Comments on: A Breastfeeding Battle

By: miloh

miloh — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 10:45:49 +0000

hi, how’s it going? good to know you’re continuing to breastfeed. i fully agree with the suggestions above, i.e. to drink PLENTY of fluids. my experience with ryan is he’s a good drinker and my first few days were a nightmare, with him screaming for milk (mine came on day 6) and i honestly imagined my nipples were going to drop dead any second. thank goodness for medela’s PureLan, which helped to “repair” my nipples a bit. but perseverance will pay off, and now i have accumulated a good backup milk supply.

i did give in twice though, once when i was in the hospital and the nurses brought him to me like, every hour and i had absolutely no rest, and another time when MIL was at home with us (it pleased her very much to feed him formula, for some reason).

KittyCat: Hi there! Thanks for the moral support. I have been drinking *more* fluids but I think the problems lie in not having enough rest due to a) work and b) managing the household. Just imagine our weekends when the crazy toddler’s at home…

Things are not running smoothly yet and I’m looking for a daytime auntie to help with cooking and caring for the kids. Know anyone???

Plus, this CL is strange as she loves to stare at me breastfeed AND exclaim, “She’s not full!” or pick her up and tell her repeatedly, “You’re not full, aren’t you?”. I guess she feels helpless since she can’t help much with the girl stuck at my boobs every 2 hours.

Once I find the daytime auntie, I’m hoping that I’ll get enough rest and the supply will go up so I can cut out the formula completely…

By: sharine

sharine — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:20:08 +0000

drink more fluid (milo, milk, warm water, red dates beverage), soups (boiled fish and papaya) and rest/sleep when baby sleeps… mind you I even did a log record on my fluid intake and baby’s milk intake from which side of breast, the time and how many times for poo and pee… I was so so determined last time to bf sucessfully…
In order to increase milk is let baby sucks as much as possible… I did and besides going to loo, eating and clean myself you can find me lying with baby during my last confinement. The first 3 months will be difficult but just think that later on it will be a bliss…

By: HN

HN — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 13:48:05 +0000

My experience tells me that enough rest and lots of soup & fluid will definitely increase the milk supply. Now the problem is we are constantly lack of rest during the first few weeks hence the low supply. Chew Lee is right, rest while the baby sleep (side -lying positionis the best!). Whenever I wake up from a short 30 mins of rest, my breasts usually are engorged with milk.

P/S: the ang mo here adviced me to drink lots of malt drink like non-alcholic beer. It works perfectly for me

By: etceteramommy

etceteramommy — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 03:53:47 +0000

Kittycat, just try your best. Don’t give yourself too much pressure. It doesn’t make us any worse as a mommy just because we feed our baby formula. I was like you, not having enough milk last time and discouraging comments from certain people made me felt even more incompetent as a mommy. I preservered and managed to bf Ryan for 2 mths + and I’m proud of myself eventhough the duration was really nothing to shout about.

I gained a lot of info from your post and the comments here. Hopefully I’ll do better with BB2.

Btw.. they say drinking soup with raw papaya / squid helps. Worth a try, afterall Im sure the soup taste yummy.

Good luck dear. If you come up with any great success, please share with us ya.

By: Immomsdaughter

Immomsdaughter — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 04:48:59 +0000

Boy, am I glad I’m done with the baby phase. I remembered when Ryan was like Alisa…feeds so slowly, when finished, time to poop, then time to feed and the cycle is non stop.

I too pumped 2oz only regardless what I take, so sorry no advice to help but just persevere and things will improve soon. I know it’s easier said than done but trust us, we’ve all been there. Take care ya. Hugs.