Update to BF issues and considering EP-ing (and bottle rec)

umdbride

First, thanks to everyone who chimed in a few weeks ago.  Quick backstory - DS has never been  great at BF, but he suddenly got even worse - pulling off and crying after only 2 minutes or so on each side on the best days.  He was clearly still hungry and would take milk just fine from a bottle. We used a super slow flow nipple and he never used to have any problem going back and forth between boob and bottle. I was really considering EP-ing because it was exhausting and so frustrating to BF (if and when he'd even do it).  Anyway, you ladies gave some great advice about EP-ing and waiting it out to see if he'd come back around. 

Well, I'm happy to report that we stuck it out and we're doing noticeably better since we changed bottles.  I realized that basically DS was getting lazy or frustrated after the milk slowed down after my first let down.  So, we switched to the First Years Breastflow bottle which is supposed to require babies to compress and suck in order to get milk (same motion as BF).  I don't really care for the bottles (they're kind of messy and they have a really fast flow so DS spits up more), but I do think it's helped us BF more often.  Now, instead of crying and flailing after 2-3 minutes, most times he'll nurse calmly for a good 10-15 minutes!  I do have to time it right though, he still only likes to nurse when he's in a good mood or sleepy so mostly in the middle of the night it works best. There also used to be some days where he wouldn't BF at all, except maybe once in the middle of the night.  Now we're able to BF about 3-4 times a day, usually from the late evening to morning.

So long story short - thanks!  And, if your LO is not doing so great switching between boob and bottle, you may want to try the Breastflow bottles - for us it turned out to be less of a flow issue and more of a remembering how to work my mouth to get milk issue.

WinesNot Whines

I'm glad you found something that works! BFing has so many challenges.

Sofka

good for you for sticking it out!

 

2vthokies

Fantastic.  Good job on sticking it out.