"Do you ever wonder if your child is the only one who _________ ?(insert crazy thing here!) I want this blog to be a place for questions, support and creative ideas for those situations we face daily with our children."

Monday, March 12, 2007

First reader topic!

Thanks to all who gave great suggestions for topics!

I want to address most all the suggestions we get,this blog is for EVERYONE!!
I want us all to get something out of this.
The best advice is from mommies themselves, who have been or are going through the same thing as you!

Like I mention awhile ago in my introduction post, Please leave only creative ideas! I don't want generic magazine suggestions. I really got discouraged when I saw an article header on a magazine about a topic I wanted help in, and then when I sat down to read it learned NOTHING new!

The first topic I want to address is from Heather.
I'd love to hear about moms who have had milk supply issues, and how to supplement with formula.

I know that I personally didn't have an issue with this very much. I read a great book called BabyWise By Gary Ezzo (I think). This book had a great schedule to get your kids on. I loved the book, but did not agree with all of their suggestions. I and many of my friends used this book as a great guideline. There has been some controversy on all of his ideas (you can search around on the internet to find them). That is why I say guideline. Use what you want and ignore the rest. I remember it having a GREAT guideline for increasing milk supply without supplementing. Another thing I will say is I started my kids on cereal at 2 1/2 3 months and this helped tremendously with hunger problems! I would use the single grain rice first with breast milk/formula or water.

Let Heather know what you did!

9 comments:

TulipGirl said...

I had milk supply problems with my first two, too--only they were linked to Babywise and not solved by BW. What helped me, was realizing I wasn't the only mother with that pattern of supply problems. Also, learning about the physiology of breastfeeding helped. With that knowledge and experience, I was able to breastfeeding my third and fourth with no problems!

Jamie said...

Good topic - Along the same lines, I'd also love to hear how mom's are introducing formula to babies who are exclusively breastfed. My 3 month-old just gags even when I mix it with breastmilk... Suggestions??

Stacey said...

~Jamie
Rowan hated the powdered formula, and did much better with the liquid concentrate. I just bought the cheap store brand, and it worked great! We only had one feed with lot's of crying.

Wendy said...

I don't have too much to say about this because I have only nursed my daughter because she refused the bottle! I think we introduced it too late! So, just be sure to introduce it early enough!

Drea said...

I had a terrible milk supply w/ both Caleb and Taite. I really believe a lot of it had to do w/ the fact I did not eat correctly... and because I was majorly stressed out w/ both babies to begin with.

Also another thing that affected mine was I pumped mostly... that can REALLY affect it from what I hear.

Either way my boys have done fabulous on formula... Caleb never had issues... and Taites done even better than Caleb did. No constipation at all.. even w/ rice cereal being in his late night bottle.

Any how.
I guess thats all I have 2 say :-) Breastfeeding is byfar the best... but formula is not bad! dont kick yourself if you ever have 2 use it.

Speaking of babies.. Taites up! cya.

Donna said...

TulipGirl, those articles are why I said Babywise shold only be an outline. I like the sleep, eat awaketime, sleep thing.

But specifically there was a direction for increasing milk supply, like nursing every 2 or 2 1/2 hours for x amount of days etc. Unfortunalty I don't have the book anymore to look it up. But Yes Babywise followed to the T is ridiculous!

Thanks for putting those links up though.

Iknow eating and drinking are VERY important. I would see significant milk increase on the next feeding if I drank a huge glass of water.

Donna said...

Tulip Girl also,thanks for that physiology of breastfeeding. I thought it was very good. I have been toying with the idea of being a lactation consultant, so the more info I can shuffle through the better!

Donna said...

Jamie

I agree, if you really want to switch to formula there may be a few days of refusing, but eventually she should take to it. I HAD to switch to formula for my lactose intolerant 3 month old and it took him a few days to take it but he finally did!

Drea said...

Caleb never refused any sort of food lol. I pumped for him so he was getting breastmilk from a bottle for a month... yet he took formula as well w/out any hesitation. I just think he loves food... so he didnt really care what it was hahaha.
Taite was the same way.