slow/no let down with baby latched on! Pl pl help!

[lwwho]

Hi all....

The past 2 weeks have been the longest and the most miserable of my life! My LO is 5 mths old and I've managed to exclusively bf her so far. I started introducing the bottle at about 4 months because I was going back to work full time. She took to the bottle no problem. At around the same time, she started her "distracted phase" and wouldn't stay on the breast for more than a couple of minutes. My problems started when she started becoming so used to the bottle, she wanted the let down to come pronto! She'd suck for 20s and when the milk didn't come, she'd wail and refuse to come back to the breast. Initially, my let-down just took a little longer but with repeated such episodes, I've developed really severe "performance anxiety"! Once, when she was half asleep, she sucked for 10min and still I couldn't get a let-down because I was so uptight and wanting so hard for it to come! I tried everything.... even inducing let-down prior to her latching on, but it's become harder and harder for me to get a let-down with whatever!..... the pump, nipple stimulation, relaxation techniques.... it's driving me crazy. I want so much to direct breasfeed her I've cried every day for the past fortnight. My DH says that I should just bottle feed her and stop giving myself, my LO and him so much grief... at least I'm still feeding her BM right? But I'm truly devastated at the prospect of not ever BFing her again! I've become an insomniac and a nervous wreck... I think she feels my tension. What do you think I should do? Just go with the bottle or persist in BF? I'm just so down......

[JMKca]

Try feeding her when she's not starving, that way she'll be more patient.  Also maybe try feeding her somewhere relaxing like the bed or the bathtub. My letdown slowed at about the same time and my little one was mad for a few weeks before he forgot what it used to be like.  What about getting some slower flow bottle nipples so the difference isn't so great?

Hang in there,
Janine

[annamum]

First of all, big HUGS   to you for what you are going through. You are right, you conditioned yourself and developed a "performance anxiety". I have had a similar situation but in my case it lasted short. My baby also wanted let-down very fast and I was stressed that it is not happening. What I did, I was singing her a song, always the same one, very boring and monotonous, the same one I was using when she was distressed to calm her down. She has learnt to calm down with this tune and accepted that she had to wait for let-down.

Another thing you could do is to first offer your dd a bottle and when she is not so ravenous, offer her your breast. Also, when I had this problem, I always envisioned a fountain or a jet of water and it helped me. You could also take a warm shower before. There is a ton of info here: http://www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/letdown.html

If you can, try to survive this, you still should be able to get things back to normal. Women that are so dedicated like you have higher chances to succeed . Good luck and let me know how it goes.