Hi All,

I know the NHS offer group training and that there are cafe group meetings etc... anyone know of anyone offering 121 tutorage?

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Benjaminty

Hi there,

When I was having problems feeding my son I used a lactation consulatant called Jill Dye.

Jill can be contacted on 07816 136 477. She came out to my house, spent a few hours with me and my son, and gave me great tips and importantly gave me the confidence to keep perservering with feeding.

I've recommended her a number of times on the forum and know a few other people have used her too. Highly recommended.

P

You can go up to Kings I believe and see Claire Kedvers...

Thanks Guys

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Benjaminty

Katie Fisher is another great lactation consultant. She helped me out on Boxing Day last year when I was beyond desperate!

I think the idea behind breastfeeding cafe's is that you can get 1:1 help with any specific breastfeeding issues in a cafe setting. They aren't groups who meet in cafe's.

Have an issue where breasts are so engorged and they are literally dripping with milk and yet baby cannot take to the breast for more than a few seconds.

Do you have a number for Katie Fisher please?

All breastfeeding help lines have been useless.

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Benjaminty

Sounds like the baby is finding it hard to latch because you are so engorged. Can you express some milk off? Do you have a pump? How long has this been going on for? How old ia the baby, has it taken any milk?

As emergency solution i;d suggest expressing and giving the baby some milk via syringe and working very hard to get her/him latch on. Call the post natal ward at Kings and ask for the community midwives? Someone should come to see you or you should be able to go in, i would have thought.

[www.kellymom.com]

[www.kellymom.com]

[www.kellymom.com]

[www.kellymom.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit was 2010:07:24:09:05:21 by Fuschia.

Yep exactly. Baby born on Tuesday and have been pumping the relieve some pressure. Started about 2.30 this morning and she took a good hour to latch on and then had an OK feed. Now she's hardly latching on at all.

Have called the community widwives and no use at all.

Have called Jill Dye but phone is switched off.

Getting desparate and do not want to start with formual so early (if ever)

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Benjaminty

Have you tried the postnatal ward?

If you have some milk expressed, offer it from a tiny cup or a syringe (from chemist) to make sure she's getting enough. Is she very sleepy?

It's not quite an emergency yet if she fed at 2.30am, don't panic.

These things always happen on a weekend eh?


Verona Hall is a local independent MW: [www.veronahall.co.uk]

Is there anyone on this no: Infant Feeding Co-ordinator 020 3299 3833 ?

I;d be tempted to call the postnatal ward and ask if you can go in and get some help.....

Just sent a pm with Katie Fishers mob no on.

If you can either hand express or pump out some milk an then try latching baby whilst lying down or leaning back? My son was a terrible latcher and would also sometimes take an hour. We risked giving him a bottle of expressed milk on about day 4 too (when i say risk were worried about nipple confusion) but he was fine and able to switch back to breast so if you can express then you can get breast milk into baby that way. Agree with Fuschia that syringe might be easier at this stage.

Best of luck, it's really tough and I promise you are not alone. I hope Katie is about to help as she is lovely
J

This is a problem a lot of us have had, so hopefully with some help on the latching and moral support for each other, you will get through this....

Persistance and massage seems to have had some good effect. She will be fed as often as possible today to ease the engorgement and will be pumping and occassionally feeding with syringe. Just trying to get all the bottles etc that I never wanted to use clean and sterile.

Thanks for your advice guys. Will still ask Jill Dye to pay a visit if she returns call / or Katie Fisher.

Haven't been able to get to Kings as have had to move away whilst house being rebuilt - not ideal set up.

Thanks all - it is just good to know that others go through this and get through and that has helped calm my partners nerves.

As a new father I can just now see how frustrating it must be for new mothers not to be able to provide to their newborn when needed. Emotional but good times.

Thanks again.

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Benjaminty

Benjaminity it can be a pain to get hold of someone at weekends so keep trying (even just if a community midwife gets out to see you).. Alternatively (for the meantime) breastfeeding cafes offer one to one advice and support with any breastfeeding problems in a breastfeeding friendly 'cafe' atmosphere. There is a breastfeeding cafe in Dulwich (Townley Road Clinic) open 10-12 on Monday where you could go for help, they will be more than happy to see you. Also one in Peckham (5th Floor Peckham Library) open 10-12 on Thursdays, we would be happy to help here too.

Best of luck.

Her milk has come in, is the problem i guess hence the engorgement and poor baby struggling with the new breast shape1 Cabbage down the bra is good... watch out for her getting the shivers/bit of a temp if she gets overengorged (touch of mastitis)

Thanks Gina,

Community widwives were pretty poor and didnt seem that interested to be honest.

Thanks Fuschia will be trying the infant feeding coordintaor now

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Benjaminty

I hope you manage to get some help, I remember how stressful I found it when I had problems feeding my son.

The advice to feed lying down is something that worked for me, I would lie my son on my chest and he seemed to find it easier to latch than when sitting. Also worth trying different "holds" if she's feeding sitting up - my daughter used to struggle to latch onto one side, but seemed to find it easier in the "rugby" position (Google will help you with this).

Just to put your mind at ease - my son was bottle fed expressed milk (with a bit of formula at times when I hadn't managed to express enough) for the first 6 weeks of his life due to tongue tie and the problems that come with it. Once his tongue had been corrected and after our session with Jill we managed to ditch the bottles completely and go back to 100% breastfeeding. So try not to worry too much if you need to use a bottle.

P

How's it going?

I'm also wondering how its going? Did you manage to get anyone to see you yesterday?

Pretty good all in all thanks. Breast pump followed by hot compress seems to have calmed things (close to exploding by the looks of them) but baby is feeding pretty well now.

The only comment we got from Waddon community midwives yesterday was "I can't really help you as I'm not there!" Thank goodness for the EDF

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Benjaminty

Its a shame some of the care given to women regarding breastfeeding. It will get better though.

To minimize engorgement, baby should be feeding on demand and unrestricted. At least 8-12 times in a 24 hour period. Engorgement is common between the 3rd and 6th day after birth and can take 7-10 days to subside. Pumping, compress, and regular feeding should keep it minimal. Further help may be found for positioning and latching, it can be incredibly difficult during engorgement.

Is there any pain at all, or just feeling full?

Glad its getting a bit better, it can be very difficult at the beginning.

One of my friends used the LaLeche league helpline when she was in difficulty and had really good advice. Good luck!


[www.laleche.org.uk]

Something worth checking is whether your baby is tongue tied. Can he stick his tongue out well (if so, good news)? Does the tongue have a slight heart shape (you can google some images)? In the latter case he may be tongue tied, something that can be fixed quite easily. Sounds more like the engorgement is/was the cause though and that you may both need to re-learn the latching process... hope you get some help soon.

Sillywoman, do you have a soft copy of all the contact numbers for breastfeeding that you give out at your classes?

No real pain but strangely the little monkey wil only really suckle for around minutes before falling asleep. Very frustrating

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Benjaminty

I think that's normal too... little and often is the name of the game at first.. tiny little tummy and has been used to having nutrition pretty much drip fed...

Hi - not sure this will help but I had a very sleepy, jaundiced baby first time around who would fall asleep after feeding for just a few minutes. What I found helped was stripping him off before a feed so he was a bit cooler, changing his nappy before a feed to make sure he was really awake or during a feed after he'd nodded off. If he still nodded off, I rubbed his palm, walked my fingers up his spine or gently rubbed/tickled his feet. Sometimes in desperation, I'd gently blow on his face which also seemed to work for a little while. It's so frustrating but hope it gets better for you and your partner.

Is a shame that the community midwives haven't been helpful - in 2008 after similar problems I had some great one-to-one feeding support at home from one of them. My little one had lost a fair amount of weight and was screaming constantly in hunger for the first few days, poor thing.

Some good tips she gave (others have already mentioned most of them) included expressing small amounts then syringing some into the baby's mouth at the start of a feed (which helped calm her down - she was going into big rages / screaming with frustration, which wasn't helping with the latch-on), stripping her / me down to cool her down / keep her awake, feeding when she was calm rather than already hungry and agitated and using lots of skin-to-skin contact to help calmness.

In terms of technique, it also proved helpful to lift up the boob from below and shove a big mouthful of nipple / boob into her mouth! Felt quite odd at first, but did the trick!

Sounds like you're making progress, hope things settle down soon.

Fuschia Wrote:
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> You can go up to Kings I believe and see Claire
> Kedvers...

She is absolutely lovely and an expert in everything to do with breastfeeding