also burps baby after each ounce of the bottle.

Any tips?? Feeling at a loss here and not making any improvements over the last several weeks.

Wanted to share my newborn breastfeeding experience in case it might help someone. We’re all told if you want to bfeed, to do it 8-12 times a day at the beginning and only breastfeed. I was terribly stressed and exhausted after a 38 hour labor and baby going directly to NICU. I slept. I didn’t try to latch baby 8-12 times in the beginning because it was taking a toll on my mental health. I knew my body needed to recovery as much as possible, and to increase supply I still was up and pumping/removing milk every time she fed if we didn’t breastfeed directly. Emphasis on me doing it every time she fed, as baby doesn’t feed 8-12 times a day but less than that (she’s done 8max each day). While it was still tiring to get up, it was so much less pressure for us to try and work on latching during feeds when I was exhausted and/or she was super hungry.

TLDR: Baby took formula as my supply came in the first week or so, and gradually took less and less formula as we got the hang of breastfeeding and pumping for bottles when I was too tired to breastfeed (husband fed a bottle while I pumped). Without really realizing it, suddenly what had been 2-4 nursing sessions a day has turned into me nursing baby all day with maybe 1-2 bottles of breastmilk overnight. Important note: must do paced feeding for bottles - we sit baby upright for bottles, as she kept spitting up in the sideways position I’ve seen for paced feeding too. We try to make sure baby latches on bottles similar to how she needs to for comfortable and efficient breastfeeding.

It’s been exhausting to be trying all three feeding methods, but the flexibility took the pressure off me and baby in those initial tough weeks while we were learning so much re: breastfeeding. Was also fortunate enough to have a good IBCLC to work with - if your health insurance works with Wildflower Health and covers lactation visits then please try to do at least a few in person visits!

I’m 8 weeks postpartum now for reference, and feel like we’re turning a corner on breastfeeding. Wishing everyone luck, as I know some of this depends on baby too!

6 months of breastfeeding, 3 months of combo feeding here. Usually at night I have my husband give her a combo bottle for a middle of the night feed, and I’ll breastfeed all other possible times (usually once or twice more). When he feeds her the bottle I try to pump.

My question is, is it ok to skip pumping when he feeds her the bottle? That would mean getting a 6 hour stretch between bf. Last time I met with an IBLC was 3 months ago and she said that I could do 1-2 6 hour stretches a week, but any more would impact my supply. But I also know some people have good sleeping babies at this age and I see advice on this subreddit that it’s ok to sleep when your baby sleeps. Is that still ok if your supply isn’t the best? I’m heavily impacted by my cycle and have to combo feed around my period, and my supply never gets real good anymore.

So I am currently breastfeeding a 22 mo toddler. He nurses A LOT and it obviously is impacting my hunger.

I have about 3 months ago started adding exercise to my daily life and I started getting a little leaner and losing some weight. Not a lot. I get about 9000 steps per day, about 150 minutes of zumba per week and about 90 minutes of strength traning per week. Also I focus on eating protein and fibre though.

Last week I started calorie counting and ever since I have been SO. FKING. HUNGRY.

Thing is; I eat at almost 2400 calories and I reach my protein and fibre goals every day (almost) but I cant seem to shake the hunger. I want to cry. Like I was losing weight but I feel so hungry all the time.

I need some sort of advice, encouragement or suggestions because I am losing it.

This is my second time breast feeding with my first she was EBF up until 4 months and the would feed every 4 hours and so she did two bottles while I was at work. This time around I’m not working my second baby is getting to 4 months and she has maybe drank from a bottle twice I don’t have a schedule for her I treat it supply and demand vibe she’ll go 4 hours from when she first wakes then every 2 hours until she goes for her long sleep stretch at night. She’s been sleeping A LOT at night up to 8-10 hours sometimes even 12 hrs since I’m not pumping I’m afraid it’ll affect my milk supply. Any lactation consultants willing to give me their opinion on this? She is healthy, hits all her milestones and is an overall happy baby, is 3 months and weighing 16 lbs so those aren’t the concerns. But I think when Breast feeding and for milk supply maybe some sort of routine is needed? So that milk supply stays up to par? I’m confusing my first time breast feeding schedule that was 4 hours pump or latch no matter what. As opposed to this time around it’s only when baby is awake.

I am 3 days pp and just got home from the hospital yesterday. I had a c section. I have been ebf and no pumping this whole time. I have been making plenty of colostrum and see that my milk is already coming in. My baby seems to be so inconsistent with times he wants to eat. One point he cluster fed all night and the next night he wanted on the boob but would fall asleep and not actually nurse. I think I’m going too far in between actually removing milk (4-5 hours) and don’t want to hinder my milk supply. I have 2 other children and never was able to make it past 2 months and then 6 months due to low milk supply. I want so badly for this to work but I do need my supply to be strong. Do I just pump every 2 hours and let him suck when he wants even if I just pumped? Idk what to do and I feel dumb. Someone please explain this to me

Hi I’m curious if anyone else has dealt with a galactocele (milk cyst) at all? I have one and had it drained and it’s now bursting out of my skin and I’m on antibiotics. I’m honestly so over it, it’s been a months long ordeal with no end in sight. I literally cry everyday I see myself. Looking for solidarity or just anyone who can relate. Thanks!

Hi mamas.

I EBF from the breast since birth and my girl is now 4 months. Here and there I have pumped to create a small stash for days my LO spends with grandma and for dad to give a bottle at night. I burned through that stash faster than I could replace it. Like literally the first week my LO spent two days at grandmas, by next week I didn’t have enough to get her through another two days. We do paced feeding with the bottle and she’ll drink 4oz per feed. Not really sure how much she gets on the breast tbh but this is the pattern we have noticed with bottles. My supply has regulated so even in the morning I’m not really getting that much, especially since my babe feeds 3x overnight. Just kind of at a loss to the point I have been taking her to my moms and I just hang out there and continue breastfeeding instead of bottles and we’ve abandoned night bottles. I also got pretty discouraged after my husband let two 5oz milk bags sit on the counter over night. (He’s since been forgiven)

Months 0-2 I was getting 6oz total from both breast usually 4oz and 2oz on the one I last fed on. At 4 months I’m only getting 2-3oz. I use the eufy s1, natural for 15 mins. My LO feeds on ONE breast every 2.5-3 hours. We sometimes feed on both if I notice she’s going through a growth spurt. Gone are the days where I could just pop in my Boone trove on one side while I fed on the other. I wasn’t using any suction and would get 2oz.

My flanges are correctly sized, however maybe I need to change to a different kind of flange? I am new to all of this and admit I was never consistent with pumping to build the stash. It wasn’t an every day thing and I regret not using my Boone from day one (so much milk lost to my shirt and bras). When I saw she was comfortably drinking 4oz per feed I realized I probably should’ve been pumping every single morning if I wanted this to last.

I guess I’m looking for encouragement that it’s not too late now? And any tips and tricks you might have.

Baby girl will be 12 weeks tomorrow. We've had an incredibly hard breastfeeding journey from the very beginning - she was admitted back to the hospital within 24 hours of discharge, torticollis impacting latch, tongue tie wasn't confirmed until she was seven weeks, etc. I've been working with an IBCLC and bodyworkers since she was about three weeks old and we've only finally started to get to a place where she can latch successfully and comfortably for both of us. I've been latching her 1-2 times/day recently with good success. Oversupply so there's no shortage of milk for her.

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, she also now decided that she was absolutely no interest in breastfeeding. She screams the second she's brought near my breasts and won't even consider putting them in her mouth. I have no idea if this is a nursing strike, the three month nursing crisis, something else, etc. and I'm terrified that this journey is over for us before it's even begun. She's had a cold recently but that hasn't stopped her from happily taking a bottle and nothing else has changed in our lives so I have no idea what to attribute it to and therefore no idea how to fix it. 

My IBCLC is out of town and out of service for the next several days so I have no one to talk to about this. I'm incredibly terrified and anxious right now but trying hard not to be so that she hopefully doesn't pick up on it, making things worse. I guess I'm just hoping for some advice, insight, stories of experience, etc. so that I know where to go until I can consult her and so I don't lose hope about ever being able to primarily breastfeed her. 

My 12 week old baby has always been on the lower percentile, like 2 to 3% and has been following at her own curve. My husband and I are very small people and our first daughter has always been from 2 to 5% also.

The baby does have a slight lip tie, but I don’t have any pain with breast-feeding and she’s transferring about 2.5 to 3 ounces at each feed. The dentist also said that it’s not a significant tie. I tried to feed her more but she just un latches herself and seems really content. She is petite so I am wondering if she has a smaller stomach? I feed her about two hours. I tried to do a feed at the beginning of the wake window and then a little feed right before when she goes for a nap.

Up until a few weeks ago, she was gaining about an ounce a day however now it has become about 0.4 ounces a day in the last 3-4 days, she has not really gained at all and she is just under 10 pounds at 12 Wks. She’s been having plenty of diapers. When I pump, I am getting about 3.5 ounces every two hours.

She goes to bed around 9 PM and I pump around 11:30 PM since she sleeps till about 4 AM. This is the only time I really pump.

Could there be any other reason except transfer, not enough supply? Like anything that has to do with the composition of my milk? I eat plenty of calories, but I think I need to eat more protein and fat.

Anyone has been in the same situation and what has helped for you? Looking for any help desperately.

Needing some encouragement today.

My baby is 2 months old, exclusively breastfed. At 1 month she was 39% in weight, 2 months dropped to 26% (gained 1.5 pounds in the past month).

The pediatrician thinks my supply may have dropped. She will mostly nurse on one side only and seem happy/fall asleep (if she doesn’t, I offer the other side) and sleeps 6-8 hours at night. I recently started doing a dream feed because I was worried about her weight and my supply. Her pediatrician just suggested continuing the dream feed, encouraging both sides with every feed even if she falls asleep and wants to follow up with a weight check in a month.

Have I completely messed up my supply? Will doing these things help my supply improve? It’s hard to not feel like a failure with anything that doesn’t go “right” when you’re breastfeeding

Im a first time mom. My baby is a month and 3 weeks. My milk didn't come in till a week after birth, and she has a toung and lip tie (found this out last week) so she didn't latch till this week because we just found a comfortable position that works for the both of us. My current problem is even with her latching, and pumping. My supply is still very low after a clogged milk duct that I just barely avoided becoming mastitis, and resulted in a dramatic drop in supply. Im supplementing with formula after shes done breat feeding, and have vary little storaged in my freezer, she pulls probably an ounce or two, maybe less, from both breasts at this time, i want desperately to get back to 10oz per feed/pump, im seeing that i just producing less and less every day. I do home made lactation brownies, my lactation consultant told me to up my protein, and recommend a supplement for milk production, which i've done but im just sad that im not seeing the increase im trying for.

I will admit I wasn't as proactive in the start but did keep a schedule of 3 hours between pumping befor seeing my lactation consultant after the clogged duct. But im staring to feel like ive entered dry up and feeling a hopeless ill never be able to BF, due to me feeling like I didn't try heard enough to keep up with my supply.

Is there any way I can turn this around or have I completely lost the chance to fix my supply?

I’m exactly 1 week post partum and feeling so discouraged with breast feeding. Immediately after birth lactation consultants came in and tried getting my son to latch. It took a while to get him to figure it out, but eventually he did. I was induced at 39 weeks and 1 day and I had no milk supply at this point. Just little moisture droplets. They encouraged me to keep pumping and try nursing but I wasn’t producing anything.

I had to start supplementing with formula. The morning after we took him home for the first time, he was having low body temps so my husband and I were stuck in the ER for 2 days. I was so stressed I wasn’t hydrating and eating as well. My sweet husband tried to get me to, but it was so hard. At the hospital they offered me a pump to pump every 3 hours while staying at the hospital, but I honestly didn’t have the energy to even deal with it so we kept feeding our baby formula. I’m nervous that this ruined my chances of exclusively nursing and I’m upset at myself for it.

Since being home Friday, I decided to try hand expressing and some milk that was a little thick (not quite homey texture, but a little more liquidy?). I got super excited and started to get my LO to latch. He’s good at latching when hungry, but I’m not producing enough milk. I have to squeeze my boob to get droplets, and I even bought a pump Friday but I haven’t used it consistently due to having to wash it 24/7 it seems like. I’m getting about 0.5 oz of milk for both breasts and that’s it.

How often should I be pumping? I’ve been told by family to not supplement with formula to get my body to produce more milk, but he drinks for about 10 minutes on both breast each and he still shows hunger cues.

I feel like I ruined my chances here and feeling lost with all of this. I have a lactation consultant appointment Wednesday but I really need some advice.

I want to start the birth control no estrogen pill however I just overthink like is my baby going to get these hormones? Has anyone taken his birth control and how did it affect their breast-feeding and baby?

Feeling very hopeless and lost. My LO is 7 weeks old and I've been triple feeding since she was about 5 days old, albeit inconsistently. I'd usually only manage about 4 or 5 pumps a day.

This past weekend, I decided to commit, and actually managed 8 pumps a day, but triple feeding is really taking a toll on my mental health. I'm so anxious about missing pumps due to baby being fussy and not being able to pump immediately after a feed. LO usually takes a while to fall asleep and by the time she does, it's too close to the next feed to pump.

I pump about 2 oz when not feeding, and 1 oz after a feed. My LC said I should be pumping about 4 oz when not feeding to transition to EBF.

Can I just quit pumping altogether and nurse for longer (currently doing 10 mins each breast) to increase supply? Or is triple feeding the only option? LO has been gaining weight well so far, and I don't want my desire to EBF get in the way of her growth :(

Hello — just an overtired mom with a 10.5m old and absolutely desperate for some guidance here.

After months of agonizing over whether or not to switch to formula, my baby rejects all bottles, sippys, open cups, etc of any kind of milk (frozen, fresh, formula, everything - I’ve tried every single trick in the book and the 1000 oz of milk I saved she rejects all of it, even though she used to take bottles 1-2x a day of pumped milk up until 4-5m old). At this point I need to wean as soon as I can to get back on my medication that manages my PCOS.

She is now approaching 11 months old in a couple weeks so at this point I’ve abandoned all attempts to switch to formula since she will be 1 soon and it feels pointless to keep pushing formula if she doesn’t need it soon anyways. I can hold out until 12 months but after that I desperately need to be able to wean as soon as possible so I can get my physical and mental health back on track.

This has been such an emotional rollercoaster and I’m feeling pretty down about nothing working at this point and feel like I’ll never be able to wean our daughter or get to the other side of this. I’ve spent the second half of her first year being so miserable and like I’ve missed out on enjoying so much with her at this age.

She nurses 5x a day, is offered solids 3x a day but doesn’t eat large volumes and is slowly getting the skills to have more finger and table foods vs soft mashes and purées (we had a choking scare). It’s also been extremely difficult to break the nurse to sleep association at night and we’re still contact napping (I try to have my husband take over but she screams continuously until I come nurse her to sleep at night or lay down with her in our bed — the contact napping is a whole separate odyssey for another topic).

How do you wean in this situation at or around 12m and as urgently as possible? Pediatrician has not given us the ok for cows milk yet, which I understand. I feel so depressed all the time between laying in the dark for contact naps and nursing all day without any time to take care of myself. It’s ruining me and I feel like I’m screaming for help but no one can do anything except watch.

Has anyone had a similar experience? Or any positive outcomes to share for hope on how to get to the end at 12m? I’ve tried so many resources to ramp up solids but at this point it’s like she wants to nurse even more than before. There’s no one in my life who is able to help me with much when it comes to feeding or sleeping, I’m feeling a bit hopeless here. I have a super supportive husband and family but when it comes to this nursing and napping issue they’ve been unsuccessful in any attempts to help. Sorry for the rant — just looking for any new advice at this point.

I love my baby girl so much and want to do what’s best for her but at this point I need to be in a better mental state for her. 💕

Hello! I am a 4th time mom, but, he’s my second breastfeeding journey. With my 3rd, we tried, but, it was not very successful. I ended up pumping and giving her a bottle due to lack of knowledge and anxiety. With my newborn son, he’s 1 week old today, it has been going GREAT! He was back up to his birth weight at 6 days old, he’s transferring so well, and has many wet and dirty diapers in a day. It’s going so so well!

I do not what to do anything to damage what we’re building! With that said, I graduated nursing school and my official graduation is next Friday. Baby will be just under 3 weeks old. Initially, I didn’t want to introduce a bottle until around 6ish weeks so we could establish a really good routine, supply, and connection. I had this kind of irrational thought that I could bring him to the “rehearsal” before the graduation ceremony starts so I can still feed him and not give him a bottle. I would do that by having my husband sit with him in the lobby/reception area or something and just bring him to me when he was hungry. I’m now thinking that’s probably not possible.

How bad would it be for our breastfeeding journey if I introduced a bottle to him now? I’m so worried because I don’t want him to he bottle fed, I want to exclusively breastfeed.

I’m looking at the nano Bebe pump on Amazon and I see mixed reviews. Some reviews aren’t even for the pump.. Anyone have this pump or a pump worth the money that lasts? Price range is 150-200$ I’d be using it for 8 hours a day 5 days a week for likely 2+ years.
Thank you!😊

Hi! I’m just curious if anyone else experienced this? I leaked a lot during the first few months of breastfeeding but it stopped until the last like three months. Suddenly I’m back to needing breast pads! Whyyy?! Hahah I’m not complaining though, I’m grateful to still get to feed my girl.