A few questions..

[Ngala]

Hey All!!

I have just got a few questions floating around in my head that I thought would ask...

Q 1 - Does a baby get more satisfied drinking straight from the breast than from a bottle full of EBM??? The reason I ask is that DD gets the occassionaly bottle of EBM if its feeding time and I am at the gym and on this one occassion her daddy gave her 180ml of EBM and he claimed that she was still hungry afterwards whereas, she will only feed on one side for maybe 10 mins before she doesnt want any more! Or are they really good at emptying the breast at 2 months old? But I know I dont get 180mls out of one breast when I do express the milk. The most I have gotten is just under 100mls...

Q 2 - DD has been throwing up a lot more lately, maybe for the past few weeks. I noticed that it picked up when I started on the mini pill and I decided that after 1.5 weeks that I was going to stop the mini pill (too much fussiness). While on the mini pill it was a lot, but now its only a little bit. I was thinking of maybe giving her a little bit of thickened baby formula to help keep down the milk. Is this worth trying or will she still throw up or is there a chance I will muck up my milk supply because she is getting a bit filled up with the formula?

Q 3 - Do babies drop a feed during the day?? I know that DD is only 10 weeks old so I dont expect this to happen soon. She has dropped her midnight feed so was wondering if the same happens during the day.

ummm I think that is all!!

[Visitor7]

Q1. Drinking from a bottle is easier than breastfeeding, they don't have to work at it. When she feeds from you, even if it's only one side, that's all she needs. That could be more than 180ml. You can't express as much as what you can feed them directly. At 2 months, they are great at emptying the breast. Nina was only ever a one-side feeder, and it would only ever take 5 min at the most to feed her. Do you use a manual or electric pump? I used an electric as a manual wouldn't work for me, and I'd get anywhere between 170-200ml in less than 5 min.

Q2. It is possible the mini pill was affecting her, but I'm not 100% on this one. Is there anything in your diet that you've changed lately?

Q3. She will eventually drop a feed. It could be soon, but it might not be until she's 6 months, or even older. Nina started dropping day feeds from around 6 months.

HTH!

[Charlyfrog]

QU 1: I have heard that bubbies are far more effective suckers than a breast pump....so this could be it but that's all I have on that one!

QU 2: Not completely sure on this one but you could ring the ABA re: this. If you are going to do formula, maybe once she has had a feed from you so the formula is just a top up???? But then she might get over full and therefore spit up more......sorry, not much help here am I The other thought is if she is rather spitty, I found that Infacol helped calm down the spittiness by helping the burps to get out without bringing with it dinner

QU 3: I think at 10 weeks my DD was at 6 feeds a day starting at 6.30am and finishing with a 10/10.30pm feed. I think she was approx 13weeks when she started to stretch herself out to 3&1/2 to 4hourly feeds so went down to 5 feeds. I only shifted to 5 feeds when I had to start waking DD up consistently for her feeds. So you could try this approach and she will soon let you know if it's a goer or not

HTH.....................I hope!!

[Ashlee]

I wouldn't give her formula unless you're comfortable. You can buy Karicare Food Thickener and add it to EBM if you think that might help.

[{sarah}]

I'm not sure about the other two, but formula probably won't help at all. Given thickened formula isn't a cure for chucky babies, it can help *some* but not always. The only thing it's meant to do is weigh more in their tummy to make it less likely to be thrown up. The only thing thickened formula did for Zander when he had reflux was to make him constipated, it didn't stop the vomitting, just made it chunkier *bleurk*

[Ashlee]

I should have mentioned, my refluxy baby wasn't helped at all with thickened formula, and after 4 weeks or so of it he rejected it anyway.

[bridee]

This is a question leading on from Q3. I thought for bfing to keep up supply you needed to feed 6 times in 24 hours. At the moment we are feeding 6 times during the day and 1 night feed. During the day I'm feeding 3 hourly. Once Georgie is sleeping through the night and therefore dropping that feed I thought I would still need to feed 3 hourly to maintain supply. Is 5 feeds a day ok for supply?

[christy]

Dee I have always fed on demand, so when Jovie wanted it & it ranged between 3-4 hourly most days, sometimes growth spurts would have every 2 hours. 6 times in 24 hours is every 4 hours or you could feed 3 hourly and then have a longer stretch at night if you were concerned. Even now most days she feeds every 4 hours during the day & not overnight.

[Starfish]

Re Q2 - A few weeks ago Diana was throwing up all the time (bringing up milk after every feed and then half digested milk in between feeds), but she didn't seem distressed at all by it. She put on weight normally, etc during this period and the MCHN wasn't concerned. So I imagine that if Avaleigh is not distressed and is still putting on wieght then its probably just a phase and it will stop in a couple of weeks. If you're worried, I would go to a doctor or MCHN before trying formula.