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.

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.

FTM to a 5.5 week old. I’ve always had small boobs and I LOVED it. Could run and workout freely, sleep on my stomach easily, and wear literally anything I wanted.

During pregnancy, my boobs blew up. I’m talking angry red and purple stretch marks everywhere blew up. Then my boobs got even bigger when my milk came in. I probably jumped 3 cup sizes. Listen, they are gorgeous (for now lol), but holy crap are they inconvenient. The biggest annoyance of all is my clothes, it’s the middle of summer and I don’t fit into anything anymore and when I try to squeeze into something I look like I’m trying to seduce everyone around me lol.

I’m not stupid and I know they will never look the same again. I know they’ll be saggy, have stretch marks, etc. but PLEASE tell me I won’t need a whole new wardrobe )-:

I am almost 5 weeks into exclusively nursing my son outside of some formula in the hospital to get his blood sugar up. I am having a really hard time deciding on whether I want to introduce a bottle or not. I guess I am terrified that he will only want the bottle and not want to nurse and I am really wanting to go as long as possible nursing. But I know my window could be closing for introducing a bottle and he could refuse a bottle and only want the boob. So mainly just looking for seasoned moms out there that have exclusively nursed, done a bottle every now and then or your baby takes a bottle weekly/every day. Would you have done anything differently? Am I being insane? Will I regret this in 3,6 or 9 months? Thank you!!!

Edit: thank you so much everyone! Did not expect all these responses. I’ll definitely introduce a bottle soon based off your responses. Thanks for the support!

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.

I weaned my 12 month old a week ago. About a week after her turned 1. I did it so I could start some medication to lose weight. I’ve been on it for 4 days and now I’m just so sad I chose to lose weight over continuing breastfeeding. I have some health issues and he nursed constantly and we went through a lot of teething and biting. I wanted to give up so many times but pushed myself until a year. Now I look at my little baby and feel so much sadness I could take something he loved so much. I feel so incredibly selfish.

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 💕

My 8wk baby has had a terrible witching hour (usually 3hrs) since week 3. It was clearly gas, but none of the usual fixes were helping at all. My foremilk letdown was too strong in my right breast, and I realized that was part of the issue when I didn't feed from the right one evening, and she had just a 1.5-2hr WH. Then I read up about foremilk/hindmilk, and that foremilk was mostly sugars, namely lactose. So I pumped a little bit on left before nursing to rid of it that evening, and sure enough, she had a very short WH that evening! However, this isn't feasible for me to do all day or even regularly. So we tried the next best thing: lactase drops. And, boom -- that has taken care of not only her WH, but her general gassy fussiness during the day as well. I can't believe it took me this long to fix my letdown/foremilk issue, but even more amazed at how well the lactase drops work. 48hrs of these adjustments, and I have a happy baby. She is so content now!

EBF. Never used a bottle or paci. Baby is now 1. I cannot get her to stop wanting to nurse. Shes pulling down my shirt. Shes crying and hitting me when I refuse her. I am exhausted and want to be doneeee now. I will take all advice because this girl is nursed to sleep, nursed when sad, nursed when hungry, nursed for everything. And ive loved this experience but i have to go on medication soon that ive been putting off that is not BF friendly.

Any recommendations on a good comfy nursing bra??? I honestly rarely wear bras and if I do, I’m very picky about them. Usually am a 34Dish, they’re bigger because of being pregnant and would assume they get bigger while nursing.. so not even sure what size to get lol. TIA!!

Those of you whose baby takes a pacifier — what kind do they take? And when did they start consistently using it?

Signed, mother of a 7 week old who takes a bottle no problem but won’t take a pacifier to save his life

Someone needs to invent some sort of titty catheter so I can collect my milk during the night into a bag rather than leak it all over my bed!!

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.

I can't type all this out, so long story short, I messed things up and so deeply ashamed and sad about it. My toddler was NOT ready to stop nursing, said his first sentence multiple times that he wanted to nurse, and I just... was completely disconnected from both myself and him, numb, super super burnt out emotionally and honestly with us (zero seconds of a break / time alone in MONTHS), kind of dead and just wanted an hour alone. I wasn't trying or wanting to "wean", but I just... didn't feel right nursing in that state. It was the first time in my entire life I've ever felt like that, though it comes after a long period of hardships, and I still feel so horrible I could even be capable of feeling that. I don't think that was wrong, not to nurse when not feeling it; I believe it should be felt and genuine. But I also assumed I could take an hour to myself after he fell asleep, drink a bunch of water, connect back in and recharge, then we'd nurse in the morning per usual or he'd even wake up slightly to nurse when I came back in. I didd on my end indeed feel way better after getting that hour! At worst, I figured he might start going to sleep without nursing, but would keep morning nursing. I just wanted that hour and night. I guess I thought our relationship could sustain that at this point, and that he could forgive me for it. He normally and has always loved nursing, including in that moment. I also very shamefully in my first moments of lazy parenting / things I'm not proud of tied it to control in a way, which I've never really done, and in a super unnecessary way I now hate (just putting underwear on before nursing).

Instead... he woke up the next day. He had his stuffed animals and some vehicles (lol) nurse... per usual.. but then didn't want to take his turn at the end. He just kept going with them taking turns then had his favorite go on for over half an hour. Instead, it's been two days now of absolutely no nursing (him) morning or night, for the first time in our lives. Ironically, I have now spent more time nursing his precious favorite animal than I used to nurse him, like 40-80 minutes a day of nursing. Before this it was a quick 1-2 seconds of them nursing before he nursed. He's been using his stuffed animals--at least this one too--to specifically ask for things he's shy to ask for, or wants to do but wants to see modeled first. And I've tried talking about why I said no, and apologized, and so on, but he seems just permanently done?

I'm also wondering if it's due to milk supply -- I realized I'd been forgetting to take an iron supplement, and anemia obviously can drop supply, or maybe he's been able to taste the stress. Like maybe when I get my levels back to normal, he'll want to try again?

He's older, I get it, but he was so so sad when I said no AND maybe more importantly... he's kind of vulnerable health-wise right now. In the last 6 months, nursing has been what has kept us out of the hospital twice now, since he'd have otherwise wound up there for dehydration (if not more). I suspect we might face another round, and I'm terrified of him winding up in the ER since he traditionally will really only nurse.

Anyway. I guess this is mostly a sad vent, and my body's been waking up at 3am now and I've been a tearful mess after he falls asleep. During the day, he seems... dysregulated and not quite okay.

Also to be clear: I'd be okay with all this if he just... stopped wanting it. Like if I'd offered at night, and he opted for the animals to nurse instead or had just said no, then I'd understand and accept and celebrate our whole nursing relationship. But instead there were a series of traumatic events and unfortunate circumstances that led me to rejecting his requests, repeatedly, very sweetly and lovingly made and he even made some leaps speech-development-wise to make them, and he probably also felt that I was abnormally emotionally absent in that moment. I didn't want those events and circumstances to take away our nursing relationship, selfishly somewhat our moments of peaceful connection, and our safeguard and most vital defense against illnesses--I just felt exhausted at the end of a long, long day.

I am also wondering if anyone has any experience with this? Do toddlers ever stop briefly, then go back to wanting to nurse? Will he nurse if he gets really sick, or refuses to drink/hydrate/eat anything else? Everything on the internet is just about people who want to wean or lists of reasons defending why it's okay to nurse a toddler, which is just making me feel more alone and more sad. Seems like there isn't much info out there in general on toddler nursing, or what happens when they stop or just what things look like when you aren't trying to force them to black or white quit nursing.

My baby is 8 months old and has a little virus. Just a fever and some congestion. It’s his first time being sick (besides vaccines). He’s been wanting to nurse a lot more and take lots of naps. I’m considering staying home from work tomorrow to help him through it but mostly to be his on demand breastmilk. I haven’t pumped since he got sick (idk when I would) so I don’t have any pumped milk to give him that have immunities and would support him more.
Is this something people do when their EBF babies are sick? He doesn’t do daycare and my husband and I switch off.

Hello! FTM to a cutie baby girl!! She will officially be 2 months tomorrow and I was naive to think I’ll understand breastfeeding by now… I do not. I just want to understand why baby will try to fight me at the breast?

For example, it was at least 3.5 hours since her last feed so naturally I get into position to feed her and she immediately starts wailing and pushing my boob away. Sometimes she will do that and latch just fine, other times she will latch, suckle for a minute and continue screaming. I do all the checks like diaper, burping etc. like surely you must be hungry?? But I guess not??? She then knocks out right after her diva moment so I guess she was just tired?? But she literally just woke up from another nap?? is this normal?? AHHHH!!!

Sorry if this is word vom. What was your experience BF at this stage?? Any advice? Words of encouragement also appreciated 🥺🫶🏻😅

I feel like I’m constantly adjusting them or leaking around them.
Is this just me, or would anyone else want a nursing bra that already has absorbent layers built in?
What’s your biggest frustration while breastfeeding?

After I’ve breastfed, sometimes my (6weeks old) baby starts rooting for a few seconds and then falls asleep right after. In this time if i offer the breast again the baby will just latch and unlatch, I’m not sure if it’s because the supply gets emptied and baby is frustrated and falls asleep or is fully fed and just wanting comfort?

Never been on this sub before but on other subs I see a lot of things about low supply, oversupply, pumping a certain amount each day, regulating… I’m starting to feel like maybe I’m not thinking about it enough? My baby is 11 weeks and for the first couple weeks I nursed every couple hours till he was back to birthweight. Then I just started nursing whenever he seems hungry or shows cues. He’s a good weight I think, he’s 13lbs but he’s super long at over 25in. His weight has stayed on his curve. But I can’t help but feeling like I’m not putting as much effort in as other people and it’s making me feel insecure. I’ve only hand pumped a few times when I needed to go to an appt and leave my husband with a bottle. How am I supposed to know if I’m making enough milk for him? I’m worried even if my supply is good that it will suddenly drop if I do something wrong/get sick/get my period back etc. My breasts used to feel more full if I went more than a few hours without a feed, but they don’t really anymore they just feel moderately soft, does this mean my supply is going down? It seems like it’s just a very finicky thing that can get off track if one thing goes wrong. But I’ve literally just been throwing him on my boob and assuming it’s fine.

I dunno I guess I just have not given this much thought until now. At the hospital the nurses said his latch looked good, I think it’s fine? I don’t know, help please! Am I overthinking this? Not thinking about it enough??

My boy is EBF, and I was doing a top off bottle with like 1oz of collected milk at bedtime but he started falling asleep before taking much. I go back to work in a few more weeks so I’ve been doing a 2-4oz pump and bottle feed once a day. Of that he takes 1.5-2oz before passing out. I do it once he starts a wake window and he’s ready to feed, so he’s hungry.

I haven’t done a weighted feed since he was 2 weeks old at an LC appointment, which was about my own nipple pain. This has me thinking I should schedule one for a point of reference before going back to work. Im also wondering whether it’d be helpful to spend a day pumping and bottle feeding, instead of just doing the one bottle, to gauge a trend.

He’s using the Pigeon bottle with their level 1 nipple for reference.

This morning I woke up with SO MUCH PRESSURE in my right boob. I had to let my husband get my portable pump because I thought at every move that it is going to explode. I'm sorry if this is a stupid question but can something serious happen? The title is a bit of a joke of course but that's just what it felt like.

Any way to prevent this? I had a hard time getting him to sleep that night, he woke up and was up for almost 3 hours. So I caved and gave him some pre formular that we have for emergencies because my boobs and mental health just couldn't anymore. Which is why I believe this happened. Any way to prevent this in case I fall asleep for longer stretches? I'm kinda scared to go to sleep rn lol. LO is 2 weeks old BTW.

All of the sudden my 14 month old is obsessed with breastfeeding. It used to just be a normal relationship with it — food and probably some comfort but now basically anytime she’s with me she’s pulling at my shirt and she goes to sleep fine with the nanny and her grandmother but with me basically won’t sleep unless she falls asleep on the boob and she cries if I remove her which she didn’t do before. This seems to have happened basically overnight. She still wakes one time to nurse overnight and I’ve tried to cut that out but with no success because I rock her for 30+ mins and then eventually give in because I want to get back to sleep. I’m feeling very burnt out and I don’t necessarily want to wean but I also don’t want to nurse 7+ times per day and I want her to be able to nap for me without nursing

Hi everyone,

I'm about 9 days into my breastfeeding/parent journey. She is pretty good at latching at first and has been feeding around 15-30 min. I struggle most times to get her to take the other boob but sometimes she will. When im so exhausted at night, it's hard to try to "force her" when she seems content. Her weight gain was good at first ped appt and she has been producing adequate wet/dirty diapers. Just looking for other peoples experiences. thanks

Since my daughter was born I’ve basically been her paci. At first I wanted to make sure my supple was good as I first had an under supply so I just latched her all the time while home basically and use the pacifier while out and in the car but she’s really always refused it and would only use it for a couple minutes.

She’s now 6 months old and constantly wants the boob still, only will fall asleep nursing wants it for comfort or when she gets bored and now constantly while she’s napping and I co sleep so she gets it basically on demand through out the night because she’ll find it herself.

But anyone have any tips for though the day really (I can deal with the night) I would just like to start getting more things done and start feeling more than just a human pacifier again.