Breastmilk and breastfeeding problems :(

Atomic I believe you touched on this before about moms making a specific kind of milk per gender of baby.. with DD3 I was barely able to EBF her.. she was slow to gain but thankfully stuck at the 50th percentile for her lowest weights so I never heard much from anyone other than to 'try'' and get her to gain a little better...

DD4 is a whole other story.

4.5 months in and I must be doing something wrong. She is the unhappiest baby. I have what I think is a great supply, I can pump 4-5 ounces in less than 10 minutes..she nurses 10-15 minutes each feeding depending on what she wants. I go until she pulls off or falls asleep.. she will NOT take a bottle for us. She took them right after birth but once I was able to breast feed her I was all she ever wanted and she snubs bottles. She gets this look on her face like "do you think I'm dumb, lady?" And will gag instead of latching. It's every type of bottle and nipple. She also refuses pacifiers.have tried all brands.

She weighed in at the 30th percentile and the doctor gave me the heads up they didn't want her to drop anymore. Talk about pressure. So I introduced solids. Now she is 47th percentile but doctor really wants me to introduce a little formula to try and up her caloric intake as my milk apparently just isn't cutting it.

My questions are this.. do you think I can fix the caloric content of my milk for her without gaining weight in the process, or am I doomed with what my body seems to think it needs to make for her and hoping for the best? What about a supplemental nursing system? Would that be too much for her to drink with a healthy supply and formula coming from the tube too? I think she would drink it if she thought it was coming from me..

First of all, I have one question for you- do you really love/like your doctor? Because what he/she is telling you is flat bull$h*t!! To be blunt, you are producing ample amount for her. With breastfed babies, you can offer the breast more often, but you cannot force them. At the 47th percentile, there is no problem. Hell when she was at the 30th percentile, there was no problem! All that says to me is she is going to be petite! If you told her doctor what you told us about your supply, and he/she put forth those demands, then it's time to get another doctor! I'm dead serious-no joke! The reason we have a bell curve is because not everyone falls into the 50th percentile! My DS2 simply does not each much, EVER! He consistently hovers between the 5th-25th percentile for weight despite being in the 50th percentile for height. What his doctor told me is that as long as they truck along on their growth curve and not take big dips or leaps, there is no problem! Every person is different!

Get a new doctor ASAP! This type of $h*t P*$$e$ me off [emoji35][emoji48][emoji84][emoji35]! Sorry guys, but there is nothing more that angers me than idiot doctor's making stupid feeding demands when there is nothing wrong with the mom's supply and the baby is on the Fing growth curve!!!

Ok, I've calmed down! Please don't try and force her to do what she is not willing to do for some stupid doctor! All this will do is cause feeding problems where there are none. Like, cause her to second guess her own body's cues for fullness and she overeats. Gas, spitting up, reflux, and fussiness will only occur. Feeding her solids before she is ready causes her to take in less milk and will not be getting the good fats from your milk. She may gain weight in the short term but not the long term.

Please just let her nurse as long as she wants to, offer the breast more frequently, and if she doesn't want to eat solids at a meal time or at all, then don't let her. She WILL tell you when she's ready, not some idiot Doctor with ridiculous demands that needs to be schooled on what information can be gleaned from a bell curve!!

You've been through enough Burakoam, and this is unacceptable! You're doing great, and she is doing great!

((Hugs))


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[emoji178]Baby Girl [emoji254]EDD 9/30/2017 [emoji178]

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I think XX has said it all. That advice from the Dr is terrible and her weight is fine. Not all babies can be on the same percentile, some have to be smaller and some are larger but if she is tracking roughly around the same line then it should be fine.

Most Drs don't know much about breastfeeding so they are known to give bad advice. It is possible to provide enough milk without having to supplement. All mine have had nothing but breastmilk until 6 months and I have never ever used formula. Trust your body, it is doing a great job and you are all she needs!

Aww.. Love you guys.. I think the concern is because she has been falling off her curve. Her height continues to stay stable but her weight went from 75%, to 50% to 30%.. and only now back up to 47%. I have been trying to lose weight (not very well to be fair) and considered going more HE to see if it made my milk any fattier for her but I gains sO much when I'm on HE..

I would focus then on keeping your calories between 1800-2000. Try that and see if you can produce more fattier milk. You should also be able to lose weight slowly at this rate- at least I was able to. Weight loss needs to be slow while breastfeeding.

It sounds like she was heavier initially and her weight is settling around the 50th percentile. This is common and happens all of the time! My DS3 was in the 80th for both height and weight initially, and his weight settled and has been consistent at the 50-60th. My point is, maybe she is more comfortable at the 30th. Wasn't she overly fussy in the beginning and took awhile to calm? Maybe the 30th is perfect for her. It sounds like she's doing fine where she is currently, but she most definitely doesn't sound like she requires any feeding interventions. I would simply follow her lead!


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[emoji178]Baby Girl [emoji254]EDD 9/30/2017 [emoji178]

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HUGS!!! You have been given great advise. Follow your instincts and her lead. BFing is so hard and it does not help when the Drs are pushing formula all the time when it does not sound like it is necessary. If she was saying she was still hungry after a feed, that would be a different story. Hang in there.

Let me explain what "percentiles" mean.

A baby in the 50th percentile is NOT like getting 50% on a test or something. It simply means that 50% of all babies are larger and 50% are the same size or smaller. It is an average, middle of the road sized baby. This is NOT a problem and anyone telling you your baby needs to gain better in the 50th percentile does not understand how the percentiles work. 30th percentile means that 70% of babies are larger and 30 % are the same size or smaller. This is STILL not a problem. People come in all different shapes and sizes and someone has to be the 30th percentile. It is totally normal for some people to be smaller than others and it is not a big deal at all.

There is NO NEED for your baby to be put onto formula and I find it quite frankly bizarre advice in 2017 when the "percentile charts" have really fallen in to disrepute that any doctor would recommend such a thing.

There is literally nothing wrong with your milk. You are making perfect milk for your baby. Your body knows what it is doing. You do not need to "fix" anything. The reason why moms made more calories in "boy" milk is because baby boys needed more calories. Baby girls don't need as many, and supposedly (because remember, this was a fairly new study) the milk adjusted to meet the baby's needs. This was not a flaw in the system, it was an advantage. Both moms of girls and moms of boys made fine and perfectly healthy breastmilk to meet their baby's needs regardless of their gender. Your baby is fine and growing well and your doctor is extremely misinformed.

One of my babies was not a fan of pacifiers (made them gag). None of mine ever took a bottle. It's not a bad thing that she doesn't like those things, it is just her style.

One of my babies was small. He was my only baby under 8 lbs, and even though he's nearly 2 years older than his younger brother, they are very nearly the same height and build and are often mistaken for twins. Totally same genetics, but he's just smaller than the other 4.

I hated that age - I found my babies were all very unhappy then, they wanted to move but weren't able to just yet. So they fussed and fussed. Once they were able to get a little more mobile they cheered up a lot!!

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Originally Posted by Burakoam

Aww.. Love you guys.. I think the concern is because she has been falling off her curve. Her height continues to stay stable but her weight went from 75%, to 50% to 30%.. and only now back up to 47%. I have been trying to lose weight (not very well to be fair) and considered going more HE to see if it made my milk any fattier for her but I gains sO much when I'm on HE..

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This is totally normal, all of mine had those kind of fluctuations. I found mine would beef up before a growth spurt and then their weight would stay the same but they'd grow taller. :)

How much sleep does she get Burakoam? Maybe she is grumpy from tiredness? Some babies don't cope as well with little sleep. Although I think Atomic is right about them wanting to move at this age and getting frustrated. DS1 was slow to get moving and he was always frustrated not being able to do anything, DS2 was crawling at 5.5 months and rarely got grumpy (wish I could say he was still like that haha).

She doesnt like naps, but sleeps 12 hours overnight. during the day no matter how quiet this house is (or loud for that matter) she will not nap more than an hour, and only goes down twice a day....i happen to believe ALOT of it is that she is tired and doesnt nap.

She has something going on with her health wise too that nobody has been able to pinpoint. First it was labled as reflux, then colic, then back to reflux, then they were concerned about pyloric stenosis but ruled that out..however none of the reflux meds have ever worked and so they hesitate to say its reflux even though she pukes after every meal. Its getting a little bit better but she used to projectile vomit every feeding. Honestly its hard for her to keep calories because between the screaming and the puking i imagine she just doesnt get as much. They ruled out milk and protein allergy very early on so its never been that. Shes just a hard baby -shrug- nobody has any explanation..atomic may be right and it could just be that she wants to move because she seems to never want to sleep for fear of missing something fun or important, and always has to switich/move activities. Honestly this may be a 'normal' baby and not hard at all and im just being a big pansy..my other 3 were very simple babies who loved whatever i had them doing until i decided it was time to do something else...Not lexie, lol..lexie is the boss and she says when shes had enough tummy time, sleep, swing, cuddles, all of it.

It doesn't help that when she does sleep it's like this.. with at least one eye still half open ��

Attachment 37387

She does sound like a difficult baby Burakoam, I don't think it is you as you have done it 3 times before so you know babies. It is probably harder this time too having a smaller gap I imagine but it doesn't help having all those extra challenges.

I have seen a thin, underweight baby and that is NOT a thin, underweight baby. :) What a doll!!! I will bet once she can get up and go after the others she will be a lot more cheerful.

Honestly I've sort of wondered if something is wrong with their scales because she did always look perfect to me.. guess I figured a doctor should know more..

Attachment 37397

She looks perfect and very healthy Burakoam!!

No way, no how, look at dem rolls!! That is my definition of perfect. :) So precious!!!

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Originally Posted by Burakoam

She doesnt like naps, but sleeps 12 hours overnight. during the day no matter how quiet this house is (or loud for that matter) she will not nap more than an hour, and only goes down twice a day....i happen to believe ALOT of it is that she is tired and doesnt nap.

She has something going on with her health wise too that nobody has been able to pinpoint. First it was labled as reflux, then colic, then back to reflux, then they were concerned about pyloric stenosis but ruled that out..however none of the reflux meds have ever worked and so they hesitate to say its reflux even though she pukes after every meal. Its getting a little bit better but she used to projectile vomit every feeding. Honestly its hard for her to keep calories because between the screaming and the puking i imagine she just doesnt get as much. They ruled out milk and protein allergy very early on so its never been that. Shes just a hard baby -shrug- nobody has any explanation..atomic may be right and it could just be that she wants to move because she seems to never want to sleep for fear of missing something fun or important, and always has to switich/move activities. Honestly this may be a 'normal' baby and not hard at all and im just being a big pansy..my other 3 were very simple babies who loved whatever i had them doing until i decided it was time to do something else...Not lexie, lol..lexie is the boss and she says when shes had enough tummy time, sleep, swing, cuddles, all of it.

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!!! If she's sleeping 12 hours at night, she's definitely getting enough! I know you and I already talled about this, but I'm glad other people are saying the things I thought!

I still think reflux could be an issue on the unhappiness, but that often resolves by 6 or 7 months in most babies!

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Originally Posted by Burakoam

Honestly I've sort of wondered if something is wrong with their scales because she did always look perfect to me.. guess I figured a doctor should know more..

Attachment 37397

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My DD was in the 40s around Lexie's age and she looked much more slender than Lexie. Did someone enter a number wrong in the computer because Lexie DOES look totally healthy. And that's a serious question, because when my DD was borm some idiot entered the "3.whatever kg" from the hospital into "3.whatever POUNDS" at the pediatrician's.

^^^^^ this x a million. Happens all. the. time. Somebody screws something up, and they can't disengage from their protocols enough to stop to realize "wow this is a perfectly beautiful healthy baby girl".

Follow your heart!

Anyone familiar with medications and breastfeeding? i am trying to find out how transfer works exactly...if you take 50MG of a medication, and baby is expected to receive 6% of it, is that 6% TOTAL like the first time they nurse? is it 6% of 50 every feeding? or 6% of whatever is in your blood at the time, which obviously medications take time to go up in your blood and go down? so at some point she gets 6% of 25 and then 6% 0f 50 and then 6% of 25 again and finally nothing? i asked a pharmacist and he didnt answer me LOL..either he didnt know or he didnt understand the question..

I am! The best site is LactMed. They have a smartphone app. They have links to studies and the half-life of all medication in breast milk, which is what you are asking for [emoji6]. I'll add their link, but look for their free app either on google play or Apple Store.

Here is the link:

https://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/pda/lactmed.htm


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[emoji178]Baby Girl [emoji254]EDD 9/30/2017 [emoji178]

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Hubby I am sending you a PM I absolutely can't make sense of this nonsense and I need this med so I need to know how much Lexie is getting as I'm thinking of stopping it thinking it's affecting her but IF the dose is so small there's no chance I will have piece of mind knowing it's not this medicine and she just had a bad night.

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Originally Posted by Burakoam

Anyone familiar with medications and breastfeeding? i am trying to find out how transfer works exactly...if you take 50MG of a medication, and baby is expected to receive 6% of it, is that 6% TOTAL like the first time they nurse? is it 6% of 50 every feeding? or 6% of whatever is in your blood at the time, which obviously medications take time to go up in your blood and go down? so at some point she gets 6% of 25 and then 6% 0f 50 and then 6% of 25 again and finally nothing? i asked a pharmacist and he didnt answer me LOL..either he didnt know or he didnt understand the question..

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It depends on how the medicine is metabolized and if it is extended release or not, I honestly cannot help with this one because there are so many variations, it's different every time.

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Originally Posted by Burakoam

Hubby I am sending you a PM I absolutely can't make sense of this nonsense and I need this med so I need to know how much Lexie is getting as I'm thinking of stopping it thinking it's affecting her but IF the dose is so small there's no chance I will have piece of mind knowing it's not this medicine and she just had a bad night.

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Here is the thing, though. You've been taking it all along and she's only getting bigger and bigger and better able to tolerate it. Babies do fuss all the time for inexplicable reasons that not even they know and I'd just be real careful not to go off of medication that you need for your health without being really sure it is even necessary.

Updating to say Alexandria had her 6 month check and is at 83% height 60% weight and head circumference!! Basically since starting my medicine she has only thrived so that's a huge weight off my shoulders.

That is so awesome! Good job mama [emoji6]! Now put to bed the feeding worries- she's clearly getting plenty!

Yay [emoji4]!


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[emoji178]Baby Girl [emoji254]EDD 9/30/2017 [emoji178]

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That is wonderful she is doing so well. She is clearly thriving!

That's great!! :)

That is great to hear!