Same for me! I had so much it was incredible! I got sick for a week and got better. Two weeks after that, all of a sudden, my milk supply dropped. I tried to pump and pump and more I was pumping, less I was getting! My Midwife couldn't understand what happened!

I didn't lose my milk until I had to give up; my son just couldn't breast feed.

Coincidentally, I just saw this today and thought of EF

Since the topic of stopping the milk supply was discussed just yesterday I thought I'd post it here in case someone might find it useful:

http://www.drmomma.org/2011/01/dryin...lk-supply.html

It's on a pro-bf blog (no preaching intended!), and offers alternative (mostly natural) methods of helping to decrease supply. It also mentions further resources for dealing with the hormonal and emotional swings and roundabouts that can result from stopping the milk supply or early weaning.

Nil, I was actually posting a response to the original question - not your post in the middle of the thread. Sorry you took offense at what I had to say. I know lots of people who bottle and lots of people who BF. BF was a better choice for me. I am indifferent to what other people choose to do. I am not passing judgement - just sharing how I see/saw things when I was doing it regarding pros & cons.

Thanks Mistrale, I appreciate your explanation... Sorry I misunderstood!

Looks like we are damned if we we do & damned if we don't anyway since the breastfeeding advice is changing again . http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12180052

My daughter's doctor suggested me to begin to give her solid food when she was four months (here in Switzerland) I wasn't ready and waited until she was 5 months old.

Indeed! Thanks for the interesting post, Lou.

And as always when such studies are published in reputable journals, the affiliations of the researchers and funding sources are called in to question, as such there are already suggestions that this research is not totally unbiased (I couldn't get at the full text of the BMJ paper to check this claim):

from http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandsty...ies-scientists:

The way this is being reported in some parts of the UK media is quite scaremongering and potentially misleading regarding breastfeeding at all, as is often the case with such studies. What this study doesn't dispute is the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding for the first few months of life.

On the subject of iron,* while formulas do contain additional iron to that contained in breastmilk, it is a different kind to the more easily absorbed form (heme iron) contained in breastmilk (see here and here and here for some discussions of weaning and why breastfed babies usually don't need iron supplements as the formula companies would suggest).

I'm neither claiming to be an expert on the subject nor disputing this latest study that has been published, just saying that there are always a myriad of views of what is 'best', seemingly dependent on which direction the wind happens to be blowing. What I do firmly believe is there are no 'one size fits all', fail-safe rule. It's a parent's job to make informed decisions and combine that with their own knowledge and intuition about their own baby.

Much of the 'generally accepted facts' about breastfeeding/formula/disease/allergies is anyway about statistics, the likelihoods*. Not 'if you don't breastfeed/wean late/introduce solids early/etc.** your baby will for sure get allergies' or 'if you do your baby will never get sick'.


* i'm sure this has already been discussed at length somewhere in this humongous thread, apologies if so.
** delete as appropriate

Interesting information. I am a pro-breastfeeder and breastfed both my babies until 1 years old, but I did introduce solids after 4 to 5 months. I was fortunate that I could didn't have to work and could dedicate 4 years of my life totally to my children - 4 years that I really enjoyed. I was in the UK at the time and could never work out why disadvantaged mums were being given help by the government to buy formula milk for the infants but no help with breastfeeding education or nutrition advice/help for the mums. I would be interested in hearing about the psychological advantages for infants who are breastfed - are they less/more likely to smoke? - do they feel closer to their family?

I was formula fed and I am extremely close to my mother. I have to say I don't subscribe to a lot of the namby pamby phsyco babble mumbo jumbo re breast feeding. I am breast feeding and acknowledge it's good for my baby but I don't really think people suffer being formula fed.

Please guys remember that when an article comes up it just means there is a new article not that the opinion of researchers has changed. I would have to look at this new publication in detail to see if it was flawed or if their findings can or can not be extrapolated...relax people!

It would a shame if a thread entitled 'breastfeeding' became a place to discuss NOT BF. Now there is a thread to discuss formula/bottle feeding, without the intrusion of BF.

I agree, but try telling this to the media - the way this is being reported in much of the UK is frankly pathetic and in some cases completely misinterpreted... but if it says it on the news it must be true!

For those interested, here's a response to the BMJ article from UNICEF UK

I don't buy the advice in the article. I did start to introduce foods at four months-but mine weren't keen to take it they did try to chew on baby biscuits. I thought that most people try at four months, along with vitD drops and later flouride drops. I think that the only reason they introduced the 6 month advice, is because some women were proud to have their kids almosr fully weaned at 4-5 months, with just a couple of bottles a day in addition.

As for the immunity concerns, my kids started crawling very early so they came into contact with all kinds of bacteria. I used to go mad sterilizing all surfaces, but they are bound to find something and it all goes straight into their mouths. As long as it is not chemical or bacteria organic (like old food or soil that might have been in contact with dog faeces ) then I don't worry.

The problem is that where as I think all the majority of the people who have posted in this thread are capable of reading such an article & figuring out for themselves what is right for them & their baby. There will be so many parents who will read the headlines or see the news articles on TV about it & start to make uninformed decisions about how to feed their baby. But then again it is like that for so many medical stories that make the news.

Exactly...I do not think these researchers have bad intentions and they only said that solids could be introduced two months earlier (or so Ive read) but in a headline from a newspaper it said something like "breasfeeding might not be good for your baby" --> PLOP!
That is taking things completely out of context...

Just been discussed tonight on BBC1 News. Health professionals and the College of Midwives are very concerned about this so called 'research' and advise great caution with early weaning. See
www.bbc.co.uk/healthnews

Your baby is the one who can tell you the best when he is ready for solid food. You have some signs that shows you.

No one is never 100% right on everything and to do one way doesn't make the other way bad.

It feels sometimes like it is a competition of who will be the best mother. I breastfed my baby exclusively for 6 months and after that it was only home made bio food for the next 6 months, etc...

You do what you think is the best for you, for your baby and get advices from the doctor. For the rest, it is so easy to get confused with all the trends, studies, fashion, etc...

Sadly I haven't got the link - but I remember an article in the UK a couple of years back about weaning on high carbs too early - often to try and get babies to sleep through the night. There seemed to be a strong link to weight issues later on. I am glad I do not have to be a new mum now, with so much conflicting advice, even more than in 'my day' (73 and 75 for my two). In the end you have to use your instinct and do what feels right - but in an informed way.
Bonne chance to all. I suppose the only 'advice' I can give with hindsight now I am a gran, is to stop worrying so much and enjoy - they grow up so fast.

Quote:
Recently it has been proposed that obesity may replace tobacco as the number one health risk factor in developed societies. An estimated 300,000 deaths per year and significant morbidities in the United States are attributable directly to obesity, suggesting that health benefits achieved by modern medicine may be offset by the increasing incidence of obesity worldwide. Although genetic predisposition, sedentary lifestyles, and consumption of high-caloric foods generally are believed to contribute to the onset of obesity, they do not satisfactorily account for the sudden boom in the incidence of obesity and related metabolic diseases. It now is recognized that early life nutritional experiences via the phenomenon of metabolic programming contribute to the onset of metabolic diseases later in life. Metabolic programming occurs when a nutritional stress/stimulus is experienced during the early developmental period, resulting in significant adaptations in target organs to enable the organism to survive the nutritional challenge. Concomitantly, this process results in permanent alterations in the physiology and metabolism of the organism, thereby priming it for the occurrence of metabolic disease later in life.

The baby was killed in a tragic accident, the mood swings from trying to get lactation under control were probably the least of the worries. My heart goes to them..

Really good post, swisspea, I liked the metaphor with a suitcase..

I'm glad you understood pea was being informative, since she thought you don't know that you may breastfeed through thick and thin. With meds, happy pills, treatments. Docs don't know. Nurses don't know, pharma people don't know. It is very hard to get a real and accurate info (see what Nicky said about lact specialists, and they are supposed to know, big gaint BS), all swisspea was doing was trying to get rid of pointless myths that prevent people from being successful with nursing. Even some sage femmes and lact consultants here are often not educated correctly, the "advice" I got from hosp and all the docs and specialists here was atrocious, and some of my friends as well. Nobody is calling them dumb, nor moms who don't want to nurse, surely not. But there are heaps of moms who benefit from info being posted here, you decided not to nurse, that's great. But there are others close to your situation that might actually be able, hence the effort. So, just ignore the people posting helpful tips and info (asking why you might think you can't nurse, they do it to let others know that most times, it works..sorry, I know it comes out so nosy, but if you don't feel comfortable, just ignore). For example, two friends of mine did nurse on happy pills, they got special ones. Another one opted to not nurse to try to be stable on pills without the typical nursing hormonal mess, and in fact the inability to nurse made her feel so bad she fell into a much bigger spleen. There is something very natural and healing in having your baby happily feed of you.


You are a hero. 3 weeks is a great time. It's often the medical staff that have absolutely no faith whatsoever in moms that makes them quit on trying. They intimidate moms, scare them with scenarios, make them feel like bad moms starving their wee babies. Shouldn't they be just simply happy with having their baby healthy, right? Bah. Then moms have to deal with their sadness, later on they find out they could have nursed, it often triggers major blues. If I were you, I would complain about how inept the lact staff is there. It's fantastic that you worked so well with your preemie to train him to feed and slowly replaced the ff. 98% of people can. Women are the most powerful creatures, when they have the proper support, info and conditions. Power to you. When things were going poorly, it was maddening how much effort it cost, leave all the doubts behind, focus and persevere.

I had it pretty strong, it was super painful. Some people have it painful, it felt like my chest was in wrench somebody was turning. But chances are, you numbed your chest and nipple area with major pumping, it's probably better (don't dump, freeze it, I did, ml by ml, soon I had 2l of frozen back up, just in case, big relief).

__________________
"L'homme ne peut pas remplacer son coeur avec sa tete, ni sa tete avec ses mains." J.H. Pestalozzi

“The only difference between a rut and a grave is a matter of depth.” S.P. Cadman

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." A. Einstein