Goats milk?

[Junglemum]

Sounds like you are really struggling with the whole thing mentally. You have done a fantastic job. Your feeding journey hasn't been easy and you have done very well in adverse circumstances.
In an ideal world you'd continue BF'ing, but it's not working out that way and there isn't a lot you can do about it. So don't be too hard on yourself.

Our babes are one next month. Even though BF is still an important part of the diet, as they approach 12 months solid food starts to take over as the main source of nutrition. Have you thought about trying different foods and encouraging her with solids a bit more rather than introducing a milk? Cows milk and goats milk don't have the same nutrients that BM do and they are not really a substitute, if it were me, i would rather try and increase the variety of food at that age. I continued offering DD1 BM when i was pregnant with DD2, like you my supply dropped and BF'ing was not enjoyable at all, i almost dreaded it. In the end she weaned when i was about 7 months i think, i was sad out BF'ing was cut short, but that was the best thing for both of us at the time.

One last idea, are you offering food before BM yet? she might be a bit keener if she's hungry?

Good luck!

[PumpkinZulu]

Yep I've tried offering food before BM, and offering more food. She's doing *okay*, but I don't feel like she's getting enough nutrition out of food alone. DH and I have been talking about a goat milk formula for two or three top ups a day. We'll see.

[Junglemum]

Just to give you an idea what we are eating food wise...... incase you were interested!

P has about 2 good feeds a day (1 overnight) and a few comfort feeds in between. Food wise, some days she has more than others but today she ate;
1 banana, 2 or 3 hand sized bits of pawpaw, a couple of biscuits, half a mandarin, some pasta (about 8 spirals) with bolognaise sauce, a few sips of a fruit smoothie, a fair bit of water, a little bit (about 3 spoonfuls) of yoghurt. She grazes a lot and likes snacks. But doesn't sit down to a huge meal often. (Although sometimes she'll surprise me and eat a while weetbix with fruit and yoghurt for breaky plus a few toast fingers! but that is not the usual)

[MantaRay]

I heard a leading US paediatrician speak at the ABA Health Professionals seminars a couple of years ago. It was Dr V who wrote Colic Solved and he said that goats milk is actually very different to human milk in a number of ways and he totally doesn't recommend it for under 12 months at all. Apparently it's high in all the things that are not good, and low in the things that are good. When you want/need to supplement breast milk with non-dairy I think there are really only limited choices which is not very helpful for you.

[sepata]

Thoughts from BookishMama » Blog Archive » Thoughts on Research on the Web (Part Two)

You might be interested in reading this, it is about supplementing with goats milk before the age of one. (apologies if I'm not allowed to post the link).

[PumpkinZulu]

Hmmm. That's very interesting. Thank you both. Got some reading to do. We gave DD 50ml of goats milk last night, and she had a terrible sleep, worse than the last few nights. I wonder if that is why.