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busyissy View Drop Down
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    Posted: 24 January 2009 at 12:46pm
My little girl is refusing to breast feed during the day, she is more than happy to have the breast during the night. She will latch for a moment or two, sometimes long enough to get the milk to let down and then goes stiff, starts crying and won't feed. She is hungry and will take a bottle. She has reflux but that is controlled by omeprazole and we use infacol drops for wind as she has a dairy intolerance and can't have the weleda colic powder. She is happy on her back though and sometimes I just think she wants to look around and be nosey.
I have heard of some young babies weaning themselves of Mum at an early age and I wonder if it could be that.
I am really worried that my milk will dry up if she keeps this up. Has this happened to anyone else?
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KiwiL View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote KiwiL Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 January 2009 at 5:11pm
Saffron, that story above could have been written by me! I really feel for your situation. Jackson was the same - hungry but refusing to feed, but would have his best feeds at night.

Unfortunately for us his reflux was diagnosed late and not really controlled well enough and he began to get bad feeding associations and habits. Because of that he lost weight and we have just made an absolutely heartbreaking decision to put him on formula full time to try to help him eat better and catch up. It's not what I wanted, but even our paediatrician feels it is now the best course of action.

It turns out (after doing a pH probe) that the reflux was worse than they thought and they have just upped his omeprazole. It seems like it hurt him to suck hard and therefore the bottle was easier for him. Jackson never worked beyond the first let down. Could this be the case with Isobelle? You could possibly trial a higher dose to see if it helps. We thought he was fine but it turns out he wasn't - it made him reluctant to feed.

I think our result is a rare one, caused by the reflux not being taken seriously as we had such a calm and happy boy, but I wish it hadn't taken so long as I believe we may have been able to keep the feeding on track.

As for the milk drying up, I did an awful lot of expressing to keep up my supply, and took fenugreek. I also SWEAR by the Housepoet Lactation Boosting Cookies, they really do seem to work. My supply fluctuated, but was always best after I had eaten a stupid number of cookies - half the time because I was feeling sorry for myself!

Maybe have a chat with your doctor about his feeding behaviour and see what they recommend.

Good luck hun! xxx

Edited by kiwilaurie
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KiwiL View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote KiwiL Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 January 2009 at 5:22pm
As an aside, do you mind me asking how Isobelle was diagnosed with the dairy intolerance? I have always suspected with Jackson that we are dealing with more than just reflux, as he seems to have a sore belly a lot of the time. He also cries and then will do smelly farts, which seem to make him happier. He often had green, mucousy poos.

What symptoms did Isobelle have that made them think dairy?
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SophiasMummy View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SophiasMummy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 January 2009 at 5:35pm
That story could also have been written by me. Soph got to the point where she might take 5 min per side amoung a lot of screaming crying, in desparation I gave her a bottle of soy formula and gobbled it all up! I have carried on with formula feeding and now stopped bf as think my supply was crap and I had a lot of trouble with expressing. WIll never know why she would not feed and am going to stop wondering cos I just make myself feel bad. I also suspect a dairy intolerance, at the same time she went on omprazole I cut 95% of dairy from my diet, the two times I slipped up the next feed she had (both were morning feeds and I ate dairy the night before) she would feed fine then a wee bit later (20min) be inconsolable for ages and unsettled for a period after. We are still having some bottle feeding issues as I think we have both came to hate feed time and both still get quite stressed about it but we are making progress. My gp is pretty average and we are booked into paed in two weeks. I was hoping I would be able to keep up bf until we saw him but it was not to be. We struggled with bf right from the start, thought we had it sorted at 6 weeks but went downhill again.

Maybe the feeding at night is ok because I was told that the pH in their tummies drops at night?? Just a thought. I was also confused whether it was reflux as Soph was very content to play on her back but Plunket helpline told me reflux can happen periodically??

Def see the doc asap. Hope you can get it sorted.

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busyissy View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote busyissy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 January 2009 at 9:43pm
Oh how hard and heartbreaking! Your babies sound very similar to Isobelle, she is an absolute darling, so calm and happy, and since she has been on the omeprazole you would never guess there was anything wrong (except for the excessive spilling and vomiting). She has always sucked really well when breastfeeding and we have recently had her dosage reviewed. She is now on 2mls of omeprazole twice a day but maybe it needs to go up again, I will go back to the doctor and am planning to go to the Family Centre next week too.

We haven't actually had her diagnosed with a dairy intolerance I have just noticed that whenever I have any dairy that she is very unsettled, farting a lot and projectile vomiting even more than usual. I had a dairy intolerance when I was little and so did my husband so I've put two and two together. Taking dairy out of my diet does help. I tried Soy but that was even worse than cows milk and her reflux got twice as bad. I know they can do allergy tests but I've been told they don't usually like to do them on very young babies because it involves making pinpricks along their arms. Still if you are really worried about it I would ask your doctor about them

One doctor suggested that it was just wind in the intestine that was causing the hard tummy, wind and pain but after watching her and my diet I can definately see there is something else there. And we bring her up to burp every minute or two whether bfing or bottle feeding and she still has bad wind.

Isobelle does those mucosy poos as well and they are very smelly, I think it is the omeprazole and the thickened formula. Isobelle's are usually more yellow than green but there is a range of what is normal in terms of colour. My plunket nurse said that its only if it is a bright yellow or green that there is any need to worry. We supplement feed with Karicare HA AR because she spills so much and the doctors and ladies at the family centre were worried about her losing weight. Our family centre and plunket nurse said that would be the best formula if she has a dairy intolerance because it is specially designed for babies that are at a high risk of developing allergies. What formula is Jackson on?
Im not sure about whether reflux comes and goes but before Isobelle went on omeprazole she definately had times when she was worse than others. I guess it makes sense.

I expressed after her last feed (which lasted all of 2 minutes on one side) and only got 50mls total. Think the damage to my supply might have already been done. I think I may have to consider going to formula. I went through 7 months of taking medication, lactation drops and lactation teas and expressing 3 times a day to maintain my supply with Dominic and I don't think I can face that again. It is so exhausting and time consuming. Still I was hoping to bf her for at least 6 months and at best a year.
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