Pumping and Working... - FPO,AP

Just wondering why you think it is horrible to give a breastfed baby cereal before he's 6 months old?

I would agree with Catherine. Also, if you can start pumping some now before you go back to work and freeze a few ounces here and there, that may help to supplement on those days you can't pump as much when you are at work. I got into a similiar situation with my son when he was about 8 months old and he didn't mind going back and forth between formula and breastmilk and it didn't bother his digestive system at all (just made the diapers smell a wee bit more than usual just using breastmilk...just fair warning).

Are you sure he really needs 8 oz? I have big boys too....I don't remember exactly what their weight was at that age but they were close to your son and the most they ever needed in a bottle was 5-6 oz. I would send that amount, and then give your Mom a freezer stash. If he seems like he needs more than the 5-6 oz she can break out the frozen milk. If it continues to be a trend then you can mix some formula with it. Make sure you are using slow flow nipples, not the ones for "older" babies. A mother's milk flow does not change based on the age of the baby so the bottle should not either. If he has to work a little harder to get the milk out he might be fine with the smaller bottles. It might just take that extra couple ounces for his tummy to send the signal to his brain since he is getting the milk so fast.

It would be good if you could get to the 6 month mark before giving anything else...including formula or cereal. This is the age at which most babies have mature guts and the guts are "sealed" and less susceptible to infections and developing food allergies and such. If you have to give a little formula, then you do. But rice cereal really has very little in the way of nutrition and there is no reason why babies need it other than it is one of the least likely foods to cause allergic reactions. Formula would be better because at least it has nutritive value for your baby.

You could start the cereal as early as 4 months if that's what you wanted to do. The cereal is just trying to get them to learn to eat something, and has no real value to their diets. I would start pumping now, and get some frozen, then it doesn't matter how much you can pump at work, you will have enough for him. The best time to pump is after he is done eating. Just to make sure you are as empty as possible to signal your body to produce more milk.

i would also purchase a small container of formula and leave that with your mom. Then if she needs more, she can mix a bit of formula into the mlk and that will be just fine. That would be better than the rice water as again their isn't much nutritional value there at all.

If you son is eating 8 oz, that's good, but he really shouldn't be eating more than that. i would make a bottle only about 6 oz, and see how he reacts when that is gone. I know my duaghter was more about 7 months before she starting taking close to 8 oz at a feeding. She was nursed by me, but would get a bottle from her dad daily as well.

I agree with the other posts. Rice cereal is basically a practice tool for babies - it contains few calories and little nutritional value. With rice cereal you are teaching your baby to use a spoon and move their tongue to swallow solids. That's about it.

Pump and freeze as much as you can in the next few months. You might want to go and rent a hospital grade pump to do this.

Try a little formula mixed into your milk. It's not that bad! No one will think you are a bad mother for this! At this age, breastmilk or formula should be the main source of nutrition.

It's funny. My boys were always so tiny. They didn't reach 20 pounds until they were almost 15 months old!

I would just give your mom a can of powdered formula. If your son still seems hungry at the end of his bottle of breastmilk, then she can give him formula. I wouldn't do rice cereal this young. There's no need. Honestly, supplementing with formula is not the end of the world, I promise! He will be absolutely fine! The goal is to give him food he can digest and feed him until he's full. Give him as much breastmilk as you can, and give him formula for the rest.

My advice is to supplement him with formula before rice cereal.

Whether you give him rice cereal or not, you still need to be sure he s getting the recommended amount of breast milk/formula a day. Rice cereal is not a sub for that. As others have said, the latest recommendation is waiting six months to introduce solids.

When I went back to work after our son was born, there were times we ran low on breast milk. We would make formula and mix the bottles 50/50, so at least he was getting some breast milk in each feeding. You may want to try that. I would also encourage you to talk with your pediatrician to find out what s/he recommends as far as number of ounces a day, so you have some idea of how much you need to provide.

Good luck!

First, your body will make whatever is demanded by your baby or your pump. So, in a matter of days you'll be able to pump more than you thought possible. Be careful to not encourage your body to overproduce as engorgement on the weekend will not be a good thing.

Second, 4 months is the perfect age to start rice cereal. Whoever told you that feeding solids before 6 months is a "bad" thing is mistaken.

Third, mix the cereal with the breast milk, not water.

Fourth, after your little one starts enjoying the cereal and you find he has no adverse affects, move on to oat cereal, then blend the two. Then go with the yellow veggies followed by the green ones. Save fruit for last.

Finally, buy yourself a "happy baby" food mill. Start milling the foods you eat and feed them to him. He's already getting what you eat in liquid form, so solids should be good too. Don't bland down your meals for him either. I have found that my kids have a more varied pallet because I fed them healthy, tasty foods that were flavored with herbs and spices the same way anyone would like them.

Keep up the good work mom! He'll be a healthy and happy boy for it.
K.

I would not worry too much! This is such a short position, just start pumping now and freezing what you pump. It will get you under way and you will be able to supplement what you pump during the work day with frozen supplies.

Also by the time you go back to work he will be five months, right? He might be ready for some first solids by then, remember the 6 mo recommendation is actually 4-6 months and personally I would prefer feeding solidsl to make up for some bulk over giving formula. My daughter was also exclusively breastfed, but from about 4 or five months on she did show interest in solids and I did frequently let her try foods off my finger - not feeding her whole meals, but a try here and there. She also drank a lot less than I initially expected from her caregiver... she preferred the real thing and made up for it in the evening and at night.
Good luck!

It sounds like you understand all of the research and implications and that you're making an informed decision. Go with your gut mama.

On the other hand, something you may not have thought of is the WAY you're pumping and some other things about pumping and working. So here's a little more info on pumping and working for you to work into your decision if you want.

With my oldest I was in the Navy and had to go back to shift work when he was 6wks old. I also breastfed exclusively (and continued to....I ended up nursing him for 2 1/2 years) and he was also a huge baby as was my second. There are a lot of things you can do to make this work and also a few factors I don't think you realize yet.

1.) pump as often as you can before you go back to work so you have a few days worth of milk in the freezer at your moms and available. This takes the pressure off and allows for the learning curve in regards to pumping at work.

2.) while you are at work, your baby will not be nursing, so you will probably get a little engorged which just happens to be the best time to pump. Pump at work after about half of your day and again right before you leave to go home. Your son will nurse as soon as you're home of course, but you'll still have plenty because he can make you produce in a way the pump can't. I guarantee that you'll be able to pump a LOT more milk at work than you can at home where baby is nursing too.

3.) use a manual pump if you can. I really, really, really recommend the Avent Isis. With a manual pump you can recreate your own baby's particular nursing rhythm. I used a manual pump and usually pumped about 24 - 32oz during a 12 hour shift when my son was that age. I was a major squirter, so having a manual pump really helped because the electric pumps let suction go too quickly (they all have a pre-programmed rhythm) and if I could keep suction on for a few seconds until the milk stopped flowing on it's own, then sqeeze the pump again, I got a LOT more milk. (sometimes it was filling up the collection area of the pump and starting to fill the cone above it before I broke suction)

4.) use the Gerber breastmilk storage bags. Just pump into the bottle, then remove the bottle and pour into the bag. You can take a sharpie with you to label them with the date, which I recommend doing before you fill the bag, and then lay them flat to freeze. Then you can lay them sideways (like file folders) in a 9x9 baking dish in your mom's freezer and rotate them to the front easily by date. This way there is also less bottle washing and sanitizing since the bags are sterile and perfect for storage. The milk can be warmed in the bags. You only have to purchase a few bottles for the warmed milk to get poured into. It also takes up WAY less space in the freezer and I felt it was more hygenic since the bags get thrown out after they are used.

5.) take a picture of your baby with you and if you want some moms find it helpful to take a recording of their child crying or making baby sounds (some moms get really creative and record the sounds their baby makes while nursing) and it really helps. You could probably use your cell phone to do this, or if you have an iPod Nano, you can use that too, so you shouldn't need to purchase any special equipment. Imagine let down and visualize it. Visualize your baby nursing. Before you start each side give that breast a firm brief massage toward the base (where all of the milk glands are). All of these things will help you pump the absolute max amount of milk.

Anyways, I hope this helped. This is the advice I followed and I actually had to throw away a couple hundred ounces of breastmilk in the long run because it never got used and was over 6 months old! lol!

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EDIT: I disagree with Sharon. The best time to pump is BEFORE your son nurses since he's WAY better at getting you to produce than the pump is. Pump first when it's easier because he hasn't nursed in a few hours and your breasts are ready and waiting to go. Your son will be able to make an "empty" breast produce, no problem.

I am not sure why you'd want to give the baby something that may constipate him-- esp. if you've never given him rice cereal before, I don't think your absence would be a good time to "practice," since you know his normal behavior patterns better than anyone (better than Grandma, anyway). My son is also what I would call "exclusively BF" but he has probably had 10 cups of formula or milk in his lifetime (he's 14 months now)-- rather give him that than let him go hungry. I support BFing as much as you can, but formula is not the devil-- it is a relatively nutritionally well-balanced supplement for babies. I think that in your case this is pretty much what you should be using to make up the difference. The rare times that we have given my son formula/milk, it's always organic, and I suggest doing the same if that gives you more mental peace about what he's ingesting, particularly if, like my family, you already eat an organic diet. To summarize: breast is best, but formula is not really evil-- I have plenty of friends that had to/chose to give their babies formula on occasion/all the time and nearly all of them have children who are fine, happy, and healthy. I suggest supplementing with formula before "trying out" rice cereal. It is mostly a myth that it keeps babies fuller longer and it also tends to clog bottle/sippy nipples anyhow (friends' experience-- no one says you have to make your own mistakes-- just learn from others'!)

We introduced rice cereal to our twins at four months, and the, too were exclusively breastfed. Rice cereal is a supplement, and it is not intended to take the place of milk or formula! It becomes an addition to the breast milk he's already eating.

I went back to work when my babies were eight weeks old, and I was adamant that I didn't want them to have formula. I don't know if your little guy sleeps through the night yet, but mine started to at nine weeks. What I did to help me get by was wake up at 1:00 in the morning and pump. I would get out an entire feeding's worth of milk each night. I did this for a week straight and had almost 100 extra ounces of milk in my freezer. This helped cover me if I couldn't pump enough milk to replace what they ate that day.

What a healthy baby you have grown...and ALL on your own breastmilk! Way to go mama.

I returned to work when my daughter was 10 weeks old. I breastfed her exclusively for nine months--then added solids, continued to pump until she was a year, and then continued to nurse until 18 months. I understand you not wanting to introduce solids too early. It just isn't necessary and can cause more problems than help...physical size isn't the best indicator of readiness.

You might be surprised how much milk you can get when you aren't nursing your son during the day. Especially when you are pumping on a regular basis and your body adjust to letting down for that damn contraption. That being said, in the best case scenario, 60% of your supply is about all you can get with a pump.

By the time my daughter was 9 months old, I had pumped FOUR extra GALLONS of milk. I donated three of those and kept one for back-up in the freezer. I had to travel at the time and it wasn't always possible to bring my milk back with me. I started pumping about two weeks before I went back to work first thing in the morning and had a little back-up stash just in case.

I used an Ameda Electric Double Pump and got amazing results. I would pump first thing in the morning (3-4 hours since last night nursing) and then nurse my daughter...there was plenty of milk left for her to be satisfied for a couple of hours. Sometimes I would pump one side, latch her on that side while pumping the other side then give her the second. It is a bit of a balancing act, but can really encourage your let-down.

She was always a frequent nursing...right up until the day she wa weaned. In the early days, I would pump 2-3 times during the work day...sometimes running over to the daycare to fit in a nursing session on my lunch break.

That all being said, we all do what we have to do. There are plenty of people (doctors included) that see nothing wrong with introducing rice cereal at four WEEKS! I think it is a reasonable time, but if he still has a strong tongue thrust reflux...you may not get enough in him to matter. It might make sense to have a few, 1 oz back of milk in the freezer to mix with the cereal.

P.S. Pump after nursing if you are just trying to stimulate your supply. Pump BEFORE nursing if you are trying to stock-pile something in the freezer.

Hi,

I just read a German article that stated 4 months is ok for starting solids (both my kids started on solids before 6 months, one was seen by an American, the other by a German pediatric doc). They are drawing back on not giving any high allerganic foods and say instead just give these foods anyway but very little of it. And go slow when you introduce solids. One week rice cerial. If that goes fine then start with other cerials, but make sure that you give it long enough before you start the next to see how the body reacts. The main point on the article was that if you withhold all the allergens and then introduce them full force because a certain age was attained could be the cause of the many allergies, rather than just giving very low 'dosages' so that the body has enough time and strength to get used to it and not go into rebellion. That made somewhat lots of sense to me.

Hope that helped,

E

One thing I do to "keep up" is to pump the other side while my baby eats one time during the night. She is 8 mo and exclusively bf too. Solids started just before 6 months. No, rice cereal at 4 mo isn't bad, I started my son at 4.5 mo. It might not "make up" the difference though, you could sure try it!

I started my now 3 year old son on cereal at about 4 1/2 months because he nursed constantly (literally) and I needed a little break. Our ped. said that 4-6 months was fine, but to see how he reacted. He LOVED solid foods--it didn't really change his behavior (his sleeping or pooping scheduled), but it did buy me an hour in the evening. So, I would see how he takes solids--my son didn't spill or spit out any of his cereal so that my sign that he was ready for a little solid food. Furthermore, he was always trying to grab our food off our plates and making us feel like we were holding out on him or something. We also gave him mushed avocado a lot too (I can't remember if it was the ped or the lactation consultant that suggested that--but it was also a big hit and more nutritional). To this day our son will eat just about anything--he wanted to eat muscles last night--in large quantities (he's "small for his age" by the way--although so are my husband and I).

I'm certainly not an old school person that would recommend giving your baby cereal at 2 weeks, but it does strike me that people around the world feed their children different foods, at different times, in different ways and that humans thrive--thus, I would believe there isn't a "ideal," rather, that as mothers we pick up on the cues of our children and respond to their needs (and our own) accordingly. I think your plan seems quite reasonable. Give it a try and if it's a problem then readjust. You know your son better than anyone!

We started feeding our son rice cereal and oatmeal cereal when he was 4 months. It's now suggested to wait til 6 months if you can, but he's a bigger baby like our son was lol and feeding him cereal between a couple of feedings helped us out tremendously. He wasn't as demanding of the breast because he stayed satisfied a little longer. We only did 2 feedings a day of cereal and it wasn't very much (like a large tablespoon), and he still ate as much as he did before on the breast... he just didn't demand it as soon as he normally would have.

Just keep in mind that whenever you introduce something new (ie formula, cereal, solid foods) it can upset his tummy and/or cause him to be gassier than normal, specially in breastfed babies because breast milk is gentler. There are teas and supplements available to help increase production of your milk once you start pumping, to keep up with what your son needs. Once I went back to work I needed supplements because my milk supply decreased very noticeably. I wish you the best of luck... I know how exactly how you feel, I've been there.

I would supplement with formula before rice cereal.