Exclusively BFing, soon to be 4 wk old
- 11-15-2010, 10:33 PM #9Registered User
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- Mar 2009
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- Olympic, Kowloon
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I exclusively BFed for 6 months and am combination feeding now. The let down pain will improve it just takes time!
With regard to nipple confusion they say that if you can avoid it try not to give a bottle for the first 4 weeks - unfortunately didn't do this and gave a bottle earler with expressed milk so I could get some rest and my baby did get nipple confusion and it wasn't fun. When I tried to directly feed from the breast he would fight me and scream and refuse. With the help of a lactation consultant I was able to train him back on but it was 1 week of pain and lots of patience.
That said all babies are different and yours is over 4 weeks so if you wanted to give a bottle you shouldn't have any problems.
I found it useful to be able to get my husband to do one of the feeds so I could get a couple of extra hours sleep :)
- 11-16-2010, 02:06 PM #10Registered User
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I think I have to agree with your mom on the excess milk thing, as that's exactly what happened to me. Worse, my letdown became so strong that it choked my baby and he didn't want to feed, as well as the beginning is al the foremilk, less what you want for your baby unless they are a long feeder. When I let down I had to take him off my breast and spray the milk into a tissue for a bit until it calmed down. One side was worse. It was a real bother for a while til my body adjusted. Maybe you could just express a little bit to make you more confortable.
I was also afraid of nipple confusion (he received his first feed in the hospital from a bottle behind my back and I had to ween him off it in his first few days), so I never introduced it again til 5.5 weeks. Then it was too late and I was stuck breastfeeding exclusively from then on. He actually learned how to drink a bottle once he understood how a sippy cup worked, and also then started to self wean from my breast (from 8 months).
- 11-16-2010, 08:23 PM #11Registered User
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I think it must be a very individual thing, as my baby is currently 6 weeks old and I'm combination feeding by breast and expressed breast milk. I haven't had any problems with the expressing increasing my milk supply to create engorgement - I have slight under-supply if anything and wish that it would give me a bit more! I can't imagine not being able to pump to relieve the pressure between night feeds - hand expressing is very easy though so you'll soon get the hang of it.
With the nipple confusion issue, we use the special Newborn teats that mean the baby has to suck harder to get the milk and she goes back and forth from bottle and breast with no problems.
Good luck!
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