Thread: Was breast feeding not enough for your child?

Originally Posted by yannahk

I am the mother of a beautiful 10 week old baby girl that has been given nothing but breast milk. She was born at almost eight pounds and is currently a little over twelve pounds. With my older daughter, I gave her formula and she was eighteen pounds by this time! Really, I think breast milk just produces thinner babies.

sorry i HAVE to laugh lol, both my girls wewre formula fed and at 6 months sam weighed in at 14 lbs emily weiged in at 16lbs well bruce is a breast baby he weighs in at 20lbs lol. i just think it depends on the baby

////

If the baby is gaining weight, I don't understand how the Dr. could say she was starving. My Lyndon was starving, but I couldn't see it. I was nursing him constantly. Turns out I had very little to give him. It took 2 ladies from church to come over and had me nurse him (one of them was a post-partum nurse) and then had me offer him a bottle and he downed it so fast, poor starving boy. For 5 weeks I still nursed and supplemented until he weaned himself. The one time I pumped (after my milk came in), I got only about 1 teaspoon in an hour. I look at pictures now of him and I feel so bad because he had no fat on his body, his skin just hung off his bones, and he had dark circles around his eyes. That's what prompted those ladies to come over, I'm sure.

With Nolan, I knew what to look for, and started supplementing him early, and then I never even tried with Lena. It was too emotionally traumatic for me when I failed with the boys. Still is.

Is your DD still taking her prenatal vitamins ?? The additional supplements in her system will supplement Emily as well.

All babies gain weight at their own pace; if she is content and using enough diapers then be patient. There is nothing wrong with supplementing with the bottle - lets Dad get involved too.

Good luck !

Thanks for all the comments.

Emily was 8 pounds at birth...but dropped 8 ounces when she was discharged 3 days later. So...she was 7-1/2 pounds when she went home. She is now 9 pounds.

And she is definitely wetting her diapers.

My daughter is feeling better. She said she was already questioning her milk production when she saw the pediatrician and she thinks that he worded things badly. He wasn't accusatory...just rather matter of fact.

She thinks that she has a lot of milk in the mornings...but less at night. So...she will be breastfeeding solely in the middle of the night and first thing in the morning. She will then offer formula first and then breast feeding for the rest of Emily's feedings.

She did that last night and Emily took to the bottle okay. She also slept very soundly for 6 hours last night.

Again...thanks for all the replies. I will pass them on to my daughter.

Grandma, thank you for sharing the weight gain.

FYI - do one of those growth charts online for your grandbaby.

Growing 8 pounds to 9 pounds in 2 months is clearly not enough.

Gaining just 16 ounces (1 lb using birth weight)
or 24 ounces (1.5 lb using going home weight) in 2 months
is not enough weight gain for a normal newborn to 2 month old baby.

Baby needs more nutrition.

Maybe suppliment nursing
with formula is the answer for the baby.

I agree with the pediatrician. Yes, I'm a Mom and an RN.

i am 100% for bf. i did all three of mine. the thing is though, if she starts to supplement, which she may have to do, the baby may ween herself from the breast all together. the breast takes work for babies. the bottle is a piece of cake. so they get lazy. i would make sure that is what to do. if you can, you may want to mix formula in some cereal instead of a bottle. that may help with the weight gain. but i agree, i think i would see another dr just to be sure.
some women do lack nutriets in their milk, but not many.

(this is a little sore spot for me as my mil told me with all three of mine that my milk jsut wasnt enough. i was to little to bf. she just hated bfing all together and she tried to tell me eveyhting to get me to quit. i am sure that your dr is not this case bc most want you to nurse as long as you can. good luck!!!!

also wnated to ad dyou said she would offer formual fist and tehn nurse, i think i might do it the other way around. if she slacks off on nursing, her body will think she is not needing to produce more milk and slowly slack off production. if she wants to pump to keep her supply going, that is good too. she may have jsut hit a growth spurt and your dd's milk supply is not up to what she needs. i did this with sammy. i had to pump sometimes two more times than he fed for a couple days until my body caught up with his need.

do you guys have a laleache league around you? call your local health department and ask them for the number. they are great on the phone and will even come out to your house and help you and talk to you if you want them to. they are a great help!!!! they are the ones that told me about the milk production. not ds's dr!