Hello all...
I am a new mother of a beautiful 1 month old baby boy. He was born via a scheduled c-section weighing in at 10 lbs 12 ounces!

My question is if anyone else has had any issues with breastmilk production after a j-pouch surgery. My little (big) guy eats like crazy and my breasts are never to the point of feeling full. I've been drinking water and milk around the clock but still have the constant headachey feeling of being dehydrated. Our pediatrician suggested that it is likely due to the fact that I don't have a colon and am not able to stay hydrated enough to produce enough milk. We've started supplementing with formula, but it still isn't enough. We are now at the point (and suggestion of the pediatrician) that we'll have to switch completely to formula.

I have had the same problem with both of my kids (one is 4 years old and the other is 4.5 months) I do both breastfeed and suppliment and it seems to work fine for us for a little while. My first weened himself off the breast by 5.5 month and my second seems to doing fine so far. My goal is to reach at least 6 months.

How's the weight of your son doing? If he's stable, then you are producing enough milk, even if you think your breasts are not getting full. Newborns feed very frequently. However, the fact you are feeling symptoms of dehydration is important. Are you taking anything to slow your gut? I can't remember if Imodium is OK while breastfeeding. Imodium not only slows, but increases water absorption.

That is one big guy you have there! Did you have gestational diabetes with this pregnancy? It is unusual to have a baby over 10 pounds without it.

Jan

My baby's weight gain has been fine with supplementing, he's up to 12 pounds already. I didn't have any gestational diabetes, big babies just run in the family!

The first problem with breastfeeding was his latching on and nursing for a full hour and a half, every 3 hours (start to start)...then he moved on to nursing for 20 minutes every hour. With supplementing he's been spacing it out a little bit more, but I can't seem to fight the dehydration.

Yeah, that's a lot of nursing. My second son was just shy of 10 pounds, and while he would nurse every couple of hours, he'd fill up in 5-10 minutes. I knew he was doing well because he maintained the 98th percentile for quite a while. My smaller first born needed supplementation by around three months, but the big guy never even had a bottle and weaned straight to a cup at 11 months (of course he was eating food with teeth by then...). Every babe is different I guess.

What about Imodium? Your pediatrician give you any insight on that?

Jan

It is not usual for a baby to nurse for an hour when they are that young. They don't usually speed up until around 4 months. And a newborn usually eats every three hours start to start. Mine did the same thing.I have a 7 month old and he did fine with breastfeeding(gained weight just fine) but at 5 months we found that I had stopped producing an adequate amount of milk and we had to start supplementing with Soy formula. I would breastfeed him first and then give him a bottle until eventually he didn't try to breastfeed at all because not much was coming out so he weaned pretty quickly....and it was painless on my part because my milk diminished so gradually.

Is this your first baby?

Breastfeeding can be a really stressful thing, but do as much as you can because it is a real benefit to your baby. Around 2 months it gets a lot easier.

Oh and immodium is not supposed to be taken in pregnancy or while breastfeeding

Best of luck

My son who is now two, nursed every hour for about 11 days when he was 6 weeks old or so. Not an hour in between - he'd start at 1pm, feed for 20 minutes and be back at 2pm for more. I almost gave up breastfeeding, but didn't have the strength to figure out how to do it. Same thing happened to my girlfriend with her second child (also a boy)

There was just recently a thread on this here: Breastfeeding Thread

I would advise against any sort of supplementing with formula -- it is the guaranteed way to kill your supply. Your body will only produce as much milk as the baby takes, so if you replace his/her needs with formula, your body is signaled to make less and it becomes a vicious cycle. The way to produce more is to nurse, nurse, nurse and pump if you need to stimulate more production. Please visit Kellymom.com for the best advice on breastfeeding and also for how to tell if you truly have a low-supply issue.

In the meantime, I'll cut an paste my earlier response:

Hi there, this is Melissa (I still can't get in under my old login). I had low supply-issues too, but the good news is that there are lots of things you can do to increase breastmilk production. Have you spoken with a La Leche League leader or a IBCLC (International Board Certified Lactation Consultant)? Check with your midwife or the hospital where you delivered to see if they have one on staff. That is a good place to start. They may be able to arrange for you to borrow a special scale to weigh the baby before and after breastfeeding to determine if you truly have a low-supply issue. Other things to look for are weight gain and the number of wet diapers a baby has each day.

Like I said, I had low-supply issues, and I always suspected that not having a colon was partially to blame, with the dehydration issues I always seem to be fighting. In addition, my son was born premature at 34½ weeks, and my milk never really came in -- I never got engorged like most new moms, but I wasn't going to let it stop me from breastfeeding. Supposedly, the chances of my child having problems with IBD later in life are greatly reduced if he is exclusively breastfed for at least six months, in addition to a whole host of other health benefits, and I'm happy to say that we're still breastfeeding at 14 now 15½ months.

To overcome low-supply issues, do an internet search for "galactagogues," which are substances that you can take or eat to stimulate breastmilk production. Some of these are: oatmeal (steel cut, not instant), almonds, an herbal supplement called fenugreek, which can be found at natural food stores and some grocery stores or pharmacies, blessed thistle (another herb), domperidone (a GI medication that has the side effect of stimulating breastmilk production), Reglan (Rx drug with the same result as domperidone, but not recommended for long-term use because of bad side effects), and mother's milk tea (also at natural food stores).

Other things that you can do are to put your baby to the breast as much as possible, use an SNS system if you need to supplement with formula (check with LLL or a lactation consultant for more info on this), and pump using a hospital-grade breastpump after every feeding. The more milk that is drained from the breast, the more the body is signaled to make more, so nurse, nurse, nurse!

Go to the forums at Kellymom.com, the best website that I've found to answer breastfeeding questions.

For me personally, it was the hospital-grade pump, frequent feeding/pumping and domperidone that worked the best. Now that my son is older and eating mostly real food, we nurse about four or five times a day, and I no longer pump. I'm gradually decreasing the amount of domperidone that I take (reducing 10mgs per week) with the thought of being off of it entirely by the time I've used up my current supply.

It was a great deal of hard work and required a huge commitment to overcome the problem, but I'm really glad that I kept at it. At one point, my son developed a sensitivity to the dairy in my diet, so I had to entirely eliminate dairy for a while, too. Eventually, he was able to tolerate it, which made my life much easier!

My son is doing wonderfully, and I know that he got the best that there is by being breastfed.
Good luck to you and your baby and let me know if you have any specific questions!

OK, I know this is going to upset some people and that's NOT my intention, but this is just some advice from someone who's been there...
I am a big supporter of breastfeeding and definitely believe that this is the best thing for your baby - IF YOU ARE HEALTHY AND ABLE!When I had my son (our first child)I was told by the hospital and the Norwegian equivalent of La Leche that I should keep only breastfeeding, NOT resort to formula, no matter what. For 10 days after the birth I kept at it, despite my son getting thinner and screaming all day and night. I phoned the breastfeeding advisor EVERY day, begged for help and followed her instructions. Day 11 the nurse came home to us, apologising for not coming earlier (hospital screw-up so they forgot to tell her our son had been born). Before she came over in person, she'd phoned to arrange a time, and asked questions about the breastfeeding then - was I being "good" and only breastfeeding etc. and she was pleased that I hadn't resorted to formula despite having big problems. Well, she turned up, took one look at our son and said that if we didn't give him formula immediately he would have to be admitted into the children's hospital - dehydration and malnutrition. Babies apparently often lose 10 % of their birth weight in the first few days, then pick up again as the milk gets going. Our son had lost 30 %. I cried after he had his first bottle and he slept soundly for the first time in his life. I felt like a criminal - I'd starved my child. I remember friends complaining about leaking breasts and thinking "What?!" I never saw a drop trickle out of mine. 3 years later I had our daughter, and this time the hospital said I couldn't go home with her until the milk had got going. I breastfed, she sucked beautifully - but when the nurses put me on a pump and measured milk output, not more than about 10 drops came. Day 5 - still no milk. So now they said we had to over to formula as her main source of nourishment. Fine by me, I'd been through this before! I continued to breastfeed her for 8 months, but the milk never, ever increased enough to sustain a baby - and this time everyone who'd pushed me to avoid formula like it was poison last time, told me that some people genuinely don't produce milk properly.
So my point is - if you child isn't thriving and you are worried, listen to your own instincts and do what you believe is right for your child. Both my children had a combination of breast milk and bottle; my son pushed me away at 5 months, my daughter lost interest at 8 months, but both combined and both handled the different sucking techniques involved. Your son can have formula for nutrition and breast as a supplement - for the contact with you and whatever milk you have to offer. At the end of the day, you want your child to get fed! Starvation hurts. Good luck
PS: one thing I discovered with my daughter: when you do breastfeed, try to relax and focus on your baby and how much you love him, how perfect his little feet and hands are, the smell of his warm hair etc....the milk does drop more easily! Worked for me anyway. And when you're not worrying about him not getting enough, that helps too.
(One final thing: my maiden name is Higgins! So best wishes from another in the Higgins Clan!)

Hi there,

My daughter is 5 months old now and she was born prematurely at 34 weeks. I haven't had supply issues with her and I don't have the dehydration problem you are having either. I have/had similar experience where she eats like crazy and my breasts never feel full. Only after a long stretch at night. But her weight gain was always good and she had the right amount of wet diapers so I didn't worry. For a while she would eat for an hour or more, but that got better as she got older. I have never supplemented with formula because her weight gain has been fine. I never even thought about not having a colon affecting my supply.

Immodium is ok to take while breastfeeding. My OB looked it up and told me it was ok to take while pregnant too. Wish she would have told me that before it would have saved me some major butt burn

I have used Fenugreek (a galactagogue) to increase my pumping supply and it worked great. Also, Oatmeal works too! And helps thicken up things for me too.

Hi CaitiHiggz,
How are you doing?