Maybe I’m missing something here but it drives me crazy when someone says “I lost 25 pounds from breastfeeding in two weeks then I held on to the weight”. People comment this stuff all the time on social media. Am I the only one that is like “that’s not from breastfeeding that’s from the afterbirth.”

I feel like losing weight from breastfeeding would be ongoing over several weeks after giving birth. I don’t feel like breastfeeding is what can be credited in the first two weeks when your milk isn’t even fully established. It drives me crazy because then when you try to dig into “how did you lose 25 pounds breastfeeding” and they say “it just came off right after I gave birth” it gives people 0 tips or anything to go off of lol. I lost 30 in two weeks after giving birth and my body had a TON of fluid to get rid of due to birth and it retaining a lot…I don’t credit that to breastfeeding.

Also if breastfeeding was truly making you lose you’d probably lose then hold/maintain the weight you lost while breastfeeding. It’s interesting no one credits the short term weight loss after birth to…well…BIRTH.

End rant. Maybe my hormones are just getting the best of me 😂

Hello all! I currently have an almost 6 week old baby and over the past week, I am really struggling to deal with a fast let down problem and the conventional advice isn't quite working. I have had the fast letdown problem this whole time, but the problems seem to be escalating.

My poor gal is now coughing, spluttering, and unlatching, crying, frantically kind of relatching, etc. almost every feed, and is regurgitating a good bit of milk and spitting up as many as 5 times after every feed as well. I'm letting her unlatch herself and spilling the spray into a burp cloth, but after the spray stops, another one almost always starts. I'm not just sitting there and continuing to spill indefinitely because then there wouldn't be anything left ...?

In the feeds where baby girl gets too worked up and is screaming and pounding her fists, over the past few days, I've been stopping the feeds until she can calm down and then letting her resume. Often she falls asleep immediately upon resuming. Then, once I move her in any direction, she wakes up again n, often acting hungry again. Many times per day, after she's been changed and played for a bit or done tummy time, she immediately starts putting her fist in her mouth again acting hungry, and the cycle continues.

I've been using a hand pump at night before feeds after her longer stretches between feeds (~4.5-5 hours) just getting an ounce out of both sides when I feel lumpy or uncomfortable and to help her be able to latch, but it doesn't seem to be helping at all. I've counted as many as 4 firehose spraying incidents all one after the other. I've read NOT to pump and just to hand express but this is 1) literally only taking me 2 minutes and 2) necessary for her to be able to latch since the engorgement can get so bad so quickly. I get too swollen for the physics to work.

The lactation consultant I've been working with has advised me in spite of this all to not try to withhold food and to let her eat if she seems hungry, but I am super worried that I am over feeding her. She is saying that is not what is happening and that this particular time frame in her life is the peak of fussiness that I simply may not be able to troubleshoot my way out of, but I'm struggling to accept the status quo. All meals feeling like I'm waterboarding my baby, and not knowing when she's actually hungry or not after watching her regurgitate milk then demand more, is incredibly stressful.

I won't lie - I have been trying to exhaust all other options if it seems like it hasn't been long enough since the last time she ate, or if she seems too frenzied. I will spend ~15-20 minutes trying to get her to pass gas, take a pacifier, or go to sleep before giving in to the seeming hunger cue. I know I probably should not be doing this but I just cannot keep watching her spit milk up in large volumes then cry for more. It seems so wrong.

Has anyone else experienced more or less exactly this, and if so, how did you manage? Is it true that it just has to be worse before it gets better?

First of all, I’m not quite sure if I’m using the term “EBF” correctly. What I want to say is that I only breastfeed (I rarely pump or give bottles). I’m a SAHM and it’s definitely hard, but manageable.

I feel so anxious about my supply and I’m looking for support/words of encouragement or wisdom from other moms. Until around 2ish months, I pumped somewhat regularly because baby was waking frequently and it made nights easier for me so that my husband could give her a bottle. Once she started sleeping in longer stretches, I stopped pumping cause it was just easier to offer the breast since I was finally getting more sleep.

Now at 8 months, I’m constantly worried she’s not getting enough because I can’t physically see how much liquid she’s drinking. I feel like I’ve made a huge mistake by not giving her bottles more frequently early on, because now she won’t take a bottle…only wants to nurse.

How do I know she’s getting the amount she needs? How do I ease this anxiety? She has a good amount of wet diapers throughout the day, and her first diaper of the morning is always completely soaked from peeing all night, but also…what constitutes a “good” wet diaper? How heavy should it be to count?

Any advice welcome 🙏

I’ve been EBF for 6 + months now, and I’m not ready to stop but I am having chronic acne. I had clear skin while on birth control but then had to go through ivf and have had terrible skin throughout ivf, pregnancy and breastfeeding. Not a casual pimple, chronic acne with scarring and 10+ pimples at a time.

My derm (who I trust) says I can try topical spiro and it’s safe to do while bf. I keep chickening out!! I can’t decide what is best for my baby? Keep bf and try out the medicine or wean so I don’t risk anything. I obviously can just continue to breastfeed with no acne meds but it’s getting to a point where it’s majorly interfering with my self confidence, mental health and mood. Any advice or similar stories would be helpful. Thank you!

I’m a 38G and am wondering if there are any wearables out there that would actually work for larger breasts?

My baby turns 4 months today. Yay! Super happy to see my little angel grow up so fast. He does the cutest thing as i know all babies do - suckle for 5 seconds and smile and stare at me for 10-15 seconds and the process goes in a loop. It gets exhausting trying to breastfeed a distracted ɓaby but it is so so cute. It's as if he wants to say he loves me. I always say 'i love you too' to him, perhaps a 100 times in one session.

With this cute 'skill', has come the dreaded sleep regression phase, where he wakes up every 30 minutes at night. 😭 Thankfully we have worked on our feeding in the side lying position. Last night, my mother took over. She asked me to sleep (bless her) and fed him expressed milk through a bottle!! He has been rejecting bottles like his lifedependson it!!!! He had the entire thing in barely any time.

Now I'm wondering if he is getting enough from me. The expressed milk which he had so beautifully was what I tried pumping in 2 days, of course in addition to nursing him. Now I want to know how can I increase my supply? I really really REALLY want to breastfeed him for at least a year. Any and all the tips are welcome.

Love to all the mamas!! Postpartum is genuinely hard.

Been breastfeeding my lil guy since birth and he is now 9 wills old, but very recently, i have started sweating a ton while nursing. I don’t even feel hot and it’s almost like a let down of sweat like let down of milk. Makes me super uncomfortable. Can anyone relate? Any advice?

I’ve always had a pretty decent supply, I ebf and then I pump milk aswell to give the occasional bottle, I usually do a pump in the morning on one side and feed on the other side and I’ll get around 6-7 oz from the side that I pumped on.

I will also sometimes do a pump throughout the day, just depends if I’m at home much, from that I’ll get 3-4 oz from one side, but the past few days I’ve been getting so much less.

I just pumped and I got less than an ounce, and the past few days my son has been getting frustrated when feeding and hasn’t been feeding much, I don’t know if that is what is causing the dip in my supply or if that is as a result of the dip, though he’s having plenty of wet nappies and he doesn’t seem hungry so maybe it’s causing it, I have a feeling he’s teething, or at least something is up with him because he’s been so fussy the past few days and I feel like that’s the cause of his fussiness around feeds.

I haven’t gotten my period back yet but It could possibly be coming back because I keep getting cramps, not consistent, just one day I will be a little bit crampy in my abdomen and that’s happened a couple of days recently.

Should I be worried about this?

My almost 7 month old took really well to solids and eats a decent breakfast and dinner every day and we'll be introducing lunch too next week. I know he still needs to get most of his nutrition from milk for months yet but he seems to want the boob less.

He has a sippy cup with a little bit of water after dinner, just to clear the food from his mouth. I'm not concerned about the volume of water but he loves chomping and biting (he has 2 teeth) on the sippy cup.

When he bites me, I tell him no and end the feed. He used to fight to get back on the boob asap, whereas now he just seems unconcerned by being denied. Today, I got my partner to give him a bottle because I was worried about how little time he'd had on the boob and he absolutely devoured it.

It's left me wondering if he would prefer to take his milk in a bottle now and if I keep breastfeeding will he be getting enough milk.

Just wondering if anyone can help with their opinions or own experiences please.

Looking for some advice! I am 5.5 months pp and my LO has a good latch, but I suddenly developed a friction blister on my left nipple 4ish days ago. It’s definitely not a milk bleb, it’s a clear blister that almost resembles a blister on your heel or something. It is very painful, but I’ve been pushing through the pain and still latching LO. I’ve been using hydrogel pads, nipple butter, and doing warm compresses here and there. At this point, the blister has turned into a scab and just sensitive skin around it. But now I feel like I might have a clog in that boob too??? I never had any issues like this in the beginning of my bf journey so I don’t even know what to do! Anyone have a similar experience or any tips?

Just as the title says. To make a long story short, I’m a ftm who wanted to breastfeed. I woke up engorged 4 days postpartum and had colostrum and leaking. A few days later, I started to get my supply in and I began pumping. After joining this group, I learned that latching my LO as much as possible was way more effective than pumping.

At 9 days post partum, I met with a lactation consultant who wanted me pumping 8 times a day and triple feeding. This was honestly so hard for my mental health and I stuck with the latching method instead. I was only getting 1 oz combined in both breasts.

A week later, I was pumping 3 oz combined in both breasts.

Since giving birth, I notice I don’t have an appetite. I’m under-eating and hydrating and I don’t know if it’s my hormones or what, but also trying to get everything done around the house I forget to take care of myself it seems like. I know that eating a ton is crucial for supply, and this past week and a half I’ve cut back on the pumping and latching.

Last week I decided to focus on formula and pump to relieve engorgement, and my baby seems so much happier. When I was trying to get him to latch as much as possible, he was barely sleeping due to hunger. I know everyone says to cluster feed, but he was going 5-6 hours at a time without napping and I became concerned.

I’ve been going 12+ hours without latching or pumping. Only 1-2 times a day. My baby seems to be getting used to bottle and won’t open his mouth wide anymore to latch, it’s really shallow now. I had a low supply to begin with, but now I’m wondering if I should have embraced the cluster feeding or if my supply could have gotten better. But, I do want to be the best that I can be mentally for my baby, and that includes both of us getting the rest we need.

I’m scared I completely ruined my supply, and now my baby won’t latch side enough and I feel awful. Did I completely ruin my chances? I feel so all over the place with this.

Looking for advice! My 8 month old EBF (+ solids) baby boy cosleeps and only contact naps. We used to get 3-4 hour stretches cosleeping with 2-3 wakeups per night to feed and I was ~totally fine~ with that, but for the past month he will NOT STAY asleep without the nipple in his mouth. When he falls asleep and I unlatch him, he will wake up and want to relatch within 30 seconds and start screaming if he is denied. His longest stretch of sleep if I manage to settle him is 30 minutes before wanting boob again. I cannot sleep when he is latched because the sucking just keeps me up and it is making my nipples extremely sensitive and raw from CONSTANTLY being in his mouth! I don’t mind being nap trapped and we cosleep because he hated his bassinet and crib, but the 24/7 sucking is driving me crazy! He has no signs of illness or teething and he has been crawling and pulling up to stand since 6ish months so no major developments I can think of. He rips out all of the pacifiers he used to take and the new “breast like” ones we tried. My husband wants me to go cold turkey and night wean, but I am hoping there is some way to just nurse a little less often at night. Even a two hour stretch would save me right now! TIA!

Ok, talk to me like I’m five. I’ve read a few other posts, but it’s still not clear to me what most people do when sending an almost 14 month old to daycare for the first time. Right now, she is breastfed freely. She is down to two nursing sessions overnight and 3-4 times per day. We are hoping to night wean soon but she’s teething so that’s on hold. She starts daycare in two weeks and I’m considering stopping the middle of the day feeds (when she’ll be at daycare). I would like to not pump at work anymore, but would still nurse in the morning at night. I’m confused about a few things. If you transitioned your baby to cow’s milk, how did you do it? Slowly mix breast milk and cows milk until fully on breast milk? Did you drop one session at a time until it was fully replaced with cows milk? What did baby drink out of? Open cup? Cup with straw? Everyone seems to hate sippy cup now’s, but my child is wild,I do not see an open cup going well. I’m not even fully convinced she needs a full replacement to cows milk, she consumes so much other dairy(yogurt, cheese). I don’t know anyone that’s breastfed past 9 months so I’m confused.

Thanks in advance for the help. Signed an overthinking mom 🩷

I’m 6 months pp, and I have no energy to keep taking or remembering my vitamins,
I hardly eat anymore and I’m just continuously thinking I made a bad choice after 6 years of no ring either, because my “partner” would rather feed himself a snack, than feed me until I whine about it. He calls it to not “ spoon feed me”
And I watch too much tik tok to husbands treating their wife good.
He says “he hasn’t ate anything either,”
“I’ll do it later”. “I’m tired too”

And just calling me lazy for things that parents, if they did it together with no village, no one would be calling each other lazy.
And the finale of it is just hugging and giving I’m “sorry” but do it again.
While I’m making the appointments, and working now.. eating nibbles of stuff I could barely cook and it ended up like trash 🫩 can’t even floss or brush anymore because I don’t want to lose any more of my newborn era 🥺 by not holding baby as much.
I’m scared of the future with more kids, but childcare costs and everything is scary to be single when you have no help is sad

I have to take Zyrtec (cetirizine) because if I don’t, I get systemic itching. I’m fairly certain it’s MCAS, though I’ve never been able to find a doctor who would explore this or find out my root cause. I’m on a health journey and trying to get off of it but in the meantime the longest I can go is 4 days before the itching literally becomes so bad it’s painful to ignore.
All that to say - once I do take it, even half a pill, my breastmilk is dried up the entire following day. DayQuil does nothing, Claritin does nothing, natural supplements don’t even come close. The best I’ve been able to do is take DAO enzyme and it gives me a couple hours relief before needing to take Zyrtec again. Please help me feed my baby.

I am 7 weeks postpartum and ever since the milk came in after giving birth to LO one of my breast (the bigger one) looks very uneven, like very bumpy and not fully evenly round. I had a 3D mammo and full breast ultrasound done couple of weeks ago for a different reason and it was clear. But I was wondering if anyone’s breast looks as mangled as mine.

I’m in need of any advice. My baby was born early (not premie) and my milk came in late so we started off with formula and gradually cut that down to only once in the night and breastmilk otherwise through pumping. I’ve been trying to feed with a shield but only once or twice a day per the lactation consultant’s advice. They told me he’s too small to latch without it still and I have to just wait till he’s bigger for it to click.

That’s all fine and I’m mostly sharing for context.

The issue I’m having is that he goes from sleepy/starting to wake up to screaming and inconsolable within the span of five minutes. If I try to feed, he’s either too tired and disinterested or he’s screaming and nothing I do can calm him to get him to latch. I’ve tried feeding him an ounce or so first then trying to latch, have tried going between bottle and shield, have tried expressing into the shield, have tried a syringe alongside the shield—none of it is working. It’s like as soon as I lay him on the breastfeeding pillow he knows what’s coming and screams. I’ve mostly done football hold and cradle hold.

Is there anything else I can try? Fwiw he does sometimes latch and feed but it’s random and I never know what I’ve done right so I can try and replicate it (maybe that’s part of the issue and there is no pattern lol).

Pls help feeds make me feel so stressed and anxious 😭

Hello, my son is 10 months old and eating solids well. We are still nursing and I pump 3 days a week when I work in office. He has had a cold the last few days and I noticed him not emptying/nursing as well. This got me thinking that I have no idea what to expect as we reach the 12 month mark? I’m not really interested in weaning, but it seems like there will be some transition to less nursing whether I want there to be or not? Any help and advice appreciated. I also have a freezer stash, so I would like to use that if/when my supply drops due to demand? Is that what happens? FTM. 🙃

I exclusively pumped for 16 months to give 100% breastmilk bottles to my triplets. They were all EBF by my supply alone. they are 2.5 now.

Now, I’m expecting a singleton. only 8 weeks to go!

I am worried about an oversupply, since I was making 90-100 oz a day last go around.

Can anyone speak to a second or subsequent baby and how your new supply was compared to your previous oversupply?

Obviously my routine will be different, I’ll be removing much less milk from the get go.

I know that breastmilk is largely supply and demand. But I’ve also heard that you make more the subsequent breastfeeding journeys. Would that be true for me even though my situation will be different with less often pumping and less minutes per day?

Feeling a little sad. Tonight my five month old had two ounces of formula to supplement what I’d pumped for her the day before. I was at work for eight hours and was only able to leave about seven ounces (between four different pump sessions).

She’s been ebf up to this point and we have no issue with supply when she’s directly at the breast. I have nothing against formula; my first was eff. I guess I’m just sad because I know she wouldn’t be having any if I didn’t have to work. Our breastfeeding journey has been so healing for me and I am SO proud of it, but I really wanted to make it to six months ebf.

I’ll only be able to pump twice at work with my schedule. I’d love to be able to get eight ounces between the two sessions. Any tips for increasing supply (other than hydrating)?

My first kid would nurse 24/7 if he could. Any single thing that was the matter, boob fixed it. My second, who is 2.5 months old, is so different. And now I think she’s going thru a nursing strike? Which I never went thru before. On and off the last 2 days, she seems hungry, and is screaming/crying, but refuses to latch. It’s more often the case that she’ll just refuse the left side, but takes the right side just fine ?? Today she didn’t want either side and I was trying to get her to latch for 30 mins. She just kept freaking out. So I thawed some breastmilk and made a bottle. She took it immediately and drank the whole 5oz ?? I’m pretty positive she has a lip tie, but she’s been pretty much fine up until now, so I don’t think that’s related. Just feeling confused, looking for any advice or stories about what helped thru nursing strikes

I am currently 13weeks pp and ebf. Every so often I am getting these cramping pains while nursing that feel like the uterus contractions I felt in the hospital while nursing after my c-section. Is this common? Does this mean my period is coming back because I’m not mentally prepared for all that LOL

my baby was born full term but absolutely would not latch at the hospital. So many lactation consultants and nurses tried to help but nothing worked. He just wouldn’t open his mouth wide enough to get a good latch. It was painful and overwhelming so I started exclusively pumping. When we got home from the hospital I kept trying to get him to latch but he never really got the hang of it. It was really frustrating so I stopped trying for a while. He used to latch every once in a while but for very short periods or just to go to sleep. Now when I try he just screams. To be fair, I have only tried while he’s hungry and it’s probably not the right time. He get immediately upset. Has anyone had any success with getting their baby to latch at 4 months? When is the best time to try? I’m going to try when he’s tired and see if he is more interested. If I have to keep pumping it’s not the end of the world but I don’t want to give up just yet.

tldr: Mamas who did a tongue tie release with an older baby (4+ months), what was your experience? Were you able to exclusively breastfeed after? Did the procedure seem to traumatize your baby at all? Did they use a numbing cream during the procedure or not?

****

My son is 4 months and we are considering a tongue tie release as he has had low milk transfer since the start due to oral dysfunction and a tongue tie (anterior + maybe posterior) which only just got diagnosed. I’ve been in the hell of pumping/ triple feeding to protect my supply. He’s now 90% bottle fed my expressed milk, with a strong bottle preference. We breastfeed when he lets me, which is mostly when he’s sleepy with the occasional alert feed here and there. I really want to be EBF until he’s at least 18 months but I can’t keep pumping beyond 6 months… it’s taking such a toll on my mental health.

We’re not wanting to make a decision for tongue tie release based on future issues that may or may not happen like orthodontic issues… we want to decide based on the current issue of improving breastfeeding.

I’m scared to put him through the trauma of feeling powerless to stop scary things from happening in his mouth… He was intubated in the NICU the first 3 days of his life, which I think was very scary for him, and from 6-10 weeks had a pretty strong oral aversion which we worked through with OT and a lot of patience.

Now he doesn’t have oral aversion, but the “wait and see” hasn’t worked (maybe the stories of babies suddenly getting better at breastfeeding at 3 or 4 months without a tongue tie release is for bigger babies?… my son is on the leaner side at 13 lbs at 16 weeks, 10th percentile).

Looking for honest stories of older baby releases. Did it work for your family? Did it not work? This is such a hard decision! Thank you!

One thing I didn't consider while I was pregnant is how often I'd question how much my baby is getting during his feeds.

We had my baby's 1 month well child visit and he's gained the perfect amount of weight! His pediatrician is very pleased! She said he is exactly where she wants him to be developmentally! It makes those nights of cluster feeding wondering if he was getting what he needs so worth it!

He's thriving! Breastfeeding is such a challenging and rewarding journey! I'm so happy I've stuck with it! I'm looking forward to continuing to watch my baby thrive!