A mum and a wife and sometimes just me


Monday 19 November 2012

The milk saga


I was surprised when after giving birth to my wee man that on the ward I was one of the few women who was willing to give breastfeeding a go. I'm not a fanatic about it or anything but just thought it was the best and cheapest option to at least try. Saying that I was never breast fed. My mum was quite clear that she did not like the idea of it at all. I was ready to try and new it was not going to be as easy and natural as I had always thought before being pregnant but I figured I did everything I could do prepare myself (now I am not sure you can ever really prepare yourself for anything to do with raising children!). The wee man actually latched on straight away when he was given to me and the midwife said I probably don't have anything to worry about as he looks like a good eater. I was obviously cursed from the moment she said that as it all seemed to go downhill from there!

I did get much amazing support during my stay at the hospital and I was really so bored there that I could not wait to get home so after the first night even though I could have stayed another I asked to go. Hindsight is an evil thing and now I think I should have stayed and been a bit more proactive in getting some support.


I did not have any typical problems with breastfeeding really except that the wee man would cry constantly and only settle on the breast so I was breastfeeding all the time. It did not hurt and I was told that he was latching on well. I certainly seemed to have enough milk as well as it was poring out of me. I did not really start to worry about it all though until I was told that the wee man was not putting on the weight that he was supposed to. He was also a bit jaundiced bless him. I started to stress and I ended up having a midwife come and visit me pretty much every day. It did not help that it was a different one all the time. With all the suggestions though things just were not getting easier for me. I was starting to probably not be the best mum ever at this point. I had a wonderful supportive health visitor who did direct me towards breastfeeding support but it just never changed anything. 

My wee man was using me for a comforter. He would pop himself onto the breast and well just fall asleep. So I would take him off and then came his tears. I started to express and he actually appeared to take the bottle. Well sometimes anyway. I don't know, the best way to describe it is like he was a snacker between these big bouts of sleep. He never settled into this pattern of how many hourly feeds. I was just stressing. Evenutally I started to formula feed.

Yep I hear some of you tutting. Trust me I still feel a wave of guilt when I tell people I only breastfed for the first two months. My excuses never seem to fly really and even writing it now I am not sure I have explained really well how difficult those first two month were for me. The thing is even on formula it never really improved. He never drank the amount recommended on the tin! I know every child is different and I know children won't starve themselves but no first time mum will accept this no matter how many times she is told...well at least I did not. He never really seemed to cry when he was hungry so I was always left guessing. Once we started weaning I started to quickly drop bottles! Thank goodness he liked his food.


I started to offer him his morning milk with some porridge or weetabix and that thankfully went down well. In the night before bed I was lucky to get an ounce down him so I just stopped pushing. So much for finding it difficult to give up that last comfort bottle!

So if you have reached the end of the saga my toddler does not like to drink milk. I got desperate and tried to put some chocolate in it once but he even made up his face over that! He LOVES cheese and yoghurt so I offer him loads! What do you do if your toddler doesn't drink milk?


1 comment:

  1. Firstly, I didn't tut when I got to the formula bit, because you tried breastmilk first! The people I don't get are the ones who won't even try it. I'm very pro breastfeeding, but when it gets so hard it weighs down on the mum then it's more sensible to make the switch. My first was a dream, she was a milk monster and I had trouble accepting that other babies didn't want their milk. We then struggled at the age of 4 to wean our milk monster off her nighttime milk!! Then I had my second, he drank enough breastmilk in the first 6 months, but after that we really struggled to get any kind of milk down him. We also resorted to chocolate milk but no. So it was extra yogurts and cheese for him too! As a result he eats more solid food and was less fussy than my first who was probably too full on milk to want to eat her solids!

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