Pacifiers&Breastfeeding (xp from BF)

thumper11 · July 2012

How many of you ladies are doing both?My little one is 1 week today and she started off latching really well. We had no problems in the hospital and her only losing 2% of her birth weight proves it! When my milk came in it was different story. I didn't realize that my breasts were engorged, so we struggled the first day or two after we got home. Finally I decided to pump some to see if that would help her, and it did!! I decided I wanted to feed her the milk I pumped, I almost felt like I was stealing from her when I pumped. She took the bottle with ease and finally was able to get food in her belly! I got super nervous she wouldn't take to my breasts again but she did! So we've been pumping and letting her drink from the bottle. When she sleeps for longer than 4hrs before deciding she is hungry I will use the bottle first to give her milk faster and then my breasts. She sleeps to well sometimes and become frantically hungry

She is doing so well so I let her have a pacifier if she is sleeping and she sleeps so well. Sometimes she doesn't take the pacifier which is totally fine. I won't use the pacifier after 3 months though, I was told that's when they start to get attached and you have a hell of a time getting it from her. [Poll]

thumper11 · July 2012

summergirl1211:
I'll use a pacifier while BFing, but I've read to wait until a good 4-6 weeks into solid BFing before introducing the pacifier. I'm curious to see what others have to say though.

I heard that too! I just felt so bad about feeling like I was "stealing" the breast milk from her and then I figured if she was doing so well with the bottle and breast that she would be fine with the pacifier. So far so good. I hope I don't jinx myself!!

dersgoose · July 2012

I think this is one of those every baby is different kind of situations (obviously true for almost everything); however, that being said we were very lucky with our first who EBF for 11 months and took a paci from day 1 until she just decided she didn't want to use it any longer after a few short months. We never had any latch issues she did great with paci, bottle and breast. Hoping this LO will be the same way. I would just say you have to just try it if it is something you want to introduce.

apollonia10 · July 2012

We've tried the paci and he doesn't really like it, so we'll have to see how that goes. That said, I had the same issue you did (pumping because I was engorged and then feeding him the pumped milk) but I learned that you shouldn't "top off" a breast feeding with more from a bottle. I don't think they regulate how much they take in from a bottle as well as they do from the breast. LO had a projectile vomiting incident when I did this and I felt horrible. So now if I want to give him a bottle, I start out the feeding with it, and then use the breast if he is still hungry. No vomiting do far!

hokiemama06 · July 2012

I was going to wait 4 weeks to introduce the pacifier, but our second night in the hospital I was at my wits end. He has an excellent sucking reflex, and all he wanted was to suck mama. So, between 6 pm - 12 pm, we had 6 "feedings" ranging from 45 minuutes to 20 minutes long. When he wasn't on the boob, he was inconsolable.

Thank God for the nurse who offered the pacifier when she saw how much he was "feeding", and when I mentioned about the lactation consultants not wanting to introduce because of nipple confusion she said, "when nothing comes out of the pacifier, he won't be confused. He'll know your breast is different from the pacifier." She has been absolutely right.

(I put feeding in quotes because I had no milk yet - there was no way he was getting anything out for the bulk of the time he was latched on).

aadewitt · July 2012

One thing I have learned from all my friends with kids- everyone is different. If your getting your LO to eat, great.

for me, I plan on just BF (no bottle, pumping or paci) for the 1st 2-3 weeks. Then I plan on straight up pumping shortly after that. BUT I totally know that things wouldn't go as planned, so I am also down with adjusting my plan .

I would rather not use a paci for a little bit, I am OK with using one when you need too- but I don't want to start him off using one, and def don't want him using one once hes much older, for teeth/talking reasons.

myluckypig · July 2012

I am not giving DS a pacifier. My first did not get one either. I am not totally opposed to giving one to him if he were to need it, but so far so good. I guess I got totally turned off by them when I would see 2 year olds walking around with pacifiers in their mouths. Not only is it not good for their teeth but it looks ridiculous!