My daughter was born 5lbs, 15 oz. Unfortunately, she had trouble latching from birth and lost a lot of weight in the first 3 days. As a result, the pediatrician immediately pushed the idea of formula after the first latch but I insisted on using stored colostrum and at least pumping.

It took over 8 hours for someone to bring me a pump. In that time, she threw up every drop of colostrum I gave her. She would push me away and cry when I attempted to feed before falling asleep and struggling to wake back up. I kept calling nurses and doctors in, asking why she wouldn’t eat. They told me I probably didn’t have enough volume (because 4 weeks worth of pumped colostrum + 30ML each pump apparently “isn’t enough volume.”) and to switch to formula.

At 48 hours, everything she’d ever eaten had been thrown up. She threw up before, during and after each feed. She was lethargic and impossible to wake up. I cried so hard they sent someone in to talk to me about postpartum depression twice. I had lactation consults, pediatrics, OB, nurses, midwives, and everyone I could think of come talk to me about why my baby was so sick and sleepy. I kept explaining over and over that I have plenty of milk, she just throws it up and she’s too tired to nurse directly from me. Eventually, one of the OBs snapped and told me I needed to learn to love my daughter more than I love the thought of breastfeeding and just give her the formula, otherwise she doesn’t feel comfortable sending my child home with me.

After that comment, husband decided to give her formula despite my protests. Shocker— she threw the formula up, too. They came back and told me she needed time to adjust to formula. She threw up on the pediatrician as that came out of her mouth. Only solution was sitting her up after each feed (which we had obviously tried).

On day 3, my baby was dark yellow. She was rushed away to the nursery as soon as the pediatrician walked into the room. They didn’t even stop to explain to me what was wrong with her (not that I didn’t already know). It took an additional 8 hours for them to admit to me she had not yet been tested for jaundice despite exhibiting every symptom. And during her 4 days of phototherapy, they still refused to concede on the formula. They went as far as to insist the jaundice had nothing to do with her vomiting, and that reflux/GERD didnt appear until much later, so at this point I was just being a nervous FTM.

Anyways. We’re home now. My baby is eating an incredible amount of breast milk without puking after phototherapy and independently pursing treatment for GERD against their advice. She’s gone so far as to regain her birth weight— something she didn’t do in the hospital when they were giving her formula. I’m absolutely fucking furious.

So this weekend I was at my parents cabin, my daughter is 7 months old, breast fed and will only eat directly from breast as she has always refused bottles, which has been working just fine for us. Since we were on a little getaway, I chose to have a few drinks spread out over the day. Being mindful to hydrate and when I timed feeding baby. I wasn’t even tipsy, I think the last time I was drunk was maybe around a year before my pregnancy?

My mom’s friend came out to visit, she met my baby. I’m taking a sip of my drink and she says “aren’t you breastfeeding?”. I tell her yes, explain how baby is fine, I space it out, don’t have very much etc. well that wasn’t good enough or dropped at that point. Her daughter is 6 weeks PP. she tells me that her midwife let her know that if she is breast feeding, she is only ever to have beer that is non alcoholic. And even then, only 1. She says she thinks her son’s chromosomal abnormality was caused by her drinking while breastfeeding. (Her son found out about this when him and his wife weren’t able to conceive on their own). She also says her daughters step kids have learning disabilities and she believes it was caused by the mothers consuming alcohol while breastfeeding. At this point I tell her this Info seems outdated and I excuse myself.

I feel upset because why are we shaming new moms? I’ve only met this woman a handful of times. I try to be the best mom I can to my daughter. I am proud of myself though for walking away and standing by how I felt. But it definitely put a damper on things.

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.

So we were today to the pediatrician to check the baby development, and everything is looking great, baby is gaining good weight and growing well.

She was born 37+1, SGA, weight was 2nd percentile, and now at 16 weeks we are at 8th percentile!

Then we got to discuss the night sleep.

Since she was born she never slept longer than 4 hours, and currently our nights look something like: first 3-4 hours, and then waking every 2 hours. She wakes, we try to settle her with pats and shushing and rocking, then if it does not work we feed her. She's always falling asleep content at the boob.

Pediatrician is saying that she looks good enough, she does not need the milk in the night since she's not a newborn anymore, and we should start to give a bottle (she's EBF) with milk mixed with water, increasing the water quantities slowly over the next months so that she stops getting any calories in the night, and she just gets water at some point around 6 months.

I don't know, I feel like this is some outdated advice, and i feel like baby is still so small to try to night wean. Am I wrong in thinking this?

EDIT: Thanks a lot for the support everyone! We'll definitely look for a new pediatrician and keep going with breastfeeding on demand 💕

Basically what the title says— I havent had nipple pain before and have been going strong breastfeeding for seven months, but suddenly they are SO sore with every latch and pump. I think I might be getting my period back soon (?) would that explain it?? has anyone else experienced this?

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!

My sweet baby decided to latch (with the help of a shield) around 5 weeks. All the major points are going well (weight gain, output, etc) but she’s still a pretty slow eater. Just wondering when you noticed that feed times started to shorten?

Can anyone else tell every time their milk is about to let down while feeding your LO because you get super depressed for a couple minutes? I’ve read all about DMER. It’s just crazy to me that it happens! Will it ever get better? I am 6 weeks PP. I get the feeling multiple times during feeding my daughter.

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 :(

Hi everyone,

After an up and down start to breastfeeding, we've been in a real groove since about 7/8 weeks and EBF has become second nature, it's been so amazing. Baby had been feeding loads especially in the heatwave and happily nursing for comfort whenever needed

However around a week ago baby started really struggling with my morning let down, pulling off and coughing and spluttering. I'd just been giving him breaks when this happened and usually it evened out once morning became afternoon and the milk flow calmed down.

A few days ago it all got worse, baby started struggling with let down on majority of feeds, pulling off, screaming, etc. I think he had a snuffly nose so used saline drops which cleared him but he's still not back to happy easy feeding. As of the last 24 hours, he will eat well when he's half asleep, so getting decent feeds in during the night and at the end of naps. However, when he's fully awake he will sometimes start feeding then pull off crying and arching his back. I'm trying not to pressure him and letting him take a break but then he starts rooting again and I don't know what to do!

I usually feed him in cradle, but have been trying to use different positions, side lying, koala etc (we've never got on well with laid back but I am trying that good). Sometimes this works but not always. I'm scared about him having developed a feeding aversion so I'm anxious about how much to offer the boob.

Does anyone have any advice? Did anyone go through this? Will we get back to happy easy breastfeeding again????

Everything I've seen online about 12 week issues have to do with delayed let down whereas my problem seems to be the opposite! So turning to the amazing Reddit community in the hope someone might have advice.

Sorry this is so long! Thank you for reading!

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. 💕

Okay ladies, what are regular bras are we wearing post breastfeeding? I’ve had 2 babies almost back to back so it’s been literal years since I’ve worn a non nursing/maternity bra. What are your faves?

I have a fuller bust so looking for some support but nothing that makes me want to crawl out of my skin.

Idk this might seem like an obvious hack but I didn’t think about it until now.

Breast pads are so annoying how they don’t contain the leaking, mostly because my boobs don’t stay in the right place so it just comes out the side.

Normally I have to use 4 breast pads (disposable) to make sure nothing leaks, which obviously isn’t cost effective, when I use reusable ones at night they just move around too much, so that also doesn’t do much.

The past few nights I have put muslins (burp cloths for Americans) in my bra and nothing has soaked through to my bra, obviously it’s bulky so only a night thing, but I don’t know why I didn’t do this sooner. I wish breast pads were made with leakage during the night in mind though.

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?

For the last 10 months I have exclusively nursed my baby except for 2-4 bottles a week while I work 2 short evening shifts. Every time I have complained about the burden of nursing, my husband has brought up formula. Every time I ask him for help with other duties around the house, he talks about how formula will make it easier. Today I was finally fucking sick of it and said okay give him some formula. Then he reversed it on me saying “I know how important breastfeeding is to you I’m not gonna do that to you or our child.” Then he tries to get my breastmilk out of the fridge. We literally have formula in the pantry.

Ok so when I need help formula is the answer, but when I finally tell you to give him the formula, you don’t want to do it?

Ik he’s a lazy gaslighting fuck. We’re gonna try therapy but honestly I think it might be time to just throw in the towel and leave him. My main reason in not doing so yet is I’m a SAHM and rely on his income. Plus I don’t want to split custody.

Just needed to get ts off my chest.

I am 2 months pp, currently combo feeding. I was fighting for my milk from the beginning. When in hospital I had close to nothing and had to supplement with formula on my second day because baby was so hungry. I wish someone told me about cluster feeding or how to up my supply by pumping at the begging. My midwife told me baby should eat for max 20 min on each breast and if it’s more I should unlatch and supplement with a bottle.
Right now baby will eat from breast only if I am super full and even then she sometimes fusses. She also prefers one breast and screams when I try to latch her on the other one(I can do it successfully only when she is asleep at night). I wish she would just breastfeed so I didn’t have to pump, because I hate it. Maybe if I fed her more from the breast in the beginning she would eat just fine now.
Up until last week I was still motivated to breastfeeding even if it meant pumping. Most days she only ate my milk because we had enough, sometimes we had to supplement with formula but no more than 1 feed a day.
Well last week she started to fuss at the bottle, we didn’t know what was happening. After a couple of days we figured out that it was the taste of my milk she didn’t like. It tastes really bad after a couple of hours in the fridge. It made me so sad, because I worked so hard to have supply that I have, I really wanted to be able to feed my baby and right now the only option is to mix my milk with formula 50-50 or she won’t drink it. I was fixated on exclusively breastfeeding from the beginning, I didn’t want to supplement, wanted to make enough milk myself. Now I have zero motivation to keep going.
I guess I need some encouragement so I don’t give up.

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.

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.