update was: help needed for friend please

"elizabeth emerald" wrote in message
...
i need to get some important advice for my friend who is having lots of
trouble with breastfeeding. she is getting conflicting advice (alot of it
"just give him formula") and really needs help. she is really upset &
stressed (understandably). she really wants to continue with
breastfeeding.

here is some info:
* her baby is 13.5 weeks old.
* over the past month, he has dropped from being consistently on the 95th
to
now the 50th percentile with some weeks losing & some weeks having a very
minimal weight gain.
* a main problem is that the baby is very fussy after 5 minutes on the
breast. he is even more fussy in the evening and will refuse to feed from
the breast. she or her husband will give him a bottle of ebm at this time.
* he feeds best when he has just woken up or whilst he is still sleeping.
once he wakes up fully, he gets fussy.
* she does/did have overactive letdown, but the baby seems to have
adjusted
to that now.
* she feeds from 2 breasts each feed but only for about 5 minutes each
breast. she has done this for about a month as she interpreted his
fussiness
to having been finished, but that does not seem to be the case.
* he has a dummy for sleeping.
* she expresses about 150ml in 30 mins of pumping.
* i think he gets a bottle of ebm about once a day. she doesn't think he
has
nipple confusion.
* he sleeps well at nite waking only once for a feed, but he only sleeps
for
apprx 45 mins during the day at a time no matter how much he is resettled.
he will not sleep in the car.
* he did not have any noticeable growth spurts when he was younger. this
fussiness problem has been going on for a month but has been noticeably
worse over the past week.
* she is trying mylanta for the baby for reflux, but he has not changed
with
other reflux suggestions previously (like raising the cot, keeping
upright)
and he doesn't have excessive spit up.
* the baby is having a test for urinary infection (results not back yet).
* she does not feel she can pump in the long term if that is what is comes
down to.

a lactation consultant suggested some things including comp feeding with
formula, stretching the feeds out to 5 hrs and trying to get the baby to
nap
for 2 hrs. she is not comfortable with alot of this and definitely wants
to
avoid comp feeding.

with my lack of lots of knowledge, i suggested she call the aust
breastfeeding assoc helpline asap and if she feels she needs to comp feed
to
do it with ebm rather than formula. other than that i am not much help.

i am going over to see her tomorrow to give a bit of support so whatever
advice or experience you can post would be wonderful as i feel pretty
inexperienced in this regard.

thanks in advance everyone!


my friend has now discovered that her baby in fact has a urinary tract
infection and that is why he has been refusing food & being fussy. he is
starting treatment today & she is taking him for further investigation.

thanks to those who answered.
--
elizabeth (in australia)
DS - born 20-aug-02