All I wanted with Baby #2 was a normal food relationship. You know, the kind where you nurse Baby, and he grows, and then you feed him solids - all different kinds of solids so he continues to grow healthy and strong and doesn’t get picky - when he’s old enough, until eventually, you wean him to milk and table food.
You know, the kind of relationship most babies have with food.
It seems that is not the plan that Heaven has in mind for me. Apparently, instead it is my lot in life for my babies to have completely abnormal relationships with food, and not in a good way.
Not that I am complaining. At least not now. I have moved on past that: I’ve accepted the situation, I’ve learned how to make the best of it, and most days it is just a way of life that I don’t even think twice about it.
But there have been a few bumps in my road that jostle up all the emotions, bringing them to the forefront for a little while until I work through them once again and get on with my life. I’ve already told you about his struggle with constipation, and his lack of interest in finger foods, but there’s another concern that’s been building for a while and finally came to its ultimate and undesired conclusion.
I am now supplementing breast milk with Nutramigen. I did it before with my Certain Little Someone, and I am doing it again with Baby Boy. The problem is that he was not gaining weight, and had not been for some time. After ruling out other causes, like possible allergens still in my diet, I realized that I was just putting off the inevitable and admitted that he simply wasn’t getting enough milk from me to help him grow. He was getting enough to satisfy his hunger, keep happy most days, and even grow lengthwise, but not enough to gain weight.
Coming to this realization was painful, to say the least. Like I said, all I wanted with Baby #2 was to have a normal nursing/feeding relationship.
I went through the same exact thing with my Certain Little Someone and have come to the conclusion that when I take certain things, like dairy and eggs, out of my diet, I don’t replace them with an adequate amount of calories that would enable my body to keep up a good supply of breast milk.
Nutramigen is not what I want to be feeding my child - it’s full of ingredients that I otherwise avoid. But it’s too late to replenish my supply, and my only other alternative is to make formula myself, which is just not going to happen (I do not have time in my day for that!). So I tell myself to be grateful that dairy-free formula exists because at least it will help my Baby Boy to grow!
It’s been almost two weeks since I started the supplementation, and this morning when I weighed him, Baby Boy had gained about 5 ounces. Right now, for me, that makes it all worth it.
Oh, that’s so frustrating. I’m so sorry. I couldn’t eat dairy with my oldest kid, and it felt like I had to eat all.the.time. to get enough calories. Never mind that it’s hard enough to keep up while breastfeeding normally. You’re taking fabulous care of your kids, Anne! Just imagine how many kids never any breastmilk. You’re doing great.
Thank you for your kind words:)I appreciate your encouragement! I am grateful that I made it to almost 9 months EBF with this one; with my first it was only 4 months of EBF before I started supplementing. I know what you mean about eating constantly - I feel like I’m continually stuffing my face, and yet I’ve lost 10 lbs since changing my diet earlier this year. Ugh. I have to admit, though, that I am looking forward to eating dairy again when I wean him completely.
Ok, clearly exploring your feeding baby posts. 😉 I am suspecting something similar with my little one. Our pediatrician was slightly concerned with his weight at our last appointment, but didn’t tell me to change anything except increase solids.
One of the things I considered was, “Is he getting a good supply of milk from me?” I have plenty of milk, and the go-getter can only be pinned down to nurse from one side at a time most feedings. So I’ve opted to feed him more frequently. But his weight is still a big question mark?! He’s in the 5th percentile but growing length-wise just fine. He is eating table foods well, but I still wonder …
Any suggestions on what I can be sure is in my diet to boost the quality of milk?
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Has he been growing at his own pace, even if it’s not very high on the chart? My older son is 3yo and is just now in the 15th percentile (at one point, he was not even on the chart, then he slowly moved up to 5th percentile, etc.). Even when I started supplementing for him, he didn’t gain weight any more quickly; for him, I think it was mostly genetic. I think if your child is eating and eliminating well (no constipation, and frequent clear pee), then you shouldn’t worry too much about the weight, esp since you say you have more than enough supply. As far as boosting the quality of your milk, I don’t have any clear answers on this. There’s a lot of debate regarding how much diet affects a mother’s milk, and from my limited research, it seems like if you’re eating a well-rounded healthy diet with plenty of calories and fats that your milk should be good. One thing I noticed when I cut out dairy and egg that my nails started to get brittle. To me that was an indication that my body was pulling from my own resources for certain vitamins and minerals and that I wasn’t getting enough in my diet.
I just stumbled across your page and debated leaving a comment…but then realized there could be others that stumble in here too, so…here goes!
Breastmilk is produced on supply and demand. There are certain weeks or months where baby will seem to nurse constantly, and it’s during these times a mother starts to believe she is not making enough milk. However, after a few days more milk will be “supplied” to meet the new, higher “demands”. If more than 4-6 days go by and baby is still nursing every hour, there is a product called a supplemental nursing system that will help feed baby while still demanding more milk become supplied. I highly recommend a book called The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding (library, La Leche League library, or bookstore). During my second baby’s growth spurt (after the nightmare of horrific formula feeding with #1, leasing to burn treatments on his poor bottom) I thought I was unable to provide enough milk…again. We went to the bookstore and fortunately picked the book that ultimately led to exclusively breastfeeding my daughter and avoiding formula nightmares all over again. I stayed up all the night and read the book cover to cover, called the main number for La Leche League the following morning and had a LLL leader at my home within hours (she also was a board certified lactation consultant, but her visit was free because I called her LLL #!). I now give a copy of this book to moms to be at their baby showers and have watched most of them go onto having successful nursing relationships with their babies!
It’s just hard to find the RIGHT info out there in the sea of other books that usually offer a lot of misinformation.
Now, as I mentioned, I said this for any other moms that run across your page…but also for you if you should have a #3! Cheers!