Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Help Me

Ok, so yes, I seem to be pregnant (going to the doctor on Friday to confirm and all that, but come on, I know I am). I promise this is not going to turn into a whiny blog about baby problems, but I'm having an issue and what better resource is there than all my invisible friends on the internet? I need your help, ladies!

I'm not up for going into the whole story right now, but I really fought to get Daughter to breastfeed successfully. She last drank a bottle of formula the night we came home from the hospital, and since then it's been nothing but breastmilk (w/ solid foods of course). I never could get her to take a bottle again once she figured out how to latch onto me, but that was ok. I had no other plans than to be home feeding and caring for her. Plus, holy cow, formula is expensive! So it was a cost-saving measure too.

But! Now my doctor is adamant that I discontinue breastfeeding daughter right away. In fact, the nurse I spoke to wanted me to do it by the end of the week! HA! Show me a woman who can wean in 4 days, please. I'd like to shake her hand. But I understand the concern, and since Daughter was on the small side when she was born we want to give this baby all the advantages we can, so I'm willing to wean Daughter early.

The problem, of course, is that she hasn't had a drop of formula in oh, almost 10 months. And she HATES IT. I bought a small can of Nestle Good Start Supreme (with easy to digest comfort proteins...yummy!) based on the online reviews. People said it has the best taste and their kids just love it. But not my kid. She is used to getting water and juice in her cup, and today at lunchtime when I put this cup of formula in front of her she picked it up, eyed it suspiciously, looked at me, and took a tentative sip. Then she threw it on the floor. She also made a horrific gagging sound and shuddered. Ok! Wonderful! I tried it warm, I tried it room-temp, I tried it with an ice cube in it (thinking if it was super cold she might not be able to taste it so much). I even threw some juice in with it, thinking it might fool her into drinking the stuff. Nope.

Internet, PLEASE HELP ME. I am getting really nervous about Daughter's nutrition. Dammit, I want to just give her whole milk, but since I can't do that, I have to do this formula crap. Do you have any tricks? Is it better mixed with something else? Is there a brand that tastes better? Can I sweeten it somehow so it's more like breastmilk? I would cut the formula with breastmilk but I don't even have any in the freezer...I never needed it, and I can't start pumping now. That would sort of defeat the purpose of all this.

Please, oh please give me some ideas.

**Edited to add: I have been researching this issue feverishly this afternoon and you know what? There's a boatload of support out there saying it is ok to nurse while pregnant. It's only for 2 more months, and I've been doing it for one month now without even knowing it...Daughter really nurses so little anyway. She does less than 5 mins each side and she's done, and I am confident we can go down to twice per day now (morning and night) with some formula mixed into her cereal, disguised with fruit, until we can go to whole milk. My lactation consultant also said I can make up some of the calcium and whatnot with yogurt and cheese. I think I'll take this argument to my ob/gyn appointment and see what happens. What choice do I have? I can buy a can of every formula on the store shelves and they're all going to taste like crap.
My doc is older, and this may also be a CYA issue, but I have to provide nourishment to my child.

Thank you for your input!

5 comments:

Ruth said...

I don't want to second guess your doctor here (but really, who better for a second opinion than a random stranger on the Internet?), but I know women who have breastfed while pregnant with no ill results. One friend's milk started diminishing naturally when she was four months (or so), but the other not only nursed the whole time but she tandem nursed after the baby was born.

Do you have a La Leche League in your town, or is there a lactation consultant at the hospital you could talk to? At the very least, they could give you some good ideas about weaning.

Ruth said...

p.s. This is not to say that I think you MUST nurse while pregnant. If you don't feel you should, than I think you should wean Daughter and find an alternative that works for both of you.

My first port of call for help with this would be the aforementioned LLL or lactation consultant and your pediatrician.

And Google. Because Google knows all. :)

Staci said...

Okay, so I already said something similar, but I agree with Ruth in that if it's a major issue for you to get your daughter on something else, I'm surprised your dr would be so adamant about it for just two months (since then you can go to milk and avoid the formula thing). Again, I'm not saying you SHOULD keep nursing - it's totally your call. But lots of women do nurse through the pregnancy. When I got pregnant with #2, the nurse practitioner I met with first thing said "so I assume you'll be weaning her right away?" and when I said no she flew off the handle about all the dangers and I said I'd heard it was fine to nurse... anyway I was almost in tears by the end of the appt. and called my lactation consultant immediately (I have one provided through my work). She said that even in high risk pregnancies you can usually nurse for up to four to six months witout concern. Sorry. That was long.

I was going to suggest cutting the formula with breastmilk, but you stole me answer at the end of your post. So I'm no help. My first daughter never had a drop of formula and I'm on path to do the same for #2. I did have all sort of issues getting Ruth to take a bottle, but it had nothing to do with what was inside the bottle.

If you want to chat in any more detail, feel free to email me anytime!

Jenn said...

I wish I had some answers, but never having been pregnant, I've got nothing! Good luck!

Ann-Marie MacKay said...

it is totally okay to b/feed while pregnant.
you can obviously do some google searching, la leche league searchign or try this forum (with people who have been there):
http://www.todaysparent.com/community/breastfeeding/

lots of women there are nursing while pregnant--it's called "tandem" nursing.
as long as your pregnancy is going well (ie: baby is growing and you feel well) there's no need to stop.
(you will have to register to be able to post there)

g'luck