How to get her off the bottle and onto the boob f/t...? Barb?

Hello :hello:

Ok a bit of background as I sit here with my boobs being double pumped!

DD3 who is almost 4 weeks old has had trouble latching on from the word go. She has a small mouth and from what I have recently learnt, I have rather large nipples! Other issues were a tongue tie which was snipped, not poking her tongue forward, falloing asleep at the boob or getting agro continually coming off the breast, just not sucking.... so I have been expressing like a trooper and topping her up with ebm after every go at the boob. She drinks somewhere between 75mls and 120 mls each feed.

So in the past week things are starting to look better. Shes taking to latching on better, although she still doesnt get much of the aerola in....am hoping that will come with time as her mouth gets bigger. Today I have actually heard and felt her swallow as she sucks... before she would suck away and not swallow. She still falls asleep at the boob quite often, still needs to get back on a hundred times or more! And she still needs top ups.

So my question is this.... given that she looks like she could be ok with feeding how do I get her off the ebm and onto full time boob? I dont want to be starving her so that she only drinks from me, however I also have a 3 year old and a 2 year old that need me so I cant be spending hours and hours sitting on the couch feeding her like I did yesterday. I can do it, but yesterday it ended in tears..... baby was constantly hungry... mummy was grumpy coz she couldnt do anything but sit and my 2 girls were grumpty too because I was busy with baby and then they started to play up which resulted in yelling and tears!!! Poor dh got home from work to find all of his 4 ladies in a tizz!

Ok.... so for any of you who have done it...ebm to f/t boobs..... please can you give me some tips:) I would be more than greatful.

Love Melissa

My DS was mostly EBM fed for the first 6 weeks or so because he kept falling asleep. We simply dropped one top-up at a time. And were prepared to have to move the feeds closer together.
Don't immediately drop all the topups - bub needs to get used to the hard work of sucking from you a bit more gradually. Start by dropping whichever one is at the quietest time for your other girls. Then a few days later drop another.
How often is she feeding at the moment?
And you may need to be very mean to keep her awake - we used cold face-washers, bad singing, and drops of cold water. This may be an excellent job for your older girls!

Another option (but it can be a bit fiddly) is to use a supply line. That way she's not having the bottle directly any more, and is getting more nipple-sucking practise.

I'm glad to hear that you have made some progress. Did you end up getting in touch with another Lactation Consultant hun?

You have done such a great job to get this far - well done :hug: It might take a while to get her onto breast full time, but you are a step closer than you were. I think that this would be easier for you if you worked with a LC as it is a balance between getting her to have as much milk from your breast as possible (and therefore as little as possible from the bottle) and making sure she is getting enough milk. To start with, you can try offering her the breast first at every feed and see how she goes, then give her the rest of the feed (if she needs it) from the bottle. The difficulty is in knowing whether or not she needs the top up and how much, as babies will swallow the milk from a bottle even when they don't need it. Some signs that can help you to know, is the length of the feed at the breast - the part where she is doing the suck-swallow, suck-swallow, and also her behaviour when she stops - if she's settled she might have had enough, if not she might want more. Overall she is getting enough if she has 5 or more heavily wet disposables (6 - 8 very wet cloth nappies) in 24 hours, 2 or more runny or soft poos in 24 hours, is gaining weight and has good skin tone. This is not so helpful while she's still drinking a lot from the bottle but will be useful to know once she's feeding more from the breast.

Best of luck hun. It has been a hard journey for you so far, but I hope you are on the home straight. :hug:

Thanks girls for the info and support again. I went to the ABA drop in centre yesterday. She had me doing the infant led attachment which didnt work, Amy just got more and more irate! So we did the conventional attachment and... yeah she suggested that Amy need some suck training as she wasnt bringing her tongue forward enough. I have an osteo appointment next week for her and I havent yet contacted another LC.... the ones I was recommended were too far away of just a tad beyond my budget. I have googled suck training and have started exercises on her. She definately has her tongue way back, so no wonder shes not going on properly. Hopefully this will work out and also with a bit more time she will be able to get it.

Good luck!
Hope you can find an LC in your area

I'm glad you have some more idea about what is going on. Every step forward is bringing you closer. You are doing a great job hun :hug:

Did the drop in centre give you any LC names? If not, why don't you give her a call and ask for some. She will have a list of LCs in the area. The good ones will cost but mums usually find it worth it to get things back on track - especially when you consider the cost of formula if breastfeeding doesn't work out.

How are you holding up?

Oh Melissa :hug: you are doing an amazing job and I mean that. I went through very similar issues with my DD when she was only very young and spent hours expressing to give her top ups of EBM, attachment issues for weeks, weak suck, etc so very similar to what you're experiencing. Only thing is I just had DD to worry about, not two other kids so that must be really tough on you. I admire you!!

I want to let you know that I eventually weaned my DD off EBM/formula top ups around 4mths of age when my milk supply was 'finally' established and her weight gains were good. I followed very close advice of an LC at the time and I would record how much DD would be drinking in top ups and eventually cut out the bottles as she seemed to know to take more from the boob first and started taking less and less from the top ups.

Definitely get in touch with an IBCLC in your area (Barb can give you details if not already), and keep persisting as I promise you, promise you, you will be able to get her to F/T breastfeeding soon :hug: hang in there. And when you do, you feel on top of the world knowing you no longer have to give top ups and can just pop out your boob!! ;)

Please PM me anytime if you need to know more about my story etc..... only happy to help you.