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Breastfeeding
Relactation?
Has anyone here had success with relactation? I am reading a lot on kellymom.com but would love to hear personal stories and/or advice.
Just for a bit of background - long story short, my DD was born w/ a tongue tie and couldn't latch properly. She was able to latch w/ a nipple shield and we did get her tongue tie clipped at 5 days so that helped bring my milk in better, but in the meantime I had a pedi appt for her where they told me I was starving her and tried to force feed her formula before I left in tears. I worked w/ an LC and switched pediatricians, but between the nipple shield, the amount of times the LC wanted me to pump to stimulate supply (to make up for the shield), mild PPD and the constant irrational worry that I was starving my baby after that terrible appointment, I ended up supplementing with formula at 4 weeks and by 6-7 weeks she was 100% formula fed. I knew I was going back to work when she was 10 weeks and I was really worried about being able to keep up once there since I was having such a hard time as it was. I recently resigned and am home with her now and am wondering if it's even possible for me to relactate at this point. I have kind of low expectations, it's been so long, I don't expect to her to be able to be EBF but even if I'm able to nurse (or pump) one feeding a day I would count that as a success at this point.
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Re: Relactation?
I have not re-lactated, but I know when I was on here frequently with my new LO, that there were women that were doing so. You might try the toddler boards. My LO is 2, so they were re-lactating 18-24mo ago.
GL!
I did! I had PPD and a baby that absolutely refused to take the boob. I was exclusively pumping but it became too much emotionally. After I quit, I was wracked with (unnecessary) guilt about formula feeding and giving up. One month after DD was exclusively formula fed, I thought I'd try latching her just one more time. For some reason she took to it like you wouldn't believe. She has been exclusively breastfed for a little over 3 months now.
After I decided that I was going to relactate, I had DH take her for a day so I could power pump all day. I didn't get much, but I feel like it told my body to start making milk again without me having to worry if she's latching or if her diaper needs to be changed, etc. I bought some domperidone, which I have weaned off of now. I didn't have any side effects and would take it again in a heartbeat if I needed it.
I realize this might be strange, but I'll pm you my email address for any questions or just want to talk about going through the whole process, etc.
Try to get her to nurse, even if you need to use the shield and pump, pump, pump like you have never pumped before.
I would even order some domperidone from inhousepharmacy.biz. What have you got to lose?
Are you able to express at all? I'd try to find a LLL or LC in the are that has had success before. I KNOW it can be done.
I wasn't fully dried up but I didn't nurse for over a week and we're now back to nursing 3x a day. I just nursed like crazy, pumped like crazy and took every supplement I could find. It worked!
Francesca Pearl is here! Josephine Hope is almost 3!