How to make breastfeeding successful, give your ideas!

[klswrs29]

I'm going on 14 mo. with only one feed a day, so I am still learning. As for the beginning:
-A BF class and support group, in your home and out of home, helped sooooo much!
-A book about BF that I kept by the chair to read and re-read while nursing.
-Lanolin worked great for me!
-I got mastitis, so I will definetly try to "empty the breast" when feeding. Which can be hard when it's your first time and your feeding every 1 to 2 hours but after DS was on I wouldn't feel engorged and I would keep him on quite a while.
-Remembering to listen for good swallowing so there's less air, sounds like "Caa-Caa"
-Little to no pain means good latch so relatching sometimes happened a lot in one sitting. Sometimes it did feel like I was sitting there for hours but towards 3mo. I would sometimes read a book or played cell phone games and time would go by, as now I don't get to do those things....
-As mentioned, setting small goals (ie, "I'll try 3 weeks, then another 3, to two more months, to which took me way past a year and missing it already).

[fionabath]

I had a few - not many hiccups in the first 4 weeks but i got our local lactation consultant to come and visit us at home - best $40 dollars i ever spent, Allison was great. And so inexpensive, she really gave me the confidence keep going after a horror mastitis (can't spell anymore) episode too !!!

[Hope's Mum]

One thing I would say is to go by what suits you and your baby and not get hung up on what the books or other people say, remember every baby is different!

I spent the first 3 weeks sick with worry because Hope would not feed for longer than 5 minutes before falling asleep, everything I read said that the fat rich milk doesn't even come in until 10 minutes into the feed and so I was petrified that my baby was starving! Even my midwife was trying to come up with ways to keep her feeding longer (including telling me to pinch her ear if she fell asleep!  :? ) Needless to say she has flourished and been known to regularly put on between 8 and 12 ounces in a week! And her feeds have never really increased in length.

[claytonsmum]

1. Do not give up!  I wanted to quit soooo many times and I am so glad I did not. 

2. For us, it was not an option to give formula, and I feel that this is a sucking hole one gets into, so we avoided it like the plague.

3. Drink BEER - one a day ups my supply very, very well.  Goya Malt beverage if you must stay away from alcohol or anything resembling it.

[AmandaJ]

Nipples were so sore after three days, that I expressed for the next four days to heal and then used nipple shields for a week.

I then went straight back to breast feeding without a problem - no more sore nipples!

Breast shields are a God-send!

[poppins]

I hope this does not sound to blunt, I am not very good at writing but wanted to give my view on this subject. As a trained proffesional of 13 years there is only one reason  I feel breast feeding fails, and that is that the use of demand feeding is used to literally.  Demand feeding does not mean as soon as you baby cry's to breast feed, and this is a mistake most mums make.  I have a friend also a nanny who has just had a baby and is breast feeding, she agrees as I do, she feeds her baby to what its body requires but not every 2 minites to pasify the baby.  By doing this the baby goes up to three hours between feeds, never cry's, is always happy, and at each feed she always makes sure the baby has the hind milk.  The baby feeds for up 20 min's and that is its feed, not constantly when ever it makes a sound.  A baby weather breastfed or not needs a pattern in the day or they will just keep crying out of being unsettled. 

To many mothers feel demand feeding means the baby crys then you feed all threw the day maybe every 15 mins or half hour.  This is not the case and this is not feeding, a baby needs to learn to settle itself in other ways besides suckling all day, after all when it is older just because it cry's you are not going to give into it every five mins are you.

[jaxnp]

Doesn't sound too blunt to me, just fits in with Tracy's philosophy.

[Hope's Mum]

Well, I do agree with what you've said, but only after the baby turns 6 weeks or so at least. With a newborn baby I think you SHOULD feed totally on demand, even if that does mean every half and hour or more. When they're that tiny the comfort of nursing is all that makes sense to them, they don't have any other way of soothing themselves, also they have come from an environment where food is in constant supply, they've never been hungry before and it must be a scary feeling for them. Making a newborn baby wait for food is just cruel in my opinion.

However once they are a bit older it is true that you can feed too often, and of course it doesn't make sense to try to feed them every time they cry.

[poppins]

Hi I totally agree, when a baby is first born its tummy is so fragile that it needs to just take the amount of milk its tummy can cope with, but by 6 weeks you should be able to develop a routine that requires baby feeding at around every 3 hours, but of course that does depend on the size of the baby and how hungry the little one is.  I do feel as well that it can develop into a problem if you let baby fall asleep on the breast, I used to have an employer who would tickle the babies feet or touch its ears slightly just to keep it sucking, this way the baby had its full feed instead of a 5 min one that meant it woke every 2 mins for more milk leading to 24 hour feeding and little sleep for mum.  Hope this sounds like common sence.  I am not a mum and cannot have children, but feel I have learned allot over the years that can help mums.

[purpley]

poppins have you ever read "the womanly art of breastfeeding" by LLL?
Your philosophy treats nursing purely as a source of food which is a recent western adaption on nursing. MANY mums need to nurse more frequently than every 3 hours to maintain their milk supply but because some people expect bf babies to play by FF rules, consequently problems occur such as not producing enough milk - this problem is unheard of in countries where baby is allowed to nurse frequently.
Human milk is digested and leaves the gut within 1 1/2 to 2 hrs of being consumed, hence why some babies need feeding more frequently than 3-4 hrs, bm is also a drink to baby, how often do you go 3 hrs without a drink and youre tum is much larger than a 6 week old babys. If we look at nature we can see patterns of how animals nurse - animals whose milk is high in protein tend to nurse once or twice a day and gain weight very quickly, animals whose milk is low in protein nurse frequently and take small amounts, they grow slower. Human milk is low in protein and babies who are allowed access freely to the breast will nurse little and often as nature intended - we are expecting them to behave unnaturally and then are surprised when we encounter problems.
That is of course only considering nursing as a source of food when in reality breastfeeding is a pain reliever, comforter and bond with mum.
Recent research also now tells us mums have the capacity to hold differing amounts of milk in their "initial store" (because we know the breast is never empty) some can hold enough for their baby to nurse 4 hourly and be content, some need to nurse every 2 hrs to meet babys needs.
I am not trying to say the minute a baby makes a sound you should nurse, this is taking away their voice in the same way as a pacifier, however I think the secret of babywhispering is listening to YOUR baby, following HIS cues and meeting HIS needs not expecting every baby to go 3 hours between feeds.
To make breastfeeding succesful the advice I would give is to treat your baby as an individual, never compare to ff or even other breastfed babes. Inform yourself about growth spurts, nursing strikes and other things to expect so you dont panic when you get there and lastly surround yourself with support.

[Hope's Mum]

Hiya Purpley, I was wondering if you'd be coming in on this one!  i think the problem comes with the differing interpretations of 'feeding on demand'.

I started off very much planning to feed on demand, but to me that meant feed whenever they cry because no-one had told me any different! So I came a cropper pretty early on- partly because I was inexperienced and partly because my baby gave hungry cues for all sorts of things! If she was tired she would start rooting, if she had wind she would start rooting, and so on and so on. You might say 'Well why not just feed her then, if she's asking for it?' The trouble was that if she wasn't actually hungry and I tried to feed her, as soon as the letdown happened she would become hysterical! This had alot to do with the fact that I have a very fast and strong letdown, so the milk would spray down her throat which often upset her even if she was hungry let alone if she wasn't.

So I ended up not knowing whether I was coming or going. It was particularly bad in the evenings when she had colic, from the way she was acting I would swear that she was hungry- rooting, crying, trying to latch on to everything in sight, but then I would try to feed her and as soon as the milk arrrived she would start crying even worse! I used to dread trying to feed her, the whole thing was very stressful.

I also had a very over-abundant supply, far too much for just one baby! So frequent feeding just made that worse as well, which in turn made the letdown even stronger and feeding even harder!

It wasn't until I tried to space out how often I was feeding her a bit, and she started to calm down and give clearer signals that things started to improve for us. Once I spaced feeds out to every 2 hours the horrible fussing and crying at the breast got much better. Even now though I don't stick to a set time between feeds, now she's older she gives much clearer signals for hunger so I generally know when she needs to nurse and I follow her rather than a schedule. Often she does go 3 hours, but almost as often it's 2 hours, sometimes 1 1/2 and sometimes even 4 hours!
But if I get it wrong and try to nurse her when she's not hungry she still throws a tantrum!  :wink:

So no, I don't believe in making a baby wait if they need to nurse, be it for comfort or food. But I DO believe that you can nurse too often once the first few weeks are over. So some sort of clock watching can be helpful, just as long as you use time as a guide and not as a master!!

[Anonymous]

Hiya
I think Rosie you did a perfect job of reading your babes needs which is exactly my point 
From experience what can work for one dosent work for another which is why strict 3 hr schedules will not suit every baby.  The mums who dont have fast letdown, whose babies have a weak suck or those that just love to nurse at a leisurely pace (I remember you saying Hope was always an extremely fast eater)
For some mums, nursing if baby is tired or has colic works for them, after all breastfeeding is both a relaxant and a painkiller so its natural they may show feeding cues around this time and for many mums its natural to nurse, this may not be the route for some babies (ie with fast letdown, reflux etc) but may work better for others.
The point I was trying to make is they are individuals and each situation and baby should be treated as such just as you did with Hope.

[Hope's Mum]

Absolutely!  I wish I HAD been able to nurse Hope more for comfort, it would certainly make life easier for her in situations like colic, vaccinations etc. and I do feel sad when I think that some mums deny their baby that comfort.

But I agree with Poppins that demand feeding can be taken the wrong way. When I first had Hope I honestly did think that it meant feed whenever they cry! And no-one told me any different, none of the books I read until Baby Whisperer explained about hunger cues etc. in any depth, so I had no idea how you could tell, apart from rooting which, as I said, she did alot anyway!

[poppins]

Help I have started a row.  Sorry I did not mean to.  To be honist I agree that babies are all different and all individual and some need more milk some less.  All I meant was that if you give your baby a good feed, lay it down to sleep then not feed every 5 mins, then you can get on with things and the baby is not confused.  Even a breast feed baby if fed properly can go a good amount of time so that it can be placed in pram/cot and mum can get a rest, but if baby is fed every 2 mins as soon as it makes a sound then it comes to rely on this as a pasifyer and not for food.  The main aim for the breast is for food, yes mum and baby bond threw this and it can give baby comfort, but not to the extent that the baby becomes dependant on the breast for security.  I will add that sometimes when baby cry's it is for other reasons such as its nappy, collic, or something else, if suckling is always given to a crying baby, often the real reason for a cry can be misunderstood.  I just think you need to learn to read your baby, and know when it is crying for food, when for just a good old fashioned cuddle/love, which dad should be able to give as well, or when it is sick or has colic.  I generally have learned with each of my charges, admitidly by the time I have them sole charge they are bottle fed, I am around alot when they are breastfed though, but by understanding what cryies the baby is displaying, I can fix a problem they have and they rarly cry.  Sometimes I can even look at there faces and body language and anticipate what the problem is.    You do need to get the feed pattern right though for each individual baby, as they are all different.  Please I hope I have not started another to do.

[poppins]

Purpley I am sorry if I caused offence. I am sure you are a wonderfull mother and breastfeeding teacher.    I was not saying anything against yours or any other mothers ways or views, this is just what I have experienced threw looking after many, many different babies over 12 years threw a ten hour day.  I guess it is just child observation that has taught me as well as the actuall process of the feeding. I am sure though I still have a lot to learn from qualified people such as yourself.