A friend in the U.S. who just had a little one emailed me this week. So glad to hear from her! We emailed back and forth about life with a newborn, breastfeeding and the usually mommy chatter. She asked if I had any good tips on how to get through nursing in the beginning (and the middle … and the whatever part I’m in now). Here’s what I’ve got for her … and I might as well share it with you too. Some are probably pretty well known, others might be … dare I say it … unique.
- If your little one is refusing the boob, try and trick them into nursing. Either give them some expressed breast milk in a bottle or a pacifier if they will take one and as they start to drowse off on your lap, pull a fast one on them. Gently remove the bottle or paci and pop them back on to the breast. It was my experience that if I could get Abby back on the breast once or twice, she usually realized she missed it and started nursing again. If nothing else, it’s a more convenient way to ride out a nursing strike if it saves you a few pumping sessions.
- If your little one isn’t gaining weight quickly enough (or quickly enough for Tipat Chalav, which is sometimes a different thing entirely) and you are advised to supplement with formula, ask if you can simply add some formula to expressed breast milk to up the calorie content first. Or at least split a bottle of breast milk with formula so that every bottle has some breast milk in it. Breast milk varies in flavor, smell and other ways depending on the time of day, Mom’s diet, etc. If your baby gets use to the monotone flavor of formula, it can be more challenging to get them back on the gourmet palette of breast milk.
- For sore nipples (which I had way later than expected, since we were all nipple shields all the time in the beginning), I took a three-pronged approach. First, lanolin or Dr. Newman’s cream. Second, air time: keep them dry and not in contact with anything (I highly recommend these). Third, to keep any leaking milk away from them, insert an Avent or Johnson and Johnson’s nursing pad inside the Medela shell. This alone might have actually kept me nursing as long as I have.
- When you think you’re about to get your period back, consider getting some Fenugreek. For some people, it works really well. For others, it does nothing. For me, it was somewhere in the middle but it got us through some tough times when I could only pump.
- If you don’t need the breastshell jobbies, then I have a better recipe for the greatest nursing pads EVER. Get an Always maxipad. Doesn’t have to be that absorbent (or then again, maybe it does – you know yourself best). Cut the nice rounded ends off. They are lined with the same stuff as most nursing pads, but they are much cheaper, just as absorbent, flatter and have adhesive all over the back so they actually stay in place. BONUS: Different levels of absorption for overnights. And the stay dry wicking top liner actually keeps your breasts nice and dry and clean and they don’t stick to sore nipples.
- And lastly. If you are going to be pumping a lot and you have access to one, get yourself a Medela Freestyle. It is hands down the nicest pump made. You can actually pump completely handsfree, which means you can do something else and not have to sit hunched forward, etc. You are more relaxed – ergo more milk. And it’s easy to assemble and the parts are big and heavy duty silicone so you don’t get nervous losing or damaging something when you wash it (I borrowed a friend’s pump at first and was petrified that I would lose one of those little membranes!). Also the pump is teency tiny in comparison to others, so if you have to take a pump to work, it’s really one to consider. I cannot say enough good about it.
And now, dear readers, what are your best tips? Leave them in the comments or over on your blog and let me know!
