Galactagogues

[face_furniture]

My son is now 3 weeks old, and we have all sorts of trouble establishing breast feeding, due to the stress of this and his recent trip to hospital after loosing 18 of his body weight, my milk supply is dropping off and I can't keep up with him. I am currently expressing milk and bottle feeding him which isn't ideal, but it was that or have him fed

Comments

[_diet_coke]

Contact your hospital's breastfeeding consultant. I had trouble establishing with my last child and they were able to provide me with a lot of support, good advice and a high grade breast pump to help me get to a point of sustaining my child on breast milk alone. Good luck!

[face_furniture]

I've seen 3 breast feeding consultants, who are all baffled by the way my boy nuzzles anything, will suck the front of anyone's shirt soggy, then just screams and won't latch when put to the breast. Skin to skin helped, but when I thought we'd got breast feeding sorted he lost so much weight he ended up in hospital. Not good.
I also had a home birth and he was put straight on my chest at birth, so he really should be feeding!

[rock_grrl]

That sounds like bottle preference to me. Basically, he's used to the instant food that comes from sucking on a bottle nipple and is getting frustrated when a breast nipple does not let down as quickly.

I'm sorry you are having suck a hard time! Have you contacted the La Leche League in your area? They may be able to help as well.

[rainbow]

A couple thoughts:

Have you done the stay in bed 24/7 with him with skin to skin contact and offering him the nipple constantly? That can cause a huge surge in production. (But if he keeps refusing the nipple, not so effective)
Could he be reacting to something in your diet? On your skin?
Has his tongue/mouth been checked for any problems?
Is your let down sudden and so strong that it's too much for him?
Have you tried sitting up vs lying down and as many different angles as possible?

For fenugreek, I've heard that 3500+ mgs/day is most effective; you should be able to smell a sort of maple smell in yoru sweat adn urine if you're taking enough.

I have a friend who might have more suggestions; if you'd like me to I'll contact her and ask her on your behalf.

And this is very, very unorthodox in the western world, but do you have any trusted friends/family with nurslings that might let you nurse them to pump up your supply?

Carys

eta: alfalfa, blessed thistle, and oats are other galactagogues.

[lishablog]

I second all of ranbow's suggestions, although I'd say that you don't have to stay in BED 24/7 if you can comfortably walk around with your baby in a sling or front pack and his head under your shirt and comfortably pressed against your breast. Also, let him comfort suck on your nipple, never on a pacifier.

[jehannamama]

I third all of that. I would not give up.

Also, with my first child, I hadn't realized just how much extra fluid I had to drink to breast feed. The LeLeche consultant figured out why my milk supply dropped, and I had no further problems once I made sure to really keep drinking all day long.

My sister in law had some problems with breast feeding, but she was trying to take the baby all over the place, visiting people, when she found she was stressed by breast feeding around others, (though I don't think this necessarily is your problem), and she would not rest and not really sit and just enjoy him. Sometimes you have to just do the skin to skin and spend time just relaxing with the baby and letting everything else go for a few days.

[hippydippymama]

I second all of the suggestions, also please join the breastfeeding community! It's full of very experienced breastfeeding moms and LLL Leaders and all kinds of nice people. =)

Congratulations on your baby, and great job on continuing to breastfeed!

[impchild]

i have never tried these but i have heard good things about them. at least 2 success stories personally

[impchild]

oh i meant to add, have you though about trying a sns rather than a regular bottle? http://www.medelabreastfeedingus.com/products/breastfeeding-devices/51/supplemental-nursing-system-sns