Can Breast Milk Not Come At All After Giving Birth?
Posted by Zolly | Under Nutrition Friday Nov 27, 2009I breast fed my first child with no problems at all. Everything went fantastic. Milk came right away and I breast fed him for a whole year without any supplements. I just gave birth to my second child 2 days ago thinking all would be a breeze. Although, I have nothing, but little drops of colostrum. (I know b/c I pumped and barely anything came out.) They say it has lots of nutrition, but I’m afraid it just won’t due with satisfying my son’s hunger and health. He cries and just won’t even bother with trying to breast feed anymore. I’m frustrated and sad. I’m resorting to formula now. They say breast milk can sometimes take 3 days to come in, but what if it doesn’t come in at all? What can I do to stimulate my milk to come faster? I don’t want him to get sick of “trying” to breast feed or having him get use to formula. Any suggestions?
His stomach is the size of a jelly bean, don’t worry he is getting enough food! Just keep nursing!! Mymilk came after 4 days. Good luck!
A ped once told me that most people panic that colostrum isn’t enough for their child, but a full feed of colostrum is only 7mls, which is hardly anything. Sometimes it can take a few days for your milk to come in, but until then, colostrum will likely be enough for him. The more you feed or pump (even if it seems like you’re not getting anything), the quicker your milk will come in.
My milk also only came after 3 days. But for the first 3 days I had nothing, not even colostrum. It was horrible and my poor child had to be cup fed. I don’t think you can not get any milk at all. ….You have to sometime, normally 3 or 4 days I would think, if not immediately.
My milk came in after four days, its can take about four to five days sometime
firstly colostrum is really hard to pump. its thick and definately better being drawn by your son actually feeding so do not stop feeding yet!! It will come in, just give it time.
Contrary to popular belief breastmilk can take 5-7 not 3 days to actually be in and replace the colostrum. You’ll know by his poos changing from the black tar to the yellow seedy stuff. Once it starts to change you know your milk is in.
Keep feeding him every 2 hours at least. If you don’t want the bottles, syringe feed him so he doesn’t end up with nipple confusion while you wait a couple of days for your milk to properly come in.
My bestfriend took 5 days both times to get her milk and the hospital did the syringe feeding with whatever she could pump inbetween breastfeeds and then topped with formula from the syringe too and she never had trouble with nipple confusion and baby still took breastmilk no problems.
Also go to the doctors first thing tomorrow or later today (whichever depending on what time it is where you are) and ask them for the tablets that stimulate milk production. They literally work overnight, you’ll be bursting so give that a go.
You know the benefits of b/feeding, don’t give up, see the doctor, keep feeding all the time and pump what you can.
Good luck and congratulations on the newest addition to your family!!
First off STOP being so hard on yourself,not everyone can breastfeed there baby’s.
I know people say breast is best,but It’s not always possible to do.
Both my baby’s were on formula milk and they are both bright and brainy,they are above average for there age,so it has done them no harm not having breast milk.
To Try and get your breast milk to come out,have a hot bath then put a hot cloth over your boob’s so it will stimulate them into getting some milk out,then once they fill up they will be like that until you stop breast feeding.
Good luck,and congratulations on your second baby,enjoy him as they grow up so fast.
You need to let your son suckle, it’s the only way to stimulate your breasts to produce milk. He’s two days old, he does not need anything other than colostrum. Don’t pump, don’t give him bottles (of anything), don’t give him formula. Boob only! Anything else will seriously undermine any chance of breastfeeding working out. He’s only 2 days old, he’s a clean slate. It might be a rough day or so to get him back to breastfeeding but it’s better than 12 months old bottles. Brace yourself for a crappy day then just be stubborn. He’ll figure it out. I would only give him a supplement again if he loses more than 10% of his birth weight and the pediatrician recommends it.
I gave birth on a Wednesday and my milk didn’t come in until Saturday–and some babies need to nurse constantly to build up your supply once it does.
I desperately wanted to breastfeed my son but he was born very low birth weight and ended up on the neonatal unit. I continually tried to breastfeed him but I too wasn’t producing enough milk and I persevered in hospital for 10 days putting him to the breast and using a breast pump to try to stimulate my milk flow but it just wasn’t happening for me and he was being formula fed through a tube anyway as he was far too low birth weight to risk withholding food to force him to depend on breast feeding so I gave in and he is now on special formula for small babies. I bought a breast pump so that I could try to continue to express milk at home to boost the flow but after 10 minutes pumping on each breast I still only had about 5mls of milk in the pot!! I did try to breastfeed at home but because I had no milk there he would just get so angry and frustrated and scream at my breast and then we would both end up stressed! Now we are both happy as I can actually feed him now using formula! I gave it my best shot but if it doesn’t happen for you this time then you have tried and don’t beat yourself up about it. Try not to stress yourself as stress hormones act to reduce your milk flow – easier said than done though as I was so determined to feed my son my own breast milk that I continually tried and made us both stressed and upset in the process but hey ho it wasn’t to be. Fennel tea and fenugreek can boost milk supply if that is of any help to you??