My husband and I need some help with our 6 month old baby. He goes to daycare 5 days a week and has taken bottles well from 3 months (lansinoh, medium flow nipple) . He takes 3 6 oz bottles at daycare per day with no issues. At home, he takes roughly one bottle per day from my husband (usually the first of the day around 6-6:30) and I breastfeed for any remaining feedings. We currently have one overnight feed around 2-4 am.

In the past ~3 weeks, our baby has been very distracted/fussy when my husband feeds him in the morning (turning his head, popping off bottle, holding bottle in mouth but barely sucking, etc). Based on some posts, I suggested that he increase the nipple size and start feeding him upstairs in our darkened nursery to cut down on distractions. That helped with keeping him a bit more focused but he is taking FOREVER to finish a bottle. To be fair he's always been a slow eater (30 minutes to breastfeed still) but bottles used to take 15-20 minutes and apparently my husband just took 1 hour to feed him 5 oz.

This is really frustrating my husband and I'm planning to start weaning from breastfeeding/pumping next week so he's going to be giving our baby a lot more bottles. Any advice on how to get our baby drinking bottles at a normal speed at home?

I do have a couple theories on what might help but I'm really not sure:

1. Night weaning - is it possible that he's just not that hungry in the morning because he eats a lot during his MOTN feed? We go to the pediatrician next week so I will see if we get the okay to stop this feed.
2. Nipple Size - we switched to medium flow but maybe he needs even higher flow?
3. Positioning - my husband holds him vs daycare has him in a little chair.
4. Just a phase?

Any advice is welcome!

My supply never 100% dried up (and it was decent right after the twins were born), but basically all I could get before I started really working at relactating was colostrum. (My twins were in the NICU for 21 days then had to be fed high calorie formula every three hours after coming home, so breastfeeding just fell by the wayside.)

I’m getting some milk now using a rented Medela Symphony, but when I said “getting milk” I mean like three big drops from each breast. Tbh I haven’t ever committed to pumping every two hours, so I can’t say I’ve given it a fair shot. I started pumping again at 12 weeks pp and at 15 weeks, I’m still at the three drops but largely (I’m guessing) due to not pumping on a schedule.

Basically I’m asking if anyone has had any success relactating after taking about a two month break.

My 6 week old twins have had super terrible gas lately. I’ve also noticed that they bring their legs up to their chest and look like they’re in pain after eating. They scream and cry, strain while trying to make bowel movements, and get extremely red in the face. It is so sad to watch!
We had them on breast milk and supplemented with the normal Enfamil neuropro (yellow) since birth. I stopped giving them breast milk due to my supply dropping. Since then our pediatrician recommended switching them to strictly Enfamil neuropro Gentlease formula (purple) to try to help them with their gas pains.
Has anyone else transitioned their babies from Enfamil neuropro (yellow) to the Gentlease neuropro (purple)? How long did it take to notice a change?!!

As the title states I have been using my Spectra for exactly a week and I think I already need to replace one of the silicone parts in the back-flow protector?

I looked on the website and it says they need to be replaced every 2 weeks if you are exclusively pumping but I can’t believe it’s already worn out. I have been pumping about 20-25 minutes, 3 or 4 times a day in addition to breastfeeding. On one side I have noticeably less suction and I can see the silicone part is definitely stretching more comparatively. I also hear a sound like sucking through a straw but there’s nothing left?

I am considering exclusively pumping since I am going back to work end of August anyway but does this seem like normal wear and tear with how much I am pumping or is something defective?

I was wondering if anyone faced a similar issue or knows anything that might help us.

I was combo feeding baby since he was 4 mo. At 9 months, he was only taking formula in the day and bf at night. Now he’s 13 mo and won’t take a bottle at all. He starts pushing it away. He rather wants the boob but only nurses for a minute or sometimes a few seconds.

He’s eating solids well but his liquid intake is very less.

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My daughter is 10 months old. We have been combo feeding sine one month. I have low supply, so the older she got the more formula she got. Now boob is just for snack or comfort so basically all her calories come from formula and solids. My problem is this: a few weeks ago she started crying and "refusing" the bottle. As soon as I could get a drop or two in her mouth, she would latch and drink the bottle just fine. This has escalated to now as soon as I start preparing the bottle she starts crying, like, a lot. She will still drink it if I can get her to taste it, most of the time. But it makes me feel terrible and it seems like something else may be going on. She is teething, but she'll comfort nurse forever if I let her, so I dare say that her mouth isn't hurting that bad. I don't know. Has anyone else had this happen? And advice or ideas? Thanks

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• "Nanobebe thoughts + some other questions?" by u/mnd169

DD is 5 weeks old and doing great both with the breast and with her once-a-night bottle from Spouseman. But now I'm getting ready to go back on my narcolepsy meds which will preclude further breast milk going forward, so we're going to need more than our one bottle. Currently we use our Nanobebe breastfeeding bottle and have had NO issues with her taking it, and no problems with the bottle itself. I'm thinking about getting a few of their transition bottles so we can continue with what she's already familiar with going forward, and I've seen all the comments about leaks and awkward shape (we don't have a problem with the shape currently so I don't expect that to change) but I am wondering if there's anything else about the transition bottles I should be aware of. They're larger to allow for more ounces as she gets older, and say they should work fine with formula once we have to make that switch, but their actual website basically just has the default info for all their bottles, nothing specific to help identify differences etc.

Also, when she nurses directly from me, she goes hard and fast and usually finishes in about 15-20 minutes - limp, open hands, leisurely "dessert sucking" lol, and if not asleep, then really close - but when she uses the bottle, it takes about 30-40 minutes for her to finish with concentrated sucking. I'm thinking it's because of the slow-flow nipple and wondering if it might be worth trying a medium flow or if I really need to wait until she's 3 months? She doesn't currently get frustrated at having to nurse longer on the bottle, but she also doesn't end up as relaxed or sleepy when she's done, pretty much regardless of how much she actually eats. We never push her to finish the bottle and let her stop when she's done, of course, but when she stops with me, she's all soft and ready for a nap, and when she stops with the bottle, she wants to be held and not be put down and may take an hour or more before she actually falls asleep.

Additional info: doc is pretty sure she does have reflux, so even when breastfeeding, after she's done, and zonked out, we still keep her mostly upright for 15-20 minutes to ensure she has time to let the milk fully settle and try to avoid any trouble there, so I don't think it's a case of getting more air/not being burped enough with the bottle.

I prefer to nurse then bottle feed if necessary, but I find that if my LO has a bottle of formula she often doesn’t wake up before I need to pump again. I don’t want to wake her, but I’d rather nurse than pump! Any tips?

My daughter is 11 weeks old. My body produces milk just fine (very grateful for that), but my daughter doesn't pull enough while breastfeeding. A lactation consultant had us do combination feeding, so since the beginning, I've been both breastfeeding and pumping. One of those pumps takes place in the middle of the night; I set my alarm, wake up, pump, and go back to sleep.

One week from now, I go back to work. How do I drop this middle-of-the-night session without losing those ounces? This is of course the pumping session that produces the most milk. I pump about 20oz a day, and this session gets me 7-9oz. My daughter sleeps through the night (amazing!), but she then drinks that milk through the rest of the day... so I need those ounces.

Can I somehow shift this session to another time of day? What happens if I drop it entirely? Any other ideas?

I appreciate any thoughts you have.

I’m sure my story is familiar - tongue tie fixed late, poor latch caused pain and affected supply, pumped the crap out of my boobs while holding a crying baby at shoulder level, DS weight gain was still slow ... finally decided it was better for both of us to combination feed with formula. Weight gain is tracking the percentile chart now (phew!).

Fed is clearly best, but the threat of further reducing my supply by using too much formula is really stressful. Any advice on striking the right balance?

Sorry for the confusing title. Basically I am a combo feeder (boob, pump, a little formula) and baby is 4 months old. I always get more milk with hands-on pumping/massage and that's nothing new. What is new is that within the past couple of weeks I only get the pump to extract milk when I am also hands-on. From what I can tell I am basically squeezing the milk out myself. I can crank this sucker (it's a Spectra S2) up to the highest setting and get nothing unless I'm also squeezing/massaging the boob. Help. My hands are tired and I'm not getting nearly as much milk as I used to. I have flange size dialed in and I replace all the rubber parts (tubing, duckbill valves, little round diaphragms) monthly. Is there something I'm missing here? Is there some filter or something that might be clogged? Is this just a supply issue?

I work full time. I didn't produce enough milk from the start due to misinformation. she's already 3 months. even with all the supplements I can only do 4 ounces total (I pump 20 minutes). she is thriving, I still breastfeed her if she's awake when I get home and during the weekends. she gets formula while in daycare or when the 4 ounces are not enough. I still pump 8 times a day though so at most, I can only produce 24-26 ounces in a day. as long as she gets some, I am happy.

just wanted to get it off my chest.

Hi, Dad here, no idea where else to ask. My wife is having pain in her one breast it’s been 2 months now. She has had ultrasound and all clear. No lumps, doctor says it’s nothing to worry about. 1 month later her breast is still hurting. Doctor says it’s nothing... but she can’t stop thinking about it, obviously because it hurts. Don’t know what to do. What could it be?

Hello Everyone,

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Thank you,

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So my little guy and I just hit one month. He had an intermittent latch in the hospital so we supplemented a bit and we started pumping. After his first week home he barely gained any weight so the pediatrician recommended pumping his meals so I could measure what he was getting and supplement with formula where needed.

Fast forward and now he can latch like a champ but gets lazy at the boob because he's used to his bottles. He'll do it - especially at bed time - but for both our sanity I'm usually just reaching for the bottle, even if it means pumping to make the bottle. I was feeding on demand and keeping logs and he's up to about 24-30 oz a day. I'm only able to produce about a third of that, maybe 10oz bm a day no matter how much I latch him or pump. I was pumping every two hours trying to get supply up for a while but it was driving me crazy. Now I'm pumping every 3 hours a day and 4 at night (one ahead of his feedings, usually).

So I know the answer is going to be "of course" any amount of breastmilk is beneficial - I've read the studies. But I HATE pumping. It's starting to make me batty. I'm wondering at what point its still worth it and our sanity. I take it his appetite will have somewhat leveled off now - he's getting 3oz every 3 hours - so is making 1/3 good enough? Valuable enough to keep up the pumping game? Maybe he'll go up to 4oz or so (he seems to want more or clusterfeeds a few hours before "bedtime" and gets the boob then too). At that rate I'd probably be making 1/4 of his daily intake - still worth it right?

I know the answer but I'm wondering if anyone else has gone through this or has any suggestions.

TL;DR: pumping sucks, but gotta do it right?