From Failure to Thrive to BREASTFEEDING for Two Years
** DISCLAIMER I am not a pediatrician, or a health professional. Do not take my experience as medical advice. Always discuss any concerns or plans you have with your pediatrician and/or personal doctor.
When my son was three months old I heard the three of the worst words a new mom can hear from one of his doctors “failure to thrive”.
When we first got the diagnosis I cried, right there in the doctor’s office. We had already been through so much! Prolonged jaundice, a NICU stay, meningitis and two-week hospital stay, tongue tie release, reflux, thrush infections, and two bouts of mastitis. Now I was being told I needed to wean him off breastfeeding and switch him over to formula.
As a new mom this news broke me a little bit. I felt like we had finally clicked on the whole breastfeeding thing while we were in the hospital for the meningitis. Two different lactation consultants gave me the seal of approval and after we were discharged we got his tongue tie released. But he just wasn’t putting on enough weight in the doctor’s opinion.
Doctors orders
Bubba was sensitive to dairy so not only did we have to switch him to formula, but we had to use the expensive one (Nutramigen). Luckily Dr. J the GI Specialist who diagnosed him gave me a bunch of samples to get us started. He also approved of me slowly weaning him since I had a history of being prone to developing mastitis.
After we got home
When we got home I was still very heartbroken, but I was also very determined to overcome the diagnosis. So, I called a lactation consultant and made an appointment. If nothing else they could give me advice about weaning. We did a weighted feed, she observed me feeding him, and she tested my breastmilk. From everything she saw… my milk looked great and he was feeding well from me. She also felt like his weight gain while slow was still getting better and he just needed a little more time after recovering from the meningitis.
So, I decided to essentially bully my body into producing more milk. And these are the things I did:
Drink A lot of water
I started drinking LOTS of water. I mean a TON. At this time, I was already drinking about 64 oz of water a day which is a healthy amount for my weight. The rule of thumb I follow is to drink about 1/2 your body weight in oz of water per day. So, a 100lb person should drink about 50oz of water. I upped my water intake to about double.
Fun fact, you can in fact drink too much water in a single day. Make sure you are balancing an appropriate amount of electrolytes. I would drink a propel (my preferred fitness water) or body armor as part of that water intake everyday as well.
Pump, pump, pump
Your milk is on a supply and demand system. If you aren’t demanding milk for your body it wont supply it. To encourage my body to make more milk I tricked it into thinking I needed more milk. How did I do this? I added 1-2 pumping sessions between feeds, and I used the Hakka during all my feeds. This was the most risky for me since upping my supply like this could lead to clogged ducts and mastitis again if I wasn’t careful. If I’m being honest I did get mastitis again. However, this is the step that I most attribute to my success. I used most of the milk I collected to feed to baby, and only stored a little extra for emergencies. Remember feed the baby not the fridge!
Eventually I dropped the extra pumping sessions and only used the Hakka because that’s what worked best for me.
More healthy fats
I wanted to make sure that my breastmilk was extra fatty so bubba would gain weight. To enrich my breastmilk, I made sure to eat well. For me this meant more vegetables and healthy fats. I wanted to make sure the calorie content of my milk was supported by my diet. This meant I ate more avocado, fish, and nuts. As well as upping the amount of vegetables I was eating.
More lactogenic foods
I am not sure this one actually helped. But the lactation consultant gave me a list of foods to eat that had been identified has helping some people produce more milk. These foods include oatmeal, nuts, flax, spinach, fish, and other items. You can find lists online just by searching “lactogenic foods” find ones that fit into your diet and eat more. They are usually pretty healthy anyway so it never hurts to try. Plus the easiest way to do this for me was eating lactation cookies.
Lactation cookies
This is another item that I am not sure helped. But at the time it made me feel better and was a nice treat, so it definetly didn’t hurt. At first I bought cookies, but I never found ones that I liked enough for the price tag so I started making my own. I’ll post the recipe soon.
Returning to the Doctor’s office
I don’t lie to doctors. I don’t see the point. So, when we went back for our weigh-in I was honest about what I was doing. I told the doctor the strategies I employed and the results spoke for themselves. It took about 4 months of weekly and then monthly follow ups but he eventually approved me to continue breastfeeding and said he was gaining weight well.
We’re just a few months shy of 2 years of breastfeeding and I am just so proud of myself. I know what I was able to do is hard, and not everyone could have done the same. I also know that the methods I used wont work for everyone and that’s ok too. Fed is best and each mama has to do whats right for her baby.