Help!! My 8 month old daughter only drinks about 7 oz of breastmilk and one container of fruits/vegetables w/ some cereal in the 7 hours she's at daycare. I feed her another container of fruits/vegetables for dinner, and we usually nurse, then at night goes down around 8 wakes up at 11 to nurse and every hour after that, and we're up at 6 for the day. My nipples are constantly sore. I know they feed her about every 3 hours. What can I do to help her sleep or keep my nipples from overuse.
I'm sorry you are sore from brest feeding. I know when i first came home from the hospital and i was very sore too but i had no milk for my baby so i was unable to feed him. But i used a lotion type called aquaphor. I know they sell it in the baby department at wal mart and walgreens has it too. I'm sure they sell it other places. But it worked wonders for me. Hope this info will help you. Goodluck
Before bed consider give the baby a bowl with rice cereal mixed with breast milk. That worked wonders for both of my children. The rice cereal stays in their belly longer.
H.-
I think she is catching up on time with you. My daughter nursed all night until I night weaned her at 18 months. My son is now 13 months and wakes up at least 3 times a night sometimes much more. If he forgets to nurse much during the day he will nurse all night. Try to get in more time for her to nurse during the day. Could you come in and nurse her at your lunch break? As for your nipples being sore they shouldn't be no matter how much she is nursing. They should eventually get used to it. Have you tried using creams or made sure she is latching on correctly? Also could she be going through a growth spurt, teething or sick? These are times when my son wakes up much more. A good book to check out about this is The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley. Also co-sleeping makes the night awakenings much easier to handle if you are open to that. Hope this helps :)
H.,
I agree that your daughter is not getting enough milk at daycare. Also, she is trying to catch up on her "mama time" at night. But there is a danger that she will get used to nursing all night and require it in order to fall asleep; i.e. she will not learn how to fall asleep on her own. This is what happened to me. I had to ween my son off nursing at night cold turkey and it was horrible! I concur that Elizabeth Pantley is a great resource!!! Good luck!
Try supplimenting w/formula (or breastmilk if you are solely for that) mixed w/a little rice cereal at night before bed. (the last bottle of the night)It helped me when I was breastfeeding. My oldest was up every 1 1/2 hrs through the night, and it took a 1/2 hr to feed him..so I had a lot of sleepless nights in the beginning. It was pretty much the same with my twins. Once I added that bottle at bedtime..they went longer before the next feeding and eventually it tapered off to only day feedings. As for the soreness of your nipples..buy a bottles of vitamin E (the gel tablets) and then just poke a hole in it w/a needle and squeeze the "juice" out and rub it on your nipples. (my OB told me to do that) it helped immensely. And it's non-toxic and safe for baby. As opposed to some other lotions and such that are out there. Missa
H.,
I'm no doctor but it sounds like she is not getting enough breastmilk during the day! She seems to be doing well with solids but, at 8 mo old, her primary source of food should still be breastmilk/formula. I would try to get your daycare to feed her at least another 8 oz during the day. Work with them to figure out if she needs to eat fewer oz every 2 hrs or more oz every 3 hrs. Also, she sounds like she isn't getting enough sleep at night so she may be sleeping too much at daycare. Ideally, she should be sleeping 3-4 hrs during the day and 10-11 hrs at night. I hope you can get some sleep and some rest for your nipples soon!
S.
