Before I had little Leander, I knew I wanted to try to breastfeed. I wasn’t sure I would manage it however. My mother filled me with tales of how she gave up when I weighed the same at four months as I did at three months so I thought I would find it equally as tough.
Medically there is no reason why you cannot breastfeed just for being petite but it follows that the larger the baby, the more (s)he eats. And as my health visitor pointed out, a long thin baby eats lots to fill out. Which means that you will get tired and drained the more that you feed and therefore need to keep your energy levels up. (Cue double breakfasts and lots of snacks!).
The problem with eating what is recommended (See NHS) – a balanced healthy diet full of complex carbohydrates, lean protein, dairy, fruits and vegetables etc – is that after giving birth your intestines have been squashed to hell and take a while to recover. The result for me was IBS type symptoms and the inability to eat so healthily. I read about and tried probiotics, but was never convinced that these made a blind bit of difference. I’m currently testing peppermint oil but it’s too early to tell if it’s helping – watch this space!
I also read up on what helps milk production and found some really useful lists online which detailed many galactagogues (See Mom Junction). This proved really useful for meal planning (when my mother cooked for me!) and helped me find out which galactagogues worked best for me – nuts like almonds and sesame seeds! I also made ‘lactaction cookies‘ too!
The other problem I encountered was that although the breastfeeding expert insisted that you could enjoy the odd glass of wine or two no problem, I always felt that I had to play catch up a few days afterwards building my milk supply back up. Maybe that is personal to me, or being so petite and inevitably having a baby that is going to be much taller than me and just needs to eat a lot!
Also, I struggled with ideal positions to breastfeed in. Initially, when the baby cannot hold their own heads up as well and they are so tiny, it’s handy to hold them in the crossover hold so that they can latch on. Due to not having a proper breastfeeding chair in the nursery, I found this rather uncomfortable and didn’t find the nursing cushion I had much help either. I quickly realised in my prolific googling and reading whilst feeding, that the cradle hold was by far the most convenient, aided by cushions to bolster the relevant arm.
As he grew heavier and heavier and I in turn also grew tireder and tireder, I started to try the lying down position. I found this great for ease but altogether too easy to fall asleep whilst feeding. Alas with a heavy cold, I felt I had no other option as I was devoid of energy from this and all the wakeful nights feeding and settling baba. Thus we ended up co-sleeping doing this at night feeds.
I’m not sure I’d recommend lying down to feed, as they too drift off and don’t get the full feed and wake more frequently as a result to feed. I also wonder if this was one of the reasons why my son suddenly developed reflux after a couple of months.
What I would recommend though, which I myself in turn was recommended by a mother-of-two-friend was not to treat nipple soreness and to ride out the pain til it subsided. This I did find really great advice. And I barely managed to do it, however it was well worth it as I think products that you can buy to temporarily alleviate the pain, can put little one off feeding if you smell different…
All in all, the key thing is to try to relax as much as possible, look after yourself as well as remembering that the more your baby eats, the more milk you will produce.
Love Petite Living 