I am thinking of taking my daughter off the breast and just giving her expressed milk.... any advie please?

Question

My daughter is a little over 6 months and breastfeeding is all but impossible at the minute. Sometimes she feeds really well, other times is on and off the breast 10 times in one minute (no exaggeration). I know this phase will probably pass but I have been thinking lately that I might start expressing and giving her feeds in a sippy cup. I have thought about this from birth so it's not just due to what I call "distracto baby syndrome" lol.

I'd love some advice from anyone who has tried this ... or anyone else if you have any info, tips etc.

I am worried about my milk supply as it has never been great. I don't know what would be worse for it:my daughter's haphazard feeding habits (she never quite drains me at the minute cos she just wants to play) or expressing rather than feeding her directly.

Answer 1

In the end it is your decision but just some thoughts to think about - pumping can sometimes be harder then it sounds - you need to find about 20 minutes every 2-3 hours that you can sit undisturbed and pump. Also using a pump exclusively can dry you up because of the decrease of oxytocin running through your body,

But even if you do decide to pump - then you are still giving her the best - so good luck

Answer 2

still a bit young for a cup but with the feeding, slowly faze out the breast. alternate between bottles and the breast and cut down a breast feed a day and replace it with a bottle. we have alot of trouble with breast fed babies at work because they sometimes get so attatched by 1 year that they refuse a bottle, the sooner the better. oh and i'm an early childhood teacher and mum of nearly 3.

Answer 3

Pumping is much harder than feeding her naturally. I woudn't do it if I were you. It's just too stressful. Expressing just takes up more time and will frustrate you and her.  

Answer 4

If she drinks well froma sippy cup then try it, but I would keep her morning and nighttime feeding on the breast

Answer 5

i am doing both nursing and expressed breast milk bottle feeding. my daughter does the same thing...she tends to feed really well in the morning, but through the day, she will slowly get worse. i express with an electric avent double pump whenever she bottle feeds, and my supply has gone way up! i also was having trouble with supply, because she was not feeding well due to a tongue tie which has been repaired. my opinion is...as long as she is getting breast milk, what difference does it make where it comes from? plus, if you don't get drained by her every time, you can get mastitis, and trust me, i speak from experience, that is the OPPOSITE of fun times! owie!!!

good luck.  

Answer 6

WOW! First of all, I've been exactly in your shoes, and not that long ago, at that! My daughter is 15 months old and finally weaned altogether at 14 months. I am a stay at home mom with a three year old and five year old and breastfeeding was naturally the first choice for me, but my boys are constantly trying to harm eachother or the house or themselves or the cat, etc.... and having a baby attached to you nearly 24/7 is more than impossible as it is, let alone when you have two other kids to take care of! Anyways, I also had the not-so-hot milk supply (and when I asked my doc what to do about it he said give the baby formula! HHMMMPPPHHH!!) I tried herbal supplements and the mother's tea (nauseating, isn't it?) and to no avail, my b*****s were perfectly happy to supply the minimal amount. She was growing just fine though, so what can you do? And my daughter would take AT LEAST 45 minutes to eat and then want to nurse again an hour later and I considered pumping and puttting it in a bottle or sipper so I could put her in the bouncy seat with the bottle while I tried to make lunch for my boys or so I could keep them from killing eachother, etc.... I tried at least five different brands and styles of breastpumps, some expensive, some not. One of which was Medela and paid for by my health insurance and just happens to be top of the line and very reliable, but yet every time I pumped I'd only get one or two ounces. Then WIC suggested that since I have very large b*****s (36DDD) that I needed to get a larger size nipple cone and that would solve my pumping problems. So I went out and bought the larger ones, also to no avail! No matter what I did, I couldn't pump enough out nor could I find enough time in my already hectic day to pump and feed her and keep up a house with two other young children. She started to play around at the boob at that age, too. But it only lasted a month, maybe six weeks. My daughter liked to blow sherberts on me while nursing and then giggle then nurse and start all over again. So I figured, well she's just playing now, she's not actually eating so I can take her off the breast, but the second I tried that she would scream bloody murder and not stop until she was given "her" boob back! I am not the pessimist type, but in this situation, at least for me, pumping was not going to cut it. Also, WIC advised me that the reason I may only be gettting one or two ounces each time is because my b*****s only make exactly how much I need, and none to spare and that if I wanted to start pumping for her to go to daycare, or whatever reason, that it would take me pumping several times a day, every day and each day that went by my milk flow should get better and better, but it wasn't going to happen overnight. It may take weeks, maybe even a month or two to get to the point where I would have enough milk to feed her from the breast (to avoid giving her formula) and then an extra 5-7 ounces as well to pump. She suggested maybe trying to pump at the same time as baby is nursing, that way you already have the let-down reflex going and you could feed her the hind-milk and have hind-milk in the bottle as well, but it only took a couple times of fighting with the whole breast pump cone and everything while feeding her to realize that wasn't going to work. My daughter couldn't relax or concentrate having to listen to the whooshing and hissing sound of the pump, and I had a heck of a time holding the cone one handedly on a breast that big and turning the pump on and holding it just right so that my nipple wasn't turning purple/blue! I hope you can get some advice from other people that might work for you, but I thought it was necessary to share my awful experience trying what you are thinking of trying! In the end I just stuck it out and at 10 months she was weaned to only 2-3 nursings a day, all the rest of her nutrition came from solid foods, and then after that she only had her early moring feeding in bed with me while I dozed until my boys got up, that's when I would wake her and start my day. Those early morning feeding would last for 2-3 hours. She wouldn't even open her eyes, she would just fuss a whole bunch when that boob was empty, and I would awake long enough to switch her to the other side and it would go on like that till my boys got up. We did that from the time she was 10 months until 14 months. At that point she would nurse for a few minutes and then her eyes would pop open and she'd try sneaking off the bed while I dozed. That's when I realized that nursing was over (sniffle sniffle :~( ) and looked back at the time I had with her during all those feedings and realized that even though it was down-right impossible at times, it was so worth it! For 14 months out of a lifetime, I got to nurse her and gave her valuable bonding time with mommy and liquid gold to help boost her immunity and brain power, among other things. To be quite honest with you, I still can't figure out how I did it someti