The Great Baby Feeding Thread

kns1988 · August 2018

Something good to know is that if you get stuck in the hospital, you can ask for them to provide a hospital grade pump. That's what I did when I was there for a week. I also went into motherhood without knowing much about BFing, and it was fine. I read about 2 chapters of a book on nursing and avoided the discussions on TB because I found them boring.

Mandamay1414 · August 2018

BF was fairly uncomplicated for me and DD, however, she did go on a nursing strike or two between 4 and 7 months old. She was a great nurser and then suddenly one day she absolutely refused to latch/nurse and would scream every time I tried to nurse her. It was incredibly frustrating because she was crying from hunger but wouldn't nurse. I wasted about 3 hrs trying to feed her one afternoon before giving her a bottle of pumped milk. Based on my experience, don't try to force nursing during a strike.. pumped bottles are ok for the day or two that the strike lasts.. and I found that even during the strike she would still nurse for the MOTN feeds when she was sleepy. During feeds, I would offer her the breast first and if she protested too much, didn't push it. Eventually the MOTN only nursing went back to regular nursing at all times of the day.

amongthewildflowers · August 2018

For the FTM's, my best advice would be to buy a couple bottles from a couple different brands. Dont stock up. You really dont know what bottle your baby will like, and it's better to plan to try a couple and then run out and get more once you find out what he/she likes than stock up and have a ton of bottles your baby wont take.

molosmiles · August 2018

Yes! With DD1 I went through so many y different bottles and formulas until I found the winning combo. Dr. Brown and the yellow enfamil. DD2 nursed easy but when we supplemented we went with organic Similac and Dr. browns. I tried to use other bottles because of all the parts but they really work the best.

MrsPyrowiz · August 2018

I breastfed both my babies exclusively (my son til 18 months and my daughter is still nursing at almost 13 months), but, we had a fairly easy time with latching. I have great nipple apparently. That doesn't mean it was totally easy though, my oldest refused EVERY bottle and my daughter had a dairy intolerance so I had to cut out all dairy until she was 9 months and started outgrowing it.

My take away from my experience with my son is don't go out and buy a bunch of bottles of one specific brand. Your baby might hate the specific brand you choose regardless of how "natural" or recommended it is.

My take away from my daughter is that something you love eating might make your baby crap blood and terrify the s**t out of you (if this happens, DON'T PANIC! Call the pediatrician and save the diaper so they can test it) but seeing my baby not in pain made cutting out some of my favorite foods worth it. She was diagnosed at 2 days old and was literally a different baby within a week of cutting dairy and symptom free 100% at a month old.

sweetyjenj · August 2018

I don't know if it was mentioned....Netflix has a breastfeeding documentary and it was really helpful to watch!! I had learned (I don't quite recall from where, maybe from that documentary) that newborn babies are actually really good at finding the nipple on their own. Apparently the nipple has a scent, thanks to hormones, that the baby is drawn to. In many other countries the baby is left on the moms chest and the newborn baby can do a sort of weak crawl to the nipple. It can take a while for some babies, though. Most nurses in the US will basically shove the baby's face to the nipple to show you how to feed, but I really wanted DD to find her own way. I didn't even think about it at the time, and the nurse initially tried to guide DD to the nipple, but she didn't latch immediately (she seemed almost confused) and the nurse got distracted, then as soon as the nurse turned around to get something, DD shifted and latched on her own and it was really cool! This time I also hope to have DS find it on his own. I'll hold him close enough so it won't take long (I'm not the most patient person, either) but I want to see if he can do it. If he can't, i'll certainly step in and help, but I don't want his head shoved to the nipple by the nurses.

bradleysmommy28 · August 2018

Listen to your heart. I seriously ran the gamut with feeding! I have PCOS and my hormones are crazy out of whack which causes low supply. Add to that a 8.5 wk early preemie who couldn't latch for 3 wks forcing me to EP and it was a disaster. I pumped as much as I could but after 4 wks of producing next to nothing (1 oz each 45 min session), I decided I needed my sanity more than being hooked to a pump and gave it up. The switch to formula seemed like the best idea until the refluxing began. Not a single med touched his reflux and we went through every single formula on the market. We finally gave up after 2 different pediatric GI docs, several tests and all the formulas and stuck to the sensitive one because he threw up the least amount with that formula. I also was told specifically by a world renowned Ped GI that once we decided on the type of formula to not waste my money with name brands and use generic so we used the Walmart Parent's Choice version. We also ran the gamut with bottles and ended up with Dr. Browns. I was super bummed because I had registered for and received an entire set of all different sizes of Avent bottles and because they were used, I couldn't return them so I ended up giving them to a co-worker. So I guess that leads me to the next suggestion - don't register for a complete set of bottles or if you do, don't use the set until you try an individual one and make sure it works otherwise it could be a huge loss of $$.

sweetyjenj · August 2018

@bradleysmommy28 to piggy back what you said, I've heard that Target and Costco brand formula is just as good as Enfamil, if not better. It's not worth wasting money on name brand if it has the same quality. Definitely don't dismiss generic without giving them a try (we didn't use formula, so my experience is only from word of mouth)

pttomato · August 2018

With DD, she did not latch on her own and did need the head shoving.

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