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Dallas-Fort Worth Babies
Is my nearly 7 month old Starving?
My daughter will turn 7 months old next week. I took her to her 6 month appointment and the Dr. said she had only gained about a pound or so since her last appointment 2 months prior. The dr. said there is a chance the weight was recorded incorrectly, and that she wasn't concerned, but that its a good idea to start solids to help with her weight gain.
We just moved, and I started another semester at college, so I hired a nanny to watch my daughter a few hours a couple times a week while I am in class. I have exclusively breastfed my daughter, however, whenever a semester of school is in session, that is the only time that I pump and she recieves a bottle of the childcare provider.
I haven't pumped in a little over a month during the christmas break. I tried pumping to get something for a bottle feeding with the Nanny prepared, and I only produced about an ounce total with both breast. My daughter was asleep, so I figured I'd stay up late and pump again in 2 hours, so I did, and I pumped an additional ounce.
I went to bed, and woke up the next morning, pumped and again, only another ounce or so. In the past I would produce about 5 or 6 ounces everytime I pumped. So it was a shock to see how little I am producing, and why my child hasn't been gaining much weight.
So of course, I started her on food, however, i'm not producing a lot of breastmilk. So I'm feeding her food 3 times a day, and I'm still breast feeding, but is that enough, or does she required more than that? I would just die if I had to give her formula.
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Re: Is my nearly 7 month old Starving?
I do know that pumping isn't accurate, because baby really does do the BEST job at getting all the milk out. However, to go from pump about 5-6 oz. every 2 hours, to only pumping an oz each 2 hours, is a huge difference.
I guess some information I left out is that. We have both been sick as well with a really bad cold, or the flu or something... Anyways, I've noticed she isn't having a normal number of wet diapers, and when they are wet, it isn't much urnine, and its darker than normal. So I know that's a sign of dehydration. Which is either brought on from the cold, or from me not producing enough breastmilk for her, or both.
In either case, should I be giving her a little water each day so that she isn't getting dehydrated and also at the same time... should I start gulping down water to make sure, I'm not dehydrated as well?
Has your daughter become more active- ie: Crawling or Walking. Once my son started getting on the move his weight stabilized and he stopped gaining as quickly. He has been eating more solids so whenever a milk meal gets replaced with solids, your milk production can be affected by this substitution and decreases little by little. Unless your daughter starts screaming bloody murder for no reason, I don't think she is starving.
Well, after we got over our illness, my milk supply went back up, and everything is back to normal now.
However, the whole formula thing may not feel like the end of the world to you or to moms who formula feed, etc...
But to me, and to MANY other moms out there in the world, working hard to exclusively breastfeed your child, and then to have that all ruined to only end up giving your child a bottle of formula feels like a failure to many mothers. To someone who takes breastfeeding seriously, it is a huge deal to have to give your child formula after months and long nights of breastfeeding and pumping. Taking your pump and a small cooler with you everywhere you go whether it be work, school, etc... and having to find a private place to pump and store your milk at. Breastfeeding is a committment, and I made that to my child, and to fail at that at the time was really hard for me.
Some may not see how upsetting that would be to someone, but I don't think people should bite my head off, or not be able to empathize with me about how I feel towards it.
After we got over being ill, and after drinking Mothers Milk Tea and pumping every hour, helped a lot, and about a week later my milk supply was back up. I guess I should have listened to my Dr. instead of seeking advice from others. But oh well. in the end, no worries and no hard feelings. Life is back to normal and happy as ever.
I don't think that the person who suggested formula was judging you at all. I EBF for 9 months. Short of taking drugs like reglan or domperidome(neither of which I wanted to take) I ended up having to supplement with formula. I tried everything else to avoid it, but Do I feel like a failure - NO!! We do what is best for our child. If you were really worried about dehydration then formula or even something like Pediasure at that point could have been the best course of action - especially if sickness was most likely the cause of your drop in supply. It all worked out for you in the end, but it sounds like you were beat up over on another board where as many here really did try and help you.