Breast Milk

This is not so much a question as it is a general rambling.

I've been talking for a while about relactating, for several reasons.

I am most likely going to be donating the milk that I produce if this even works.

I use cows milk on my sons cereal (he's 4 and weaned a good while ago). I'm fairly certain it would be healthier and better for him and probably yummier to use breastmilk for his cereal and other foods with milk in.

But I guess I just wanted to air this idea out and see what y'all think....weird or not?

x-posted to breastfeeding

Hello! I just joined the community. I have a 10 week old daughter, and while I mostly feed her from the breast, occasionally she gets expressed milk. She's perfectly fine with the milk if it's only been at room temperature (i.e. she's eating it within a few hours of it being pumped), but if we try to give her milk that's been in the fridge, she won't eat it (pulls away from the bottle, lets it dribble out of her mouth, cries). We've tried giving it to her both cold and warmed up in a bottle warmer, but she reacts the same either way. Have any of you had this problem? Is it just a matter of finding the right temperature, or does the taste change enough that some babies won't eat it from the fridge? I'd like to build up a store of frozen breastmilk, but obviously it won't be useful if she won't eat it.

Thanks!

Anybody know if there is anything wrong with getting a tattoo while breastfeeding? I'm really excited to get my next tat, but I won't if it means I can't breastfeed for any real amount of time. (cross-posted)

Thanks to everyone that had suggestions on my last post about sore, cracked & bleeding nipples. I haven't had much computer time, so didn't get a chance to reply.

I took Blake to the weigh-in last week and he's up to 9 lbs. There I had him nurse just a few minutes on each side so that the LC could check his latch. He's latching great and occassionally slipping, resulting in gumming the nipple. I'm pretty good at taking him off and making him relatch when he does that though. I was amazed to find out that he managed to eat 2 oz. during just the short time he nursed!

The LC gave me some nipple shields to wear, but they didn't work for me. They weren't quite big enough so they sat on the areoles - which were also sore. Plus they kept slipping and made me even more sore. I backed off on the nursing and pumping for awhile by only pumping every other feeding and not nursing for a few days. Lanolin helped too and I've gone through almost my entire tube of it.

Even though I've lost some of milk supply by backing off so much, this has allowed me to heal quite a bit. I'm still sore, but am able to nurse Blake a few times a day. Now I'm nursing him during the day, alternating sides for feedings, and supplementing with formula afterwards. (Good news: he's not taking much formula after his feedings, which hopefully means that he's getting more from me). At night I'm pumping and feeding him expressed B-milk or formula. I've actually had to learn how to take him off the breast. *LOL* I think if I'd let him, he'd nurse 24 hours a day (to eat and comfort nursing). However, for the sake of my poor nipples, I just can't let him comfort nurse yet.

Before I had to "back off", I was nursing & pumping during the day (at every feeding) and pumping at night. This is what my LC had advised to do to increase my milk supply. I hope to heal enough to get back to that routine - or at least being able to nurse at every feeding.

Question: How long do you let your baby nurse on each side? I've heard that a baby can empty a breast in 10 minutes and been told to let him nurse 15 minutes on each side. But once Blake latches on, he wants to stay on that side for what seems forever. I end up taking him off after about 30 minutes.

My 9 day old daughter's feeding schedule got totally messed up yesterday due to her naming ceremony, and now today she wants to eat pretty much every hour instead of every 2-3. Is there anything wrong with letter her feed that often while I'm awake anyway? Or will that just make her want to eat that often all the time? She's been eating for 15-20 minutes each feeding. TIA.

My son has been battling reflux. I decided today after steam cleaning the couch...
again...for the fourth time, i would try supplimenting to see what would it be like for him. It worked. He was keeping everything down. Then I take a notion to BF him to comfort him, he was cranky, he spit it all up. Now Im a sad. He been gaining weight just fine, but you can tell he was miserable. And the little bumps on his face cleared up today as well. Im heartbroken. I feel in a round about way, I've made him uncomfrotable these last few weeks. Im a sad sad duck.

Yesterday I wanted to entirely stop breastfeeding........ a few things going on.

On day 4 we had to start supplementing with formula because my son's (Blake's) jaundice was so bad. We've had to continue supplementing ever since because Blake is an "inefficient feeder" and I'm not producing very much milk. I guess the two of them go hand in hand. I had a breast reduction 7 years ago and had quite a bit of tissue taken. I'm assuming that's why I can't make enough for him. I pump after each feeding and am only able to get 1.5-2 oz, depending on how Blake fed on the breast. He's now a month old and taking 3-5 oz per feeding. Our feeding routine consists of: breastfeeding, bottle feeding expressed b-milk, bottle feeding formula, soothing him until I get a chance to pump b-milk for the next feeding. Alone, this entire feeding process can take up to 1.5-2 hours. With my husband doing the bottle feeding it takes about 30-60 minutes. It's very frustrating, especially when Blake doesn't want to latch properly...or moreso falls asleep on the boob and won't eat. (He sucks down the bottle every time, but just doesn't want to work for his milk - or maybe the breast comforts him so much that he just falls asleep. *shrugs*)

I've tried to increase my milk supply by drinking tons of water and pumping every 3 hours religiously, whether or not Blake wants to eat....but nothing seems to work. So question #1 is how do I ever get my milk production to increase adequately?

I've used the nipple shield for about 3 weeks now to help with Blake's latch. It works great and now he's able to latch properly without it. Suddenly he's finally figured out breastfeeding. However, now my nipples are so sore that I can't stand to feed him anymore. Yesterday morning I let him feed on the left, in which I have hardly any pain perception. (I have a large numb area from surgery.) We both fell asleep nursing and he nursed on that side 45-60 minutes. I discovered in the shower yesterday that now I have bleeding cracks on that nipple. Both of my nipples are now so sore that I have to either wear a bra with nursing pads & lanolin (so nothing rubs) or go topless. Even if I go topless at night I can't pull the covers up 'cuz it hurts if they touch me....but then again the cold air hurts too. I can't even put Blake up on my shoulder to burp because his legs hit my breasts. Breastfeeding is excruciating on either side now. I'm taking Tylenol religiously and use lanolin whenever I pump and have turned down the suction on the pump. So question #2 is how to do I get my nipples to heal?

I would like to continue breastfeeding as much as I can, but some days it's so frustrating I want to quit. My goal right now is to get my nipples to heal. Then I feel I may be able to make it through the next month.

I just gave birth this past Saturday and have some bf-ing questions... My daughter was having a hard time getting a good latch and it was killing my nipples and she wasn't eating enough, so the lactation consultant got me started using a nipple shield while I nurse and it has made it much easier! But I'm a little concerned that I'll never be able to feed without one. It's not the end of the world if that happens, because my daughter is still getting breast milk, but I'm curious about people's experiences with nipple shields.

Also, I will be pumping for when I go back to work, but I wasn't planning on starting until about 3 weeks because I didn't want to feed her with a bottle because of nipple confusion. Now that I'm using the nipple shield anyway, is there are reason not to pump and feed via bottle (more so that my husband can feed her and I can get more than 2 hours of sleep at a time). I actually already pumped once because my milk is coming in and my breast were getting so hard, even after feeding her for as long as she would go they were still dripping with milk. Now I have a little bottle of milk and am not sure what to do with it (it's in the fridge for now). And along those lines, how many oz do newborns eat in one sitting if they are eating out of a bottle? I've been going by the time and her desire to gage how much I should be feeding, since boobs don't exactly have oz markers on them (wouldn't that be funny?)

Thanks in advance! (I'm so excited about this community, BTW)

thanks for the alternative approach to daddy's participating in the feeding process myinnerlizard. i have been tossing ideas around in my head as to a better way to incoporate my husband into the entire routine. i get the feeling at times that he feels left out especially when he starts making his "boobie" comments, even though he has his own bonding time with the little one. although she is still too young to play any games. i know my husband would get a kick out of it. not to mention that it might break down the newfound mystique revolving around the lactating boob rather than the pleasure pillows that he loved so much before all the feeling began.

Okay, I figured that since all of the other mods have posted introductions I should probably do the same. And I also think that it's necessary for me to expound upon how I feel about lactation so that you all aren't worried that I'm taking advantage of you to get my jollies, as a few people in the booju_newju thread have suggested I was.

To be honest, I actually haven't breast fed at all.

I do, however, lactate. That's why I wanted to join breastfeeding in the first place-- to get information on my breasts and hear suggestions on what I should do with them.

I hope that my experiences prove to be valuable ones, since my route to having breast milk was not conventional and required a bit of screwing around with my body's chemistry.
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So:


Please note that I am going to be the only one who can see your responses to this poll and that I won't hold a grudge.
Also, even if it looks like one answer is in the lead, I will take into account whether or not people are my LJ friends, and if it looks like most of the people who are saying "yes" are on my f-list and most of the people saying "no" are not, I will definitely take that into consideration with respect to de-modding myself.