Help...back to breast from bottle ?

baby4anne

The Pediatrician had me pump and feed my LO due to lack of weight (wanted to measure his intake).  LO ended up having GERD reflux and was fighting both the bottle and breast due to discomfort.  LO is 8 weeks today and we now have his GERD under control with medications.  I am allowed to go back to breastfeeding, but he is refusing the breast.  Does anyone have experience with getting LO back to breast after being bottle feed for 3-4 weeks?  I need help!!!

Clyde013

No advice but I wanted to say good luck and I'm also curious about responses since I am feeding LO expressed bm mixed with formula (due to jaundice, my milk coming in late and supply being low) but am thinking about putting her back on the breast.

alie78_80

I don't have personal experience, but I would recommend meeting with an IBCLC.

I do know that this IS possible, there have been many success stories of women who have done this.  It does take a lot of work, patience and dedication.  I would recommend a supplemental nursing system that will help LO recognize that the breast is where the milk comes from.

GL!

kkmlafferty

My 6 week old was in the nicu the first week and received bottles at night, each day I tried to nurse was worse and worse. She latched well then popped right off screaming. I was able to have a LC come see me every day and we worked on it all week. My baby is a big eater and it seemed once she was getting the bottles she didn't have the patience to nurse since the milk doesn't come as fast. There were a few things that we did to get her back nursing. I would pump a little first than use a pipette (someone else has to do this for you or maybe use a SNS instead) to drop some of the expressed milk on to my nipple so that she was getting more milk then once she started nursing and started getting good flow she was ok. Then she also had nipple confusion so they had me use a nipple shield. The first time i had to do the same process as above, pump, pipette milk into shield than once baby did a couple good sucks she was nursing perfectly on her own and i never had to use the pipette again. It was a relief at the time because I was desperate to be able to nurse but now we are at 6 weeks and she will not nurse without the shield so I am going to have to see a LC again to see if we can work on that. It was very frustrating during this process for the baby, myself and my husband but once it was over it was so worth it. Good thing is now we can go back and forth from breast with shield to the bottle. Good luck to you, I know how stressful it can be!