Help! breasts seem to be drying up

[Tanya]

My breasts are dense and painful and I can only express yellow milk and not
much when I pump..
Right now, my daughter is only getting some milk, not enough so I
supplement. I was 2 weeks early delivering her and it seems the milk never
came in. I try and pump when I can. She is low birth weight with billy
rubin and I want to give her formula to get rid of it but I am trying to
pump in between to keep up supply. My breasts are engorged or full feeling
but painful and can only give the yellow milk and not that much. It feels
like they are drying up!! HELP, what can I do?

[CY]

Hi Tanya

Congrats on your new baby.

Have you seen a lacation consultant yet? Supplementing is normally not good
for a breastfeeding relationship, though I know that infants with bilirubin
and low birth weight have issues all their own so I can't speak to that, but
the normal advice for a newborn is to nurse nurse nurse and not supplement.
However, if you have to supplement for medical reasons the best way to do so
is with a Lactaid or an SNS. Are you familiar with those terms? New mama's
often think their babies are not getting "enough" when really they are.
Again, I am not familiar with the "rules" for low birth weight/premature
babies, but others here have BTDT and should bve able to help you a bit
more.

How much are you supplementing? Breastfeeding is very much a supply and
demand thing so "pumping when you can" may not be enough to stimulate your
supply to keep up your milk. Does your baby ever nurse at the breast?
What kind of pump are you using? How old is your baby? What was the birth
weight? 2 weeks is not really considered premature these days....These are
all very important questions and will help everyone answer you more
specifically.

Anyway, in answer to your question about your milk drying up here are some
things you can try:

1) Nurse as often as possible. When the baby is getting her food from some
other source, pump, using a hospital grade pump.
2) Drink plenty of fluids
3) Eat oatmeal
4) Nurse nurse nurse!!
5) Try Fenugreek, Blessed Thistle or a herbal supplement like More Milk or
Lactaflow
6) Rest as much as possible - nap when baby naps etc.
7) And then nurse some more!
8) After nursing, pump if possible, though, pumping is generally not
recommended until baby is 3 weeks old (although again, not sure how that
works with a low birth weight/bilirubin baby)

If you are not nursing directly at breast for some reason, I would certainly
seek out the help of a good IBCLC if you have the resources, or even La
Leche League.

Good luck and let us know how it all works out...

CY


"Tanya" > wrote in message
...
> My breasts are dense and painful and I can only express yellow milk and
not
> much when I pump..
> Right now, my daughter is only getting some milk, not enough so I
> supplement. I was 2 weeks early delivering her and it seems the milk
never
> came in. I try and pump when I can. She is low birth weight with billy
> rubin and I want to give her formula to get rid of it but I am trying to
> pump in between to keep up supply. My breasts are engorged or full
feeling
> but painful and can only give the yellow milk and not that much. It feels
> like they are drying up!! HELP, what can I do?
>
>

[Karlee in Kansas]

I'm not an expert by any means, but my DD was born almost a month early,
and weighed in at 5lb 14 oz at birth. I also had a bit of yellowish milk
(wasn't neon yellow, but more of a pale yellow) for the first several days.
Here is what I learned from this group, and real life stuff...maybe some of
it could help you.

1) Since you didn't say how old your baby is, I can't really go off of
that. But it can take several days for your milk to fully come in. My
colostrum was yellowish until my milk fully came in, around 4 days post
partum.

2) baby is WAY more efficient getting milk out of you than a pump is. Baby
nursing or even suckling will help your body to know that its time to make
more milk. DD nursed lots in the first few weeks, somewhere in the
neighborhood of 30min every 1.5 hours. I would lay down in bed, pop in a
good movie and switch breasts every time one got tender. How much you pump
is not equal to how much baby is getting.

3) Engorged breasts hurt. A LOT. They feel like rocks under your shirt,
and you want to climb up the wall and through the ceiling when they are
touched. Letting baby nurse will help this feeling go away, even though it
hurts at first.

The only time I was relatively successful with a pump was in the first few
weeks when I had issues with being engorged. I'd pump for about 30 seconds
on each breast to get them soft enough for DD to latch. After you let your
DD nurse, does she still act hungry or does she seem satisfied? IIRC, she
will seem satisfied only if she is getting enough. I know with my DD that
if she doesn't get enough and dozes off in the middle of a feeding, as soon
as I put her down she will wail like a banshee until I give the breast back
to her. If she has had enough, she will settle pretty quickly.

As for the billyrubin, are you letting her get some indirect sunlight for
about 15 minutes a day? Indirect is best so she doesn't get a sunburn, but
the light will help her little body make the vitamin d that will help ease
the jaundice.

I agree with CY, talk to the LLL or an IBCLC, they can probably help you a
lot.

Good luck
Karlee in Kansas
~~
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't
matter and those who matter don't mind."
-Dr. Seuss

"Tanya" > wrote in message
...
| My breasts are dense and painful and I can only express yellow milk and
not
| much when I pump..
| Right now, my daughter is only getting some milk, not enough so I
| supplement. I was 2 weeks early delivering her and it seems the milk
never
| came in. I try and pump when I can. She is low birth weight with billy
| rubin and I want to give her formula to get rid of it but I am trying to
| pump in between to keep up supply. My breasts are engorged or full
feeling
| but painful and can only give the yellow milk and not that much. It
feels
| like they are drying up!! HELP, what can I do?
|
|

[Shannon]

Why would you give formula when you can nurse? The yellow stuff you see is
colostrum which is the BEST starter food any newborn could have. If you
breast are sore and engorged, than your milk is coming IN not drying UP.
Please call a lactation consultant right now, and get some assistance
getting your baby to latch on.

Formula is not the only treatment for jaundice.

-Shannon

"Tanya" > wrote in message
...
> My breasts are dense and painful and I can only express yellow milk and
not
> much when I pump..
> Right now, my daughter is only getting some milk, not enough so I
> supplement. I was 2 weeks early delivering her and it seems the milk
never
> came in. I try and pump when I can. She is low birth weight with billy
> rubin and I want to give her formula to get rid of it but I am trying to
> pump in between to keep up supply. My breasts are engorged or full
feeling
> but painful and can only give the yellow milk and not that much. It feels
> like they are drying up!! HELP, what can I do?
>
>

[Shannon]

In retrospect, I think my previous post was a little curt - sorry! Blame it
on PMS. Congratulations on the addition to your family!

But seriously...colostrum is the first liquid that comes out of your
breasts. It is often yellow, and thicker than regular milk. It's not only
okay, it's really really good for the baby. Please nurse!

For the engorgement, use warm first, cold after. You can put rice in a sock
and microwave it to create a warm compress for before you nurse, and use a
bag of frozen peas afterward to relive the discomfort. Some women use
cabbage leaves, I never tried that.

It really sounds as though your body is reacting perfectly normally,
producing just what it should for your baby. A lactation consultant will be
able to help you get your baby latched on so that she can get the benefit of
that nutrition. If you don't know who to call, your hospital will have
references. If your daughter is low birth weight, breastmilk is the best
thing for her. Really!

Keep in touch!

-Shannon

"Tanya" > wrote in message
...
> My breasts are dense and painful and I can only express yellow milk and
not
> much when I pump..
> Right now, my daughter is only getting some milk, not enough so I
> supplement. I was 2 weeks early delivering her and it seems the milk
never
> came in. I try and pump when I can. She is low birth weight with billy
> rubin and I want to give her formula to get rid of it but I am trying to
> pump in between to keep up supply. My breasts are engorged or full
feeling
> but painful and can only give the yellow milk and not that much. It feels
> like they are drying up!! HELP, what can I do?
>
>

[iphigenia]

Tanya wrote:
> My breasts are dense and painful and I can only express yellow milk
> and not much when I pump..

Erm, if your breasts are engorged, then you have plenty of milk. Yellow milk
is transitional milk - it's the stuff that comes between colostrum and
mature milk, and it's very very good for the infant.

> I was 2 weeks early delivering her and it seems the milk
> never came in.

Two weeks before your due date? That's not "early" then, it's term. Your
milk certainly sounds like it's in now, in any case.

> I try and pump when I can. She is low birth weight
> with billy rubin and I want to give her formula to get rid of it but
> I am trying to pump in between to keep up supply.

Formula is not as effective as breastmilk for clearing bilirubin.

For engorgement, nurse as often as you can. Be careful about pumping while
engorged, because you're only signaling the body to make even more milk,
which is going to exacerbate the discomfort. It does not sound like you're
drying up at all.

--
tristyn
www.tristyn.net
"i have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
i do not think that they will sing to me."

[Teresa Chandler]

"Tanya" wrote
> My breasts are dense and painful and I can only express yellow milk and
not
> much when I pump..
> Right now, my daughter is only getting some milk, not enough so I
> supplement. I was 2 weeks early delivering her and it seems the milk
never
> came in. I try and pump when I can. She is low birth weight with billy
> rubin and I want to give her formula to get rid of it but I am trying to
> pump in between to keep up supply. My breasts are engorged or full
feeling
> but painful and can only give the yellow milk and not that much. It feels
> like they are drying up!! HELP, what can I do?

Tanya,

Congrats on your new one! One thing that I haven't seen anyone else address
is that some women don't pump well. Your baby is much more efficient at
emptying out your breast than a pump. Do NOT, under any circumstance,
assume that because you pump one amount, that's all your baby is getting.
At 4 months, I could only pump 1/4 an ounce a day. If that is all Ian was
getting in his body, he'd have starved to death.

People are right, if your breasts are engorged, you are NOT drying up. The
best way to keep from being engorged is to put that baby to the breast,
because, like I said, the baby is way better at emptying it out. I was just
like you, thinking the baby isn't getting any milk, but my breasts were hard
as rocks. Ian never had any thing but my milk until he was 6 months old.
It's just because you haven't gotten some good support to explain how
nursing works.

Breastmilk is really better than formula, even in getting rid of bilirubin.
Babies with jaundice survived years before formula was on the market. Ian
had jaundice, too. It's okay. LIke everyone else has said, yellow milk has
part colostrum, or first milk in it, which is very important to a new one.
It's called "liquid gold" in some circles. It has tons of antibodies in it,
which will protect your young one from disease.

Please keep going, and let us know how it's going. If you want the best
advice I can give, ditch those bottles of formula, quit pumping, and take
that baby and let it nurse like crazy. Put your feet up and rest while you
have the excuse!

Teresa

[JennP]

"Tanya" > wrote in message
...

My breasts are engorged or full feeling
> but painful and can only give the yellow milk and not that much. It feels
> like they are drying up!! HELP, what can I do?

Is your baby a newborn? Could you be engored and could the yellow stuff be
colostrum?

The pump will not tell you what you can produce. Your baby is the best
indicator. Plenty of wet diapers are something to watch for. If I were you,
I'd pull back on the supplementing and start to nurse, nurse, nurse.
--
JennP.

mom to Matthew 10/11/00
remove "no........spam" to reply

[Larry McMahan]

Tanya > writes:
: My breasts are dense and painful and I can only express yellow milk and not
: much when I pump..
: Right now, my daughter is only getting some milk, not enough so I
: supplement. I was 2 weeks early delivering her and it seems the milk never
: came in. I try and pump when I can. She is low birth weight with billy
: rubin and I want to give her formula to get rid of it but I am trying to
: pump in between to keep up supply. My breasts are engorged or full feeling
: but painful and can only give the yellow milk and not that much. It feels
: like they are drying up!! HELP, what can I do?

You leave a lot unanswered that we need to know to help you.

How old is your baby? How high is her bilirubin? Are you nusing now?
Are you supplementing with formula? How much? Why are you pumping?
How often do you nurse/how many times per day?

Larry

[Larry McMahan]

Aha. There are a number of questions answered in this post that I asked
in an earlier one. More follow-ups here...

I assume from your other post that your baby is 4 weeks? Is that right?

Tanya > writes:
: My breasts are dense and painful and I can only express yellow milk and not
: much when I pump..

OK. Why are you pumping? (rather than nursing directly) How often are you
pumping? How much milk is "not much"? Are you nursing also? How often?

: Right now, my daughter is only getting some milk, not enough so I
: supplement.

In your post in m.k.p, you talk about having your son circed. Here your talk
about your daughter. I'm confused?

How much are you supplementing? (ounces per day) When did you start suppmenting?

: I was 2 weeks early delivering her and it seems the milk never
: came in. I try and pump when I can. She is low birth weight with billy
: rubin and I want to give her formula to get rid of it but I am trying to
: pump in between to keep up supply. My breasts are engorged or full feeling
: but painful and can only give the yellow milk and not that much. It feels
: like they are drying up!! HELP, what can I do?

OK. Two weeks is not really early. Anything after 37 weeks is considered
full term. How much did she weigh? Was it a natural unmedicated birth or
did you have any interventions (such as epidural, inductions or augmentation,
c/section, forceps or vacuum extraction, or episiotomy).

You say that your milk never came in. This can sometimes happen if there
are any placental fragments left behind in the uterus after birth? Did
you have cord traction to help birth the placenta? Placental fragments
usually can cause hemorhage and need to be dealth with (D&C).

Finally, how often are you nursing? Just as a guidline, you should be
nursing every 3 hours all day and night, more often during the day.
That would be about 10 nursing sessions a day. This number will decrease
rapidly once your baby is 8 to 12 weeks old.

Good luck,
Larry