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Hawaii Babies
redshoegirl
member
Extended nursing - possibly dumb question
redshoegirl
member
So we all know I don't BF, and even if I did I'm not sure I'd be into extended nursing so it's never something I researched - hence this possibly stupid question. First, breastmilk changes over time to meet your LO's needs, right? As they get older, the actual composition of the BM changes. But what if you're BFing more than one baby - of more than one age - at once?
Example: you want to do extended BFing, but you also want more than one child and are spacing them fairly close together - let's say two under two. If you can BF while pregnant (from my understanding some women can and some can't, correct?) and you intend to BF both children when the newborn arrives, as I've seen some mamas state they'd like to do on other boards...how exactly does that work?
Does the pregnancy trigger your body revert to meeting the newborn's needs, since presumably the older child is primarily solid fed by that point doesn't really need the BM to meet nutritional needs anymore? Or does it stay the composition that the older child needs since that's what your body has adapted to? Or does your body somehow know which child is nursing at the time and change accordingly? (Can BM composition change that quickly or is it more gradual?)
I know this is super random, but it popped into my head earlier today and now I'm really curious. Thanks for educating me! 
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Extended nursing - possibly dumb question
this is helpful but doesn't address your exact question:
https://www.kellymom.com/nursingtwo/resources/myth-fact.html
I don't want children that close together so I have never really looked into it.
Nursing two babies is called tandem nursing and unless you're nursing twins or an adopted baby (or babies) who are close in age, then your nurslings will be some months or years apart in age. My understanding is that when a woman nurses while pregnant. often times in the second tri her milk will dip in supply and sometime during the third tri it will revert to colostrum in preparation for the newborn. Many older babies will wean through this process, but others won't and are happy to suckle whether or not they're getting a ton of milk or not.
Anyway, my BFF nursed her son through her pregnancy and tandem nurses now (DS1 is 2.5 and DS2 is 6 months) and never had supply issues. That said, her older boy only nurses once or twice a day, generally before bed and first thing in the morning. If he's sick or hurts himself it might be 3 or 4 times/day, but not for long. It's mainly comfort nursing, but he's still benefitting from the nutrition and immunities as well. She personally feels it's helped his "terrible twos" not be so terrible and for there to be less sibling rivalry (her sons hug/hold hands while nursing sometimes).
If I can get PG and still nurse Libby I probably will do that...I am open to tandem nursing as well, but again, will just have to wait and see how my body does and also if she's still wanting to nurse....
TTC/PG Blog | Mommy Blog
Thanks for the info, ladies!
Ahhh, thanks.
I'd only heard the term tandem nursing on the Multiples board and wasn't sure if it was still called that if you weren't nursing two babies simultaneously on each side. Good to know it's the same term!
I guess the colostrum thing is what I was wondering - I figured that's what probably happened because the newborn must take priority for your body, but I wasn't totally sure.
Hmmm, but then if your older one is nursing then, wouldn't he/she be taking colostrum from the newborn baby? I thought colostrum was very small in quantity?
I also didn't know that bm changed in consistency over time. I just thought the supply changed but that was it...
As you can see, even though I'm nursing, I haven't given any thought to extended nursing at all!
Theoretically - and nursing mamas, please correct me if I'm wrong! - your body should be able to adjust supply, even of colostrum, to a high enough quantity to feed two babies. It's the whole supply and demand thing. At least, that's what all the lactation consultants told me (we'll ignore that it was totally untrue in my case lol!). I'm assuming that even though the older baby would be consuming a greater quantity, they'd be nursing less frequently - maybe twice a day? - so perhaps it wouldn't be an issue?
This makes me wonder though, what if you have to be hospitalized for a few days after giving birth? Does the older child go without nursing for that period (which I'm presuming would be fine nutritionally but difficult emotionally) or do you get them to visit at certain times of the day? Or am I waaaay overthinking this and it's not something people worry about until they have to deal with it?
totally not a dumb question - I hadn't even thought about this before!
I've been meaning to tell you.... i really don't think that this was untrue in your case... I honestly believe that the tongue tie prevented the boys from adequately stimulating your milk.... if they weren't able to fully suck then your body wouldn't make enough milk..... this is the case with many preemies - b/c they can't or don't have the suck reflex like term babies do, many (not all but many) are not able to successfully BF b/c they can never get mom's supply to where it needs to be.... so, I truly think that in your case, you probably could have successfully BF the twins if they had had their tongue tie issue addressed early on.
Jaime & Brent
Oahu, Hawaii | Sept. 9, 2005
My Food Blog - Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats
*shrug* It's possible. Either way, 3 lactation consultants were wrong. Either I couldn't produce enough milk, or the tongue ties that they all swore weren't causing an issue actually were.
I may still be a little bitter.
When I was working post partum we told women to ALWAYS nurse the infant first and then nurse the older child so the baby gets the best immunities and the "beef" of the milk. Besides that in the early days, you want the littlest one to take as much of the colostrum possible.
For us, I couldn't keep up being pregnant and producing milk for Bella. I was eating a ton, drinking over a gallon of water a day, having terrible morning sickness and barely sleeping. My body just couldn't do both so in turn, my milk supply dropped, as in dropped I mean I dropped my supply in 1/2 during the first tri. She was 1 at the time so it was ok timing for us... She self weaned and it wasn't traumatic for anyone.
Part of me wonders if that's why I miscarried in April (because my body couldn't sustain the pregnancy and nurse Bella) but at that time, nursing Bella was the most important... Don't get me wrong, I'm still sad and heartbroken about the miscarriage but at that point in time, I think Bella really needed the milk and needed what we had when we nursed.
No offense to those that want to do extended nursing but I think the 13 1/2 months was good for us. It kind of weirds me out when people nurse for too long, like it's more for the mom than the baby at that point. I had a neighbor who was nursing her 4 1/2 yr old and her 2 yr old... to me that's a little much, but again that's just my opinion! For Bella, She was starting to ask for it and pull my shirt a ton and throw tantrums when she wanted it. She's almost 19 months now and she's SO busy, I can't imagine nursing her now! She's a big girl!
She barely likes to be cuddled!
This is why a good friend of mine who was committed to extended nursing ended up stopping. Her son was 2.5 years old and still comfort nursing a few times a day, and she really wanted to let him choose the time to wean - but ultimately she cut him off because he would try to climb under her shirt while they were out at places, yank open her top, etc., and would have a tantrum if she said no. She finally decided that enough was enough, and forced him to wean. (I know this won't happen to everyone, just wanted to mention that it wasn't just you and Bella.)
I was just uncomfortable with it, maybe some people aren't. She threw a giant fit when my BIL was here and was really made because she wanted to nurse. That was when I decided that I'd stop offering and continue nursing but with weaning actively in mind. I can't imagine being out to dinner or at a gathering with friends/family. Don't get me wrong my kid comes first but at that point (she was just over 1) it was no longer for nutrition. It was WAY more for comfort.