Help! Too many breastfeeding problems

My baby is now 9 days old, and I am desperate to get her to latch
consistently, properly, and without a huge struggle. She was 6 lbs 5.5
oz at birth, dipped to 5 15, and seems to be getting back as she is
now 6 1. I've had lactation consultants, public health nurses,
doctors, and other moms offer suggestions galore, all to no avail.
I've tried breast compressions, different positions, drinking beer,
relaxing her and myself before a feed, but she constantly cries and
struggles at the breast. We can get her to latch on eventually, but it
takes one person to hold her arms down, plus me to feed her. We've
resorted to finger feeding her breast milk from pumping (the yield is
very poor, about 1 oz for 2 breasts) and I'm afraid I'm going to have
to give her formula, which I'm very much against for many reasons.
We've also tried bottles with expressed milk or a bit of formula as
suggested by the doctor, and she also refuses the bottles (three
different nipple types tried too!!). I'm terrified this kid is trying
to starve herself. Any suggestions out there? SYmpathy? Similar
issues?

David C wibbled

My baby is now 9 days old, and I am desperate to get her to latch
consistently, properly, and without a huge struggle. She was 6 lbs
5.5 oz at birth, dipped to 5 15, and seems to be getting back as
she is now 6 1. I've had lactation consultants, public health
nurses, doctors, and other moms offer suggestions galore, all to
no avail. I've tried breast compressions, different positions,
drinking beer, relaxing her and myself before a feed, but she
constantly cries and struggles at the breast. We can get her to
latch on eventually, but it takes one person to hold her arms
down, plus me to feed her. We've resorted to finger feeding her
breast milk from pumping (the yield is very poor, about 1 oz for 2
breasts) and I'm afraid I'm going to have to give her formula,
which I'm very much against for many reasons. We've also tried
bottles with expressed milk or a bit of formula as suggested by
the doctor, and she also refuses the bottles (three different
nipple types tried too!!). I'm terrified this kid is trying to
starve herself. Any suggestions out there? SYmpathy? Similar
issues?


WRT 'one person to hold her arms down', I was shown quite a useful
swaddling variation which T responded to (he hates being fully
swaddled, and he was very 'grabby', always trying to hold the nipple or
put his fist in his mouth).

Put a muslin round her shoulders as if you were going to wrap her up,
then bring each side down over her arms so it looks like she's wearing
a cloak. Tuck the ends behind her back so her arms are held by her
sides but her legs and stomach are unwrapped. If you get it just right,
she cannot struggle free and get her hands up to her face again, but
she can move them (a little) by her sides and shouldn't feel too
'bound'.

Jac

David C wrote:
My baby is now 9 days old, and I am desperate to get her to latch
consistently, properly, and without a huge struggle. She was 6 lbs 5.5
oz at birth, dipped to 5 15, and seems to be getting back as she is
now 6 1. I've had lactation consultants, public health nurses,
doctors, and other moms offer suggestions galore, all to no avail.
I've tried breast compressions, different positions, drinking beer,
relaxing her and myself before a feed, but she constantly cries and
struggles at the breast. We can get her to latch on eventually, but it
takes one person to hold her arms down, plus me to feed her. We've
resorted to finger feeding her breast milk from pumping (the yield is
very poor, about 1 oz for 2 breasts) and I'm afraid I'm going to have
to give her formula, which I'm very much against for many reasons.
We've also tried bottles with expressed milk or a bit of formula as
suggested by the doctor, and she also refuses the bottles (three
different nipple types tried too!!). I'm terrified this kid is trying
to starve herself. Any suggestions out there? SYmpathy? Similar
issues?

Has your lactation consultant suggested a supplemental nursing system?
Ours did, and it made a big difference. We had to use it after the
first week, and the kid often had three ounces of formula via the
SNS while nursing at mom's breast; the lactation consultant watched
the weight gain and did some calculations to prove that he must have
been getting six or eight ounces of breast milk per day. Sure enough,
week three, and mom's milk supply is greatly increased; she could only
pump 1 ounce two weeks ago, but now she easily gets 3 ounces on those
odd times she has to pump because the baby overslept.

In other words: formula via an SNS does not mean your milk supply
will dry up. Give it a shot!
- Dan

David C wrote:
My baby is now 9 days old, and I am desperate to get her to latch
consistently, properly, and without a huge struggle. She was 6 lbs 5.5
oz at birth, dipped to 5 15, and seems to be getting back as she is
now 6 1.

All perfectly normal and well within the expected pattern. Babies are
expected to lose up to 10% of their birthweight and regain it by 2-3 weeks.
So she's doing just fine WRT weight gain.

I've had lactation consultants, public health nurses,
doctors, and other moms offer suggestions galore, all to no avail.
I've tried breast compressions, different positions, drinking beer,

The yeast in beer stimulates production, but ethanol suppresses it, so it's
probably not helping much. Try brewer's yeast or near-beer.

relaxing her and myself before a feed, but she constantly cries and
struggles at the breast. We can get her to latch on eventually, but it
takes one person to hold her arms down, plus me to feed her. We've
resorted to finger feeding her breast milk from pumping (the yield is
very poor, about 1 oz for 2 breasts) and I'm afraid I'm going to have
to give her formula, which I'm very much against for many reasons.
We've also tried bottles with expressed milk or a bit of formula as
suggested by the doctor, and she also refuses the bottles (three
different nipple types tried too!!). I'm terrified this kid is trying
to starve herself. Any suggestions out there? SYmpathy? Similar
issues?

As long as her weight gain continues to be fine, there's no reason to
supplement with anything. Are you eating dairy?
Try offering the breast as much as possible. If she's getting to a couple
hours after the last nursing, then you might want to hold her firmly (have
you tried swaddling?), but maybe getting offered the breast at every waking
moment will help.

--
iphigenia
www.tristyn.net
"i have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
i do not think that they will sing to me."

we had a few days of a very wriggly baby at the breast, a midwife showed
us how to wrap him so he couldn't wriggle so much, if you lie the baby
with the head at a corner of a blanket or sheet, you can use the other
corners to wrap round the arms an then tuck behind the bottom, we used
this for about 3 days whilst we convinced ds that eating was a good idea,
once he'd learnt that it was a good plan we no longer needed to wrap him.

-----------
Anne Rogers

Congratulations! It sounds like you're doing a wonderful job.

In the early days my daughter needed hubby to hold her arms down while she
was eating. It was exhausting especially as she was at the breast most of
the time! Babies just don't seem to come out knowing how to breastfeed! I
would also recommend swaddling - we had to swaddle our daughter VERY tightly
because otherwise her arms would flail out as soon as we moved her. But it
got her drinking in the end!

The first two weeks were REALLY dreadful, but it will be better SOON,
promise.

Love
ROSIE

"David C" wrote in message
om...
My baby is now 9 days old, and I am desperate to get her to latch
consistently, properly, and without a huge struggle. She was 6 lbs 5.5
oz at birth, dipped to 5 15, and seems to be getting back as she is
now 6 1. I've had lactation consultants, public health nurses,
doctors, and other moms offer suggestions galore, all to no avail.
I've tried breast compressions, different positions, drinking beer,
relaxing her and myself before a feed, but she constantly cries and
struggles at the breast. We can get her to latch on eventually, but it
takes one person to hold her arms down, plus me to feed her. We've
resorted to finger feeding her breast milk from pumping (the yield is
very poor, about 1 oz for 2 breasts) and I'm afraid I'm going to have
to give her formula, which I'm very much against for many reasons.
We've also tried bottles with expressed milk or a bit of formula as
suggested by the doctor, and she also refuses the bottles (three
different nipple types tried too!!). I'm terrified this kid is trying
to starve herself. Any suggestions out there? SYmpathy? Similar
issues?

(David C) writes:

I've tried breast compressions, different positions, drinking beer,
relaxing her and myself before a feed, but she constantly cries and
struggles at the breast.

a) Could it be that your daughter is really just a normal klutzy newborn
and that she's actually getting a reasonable amount of milk?

b) Could your daughter have an unusually stuffy nose that makes it hard to
nurse? If so, maybe you could clear it up by dabbing some breastmilk in
her nostrils. (I experimented on myself last week while I had a cold. The
nasal aspirator really didn't work very well at all, but breastmilk on my
upper lip worked wonders.)

c) Could your daughter have tongue tie or any other mouth or digestive
tract problems that would interfere with nursing?

d) Did the hospital aides secretly sabotage nursing by giving your baby
formula with a cup, dropper, etc.? If so, maybe send a spy to find out
what the aides typically use for supplementation (i.e., a cup) and try
using that to give your baby the expressed milk. Once you know what the
aides used, that might help you shift her over from whatever they used to
pure mama milk.

e) Do you have a husband or other close person who would try sucking on
your nipples to see how easy it is get milk out and what the milk tastes
like? If your taste tester has an easy time getting delicious milk out,
that would support the idea that the problem is with your baby and the
difficulty of pumping, not with your breasts.

We can get her to latch on eventually, but it
takes one person to hold her arms down, plus me to feed her. We've
resorted to finger feeding her breast milk from pumping (the yield is
very poor, about 1 oz for 2 breasts)

a) I think your yield is not that terrible for a new mom of a tiny baby.
Are you using an electric pump or an Isis? If an electric pump, maybe you
should try using the Isis with different massaging and squeezing
techniques, just to get to know your breasts better. Then, you could
always apply that knowledge to electric pumping.

b) I absolutely hated my Medela Supplemental Nursing System, because I
often ended up accepting a bad latch just to get the tube in my daughter's
mouth. But, if you're having supply problems or your daughter is too weak
to get milk out of your breasts, maybe an SNS would help give your
daughter the extra milk she needs while stimulating your breasts and
keeping them alive.

c) I never ever see anyone suggest this, but, is it possible that if you
went to a La Leche League meeting you could find some really, really nice,
brave nursing mom with lots of milk who would latch your daughter on? If
she could latch your daughter on and your daughter drank well, maybe that
might be a sign that you do have a supply or a nursing technique problem.
But, if the LLL volunteer had a time getting your daughter to nurse
properly, that would be a sign that the problem was with your daughter's
suckling. (Note: someone will say, "That can spread diseases!" But my
guess is that, on average, nursing from a nice stranger's breast is safer
than getting into a crib or riding around in a stroller.)