Jaundice treatment - Breastfeeding after formula days in hospital?

[yellowmud]

The situation：
My wife gave birth to our son in Shatin POW on August 31. She was discharged today but my son has to stay to treat his newborn jaundice. The issue that concerns us is whether it will be possible to (re-)establish breastfeeding after the days in the jaundice therapy where he unavoidably gets formula.

An additional issue is that breastfeeding proved quite difficult at the postnatal ward already and he had the bottle there twice. Unfortunately the nurses on the station were totally unhelpful in helping overcoming breastfeeding issues (as the whole experience in POW was very unpleasant and I unfortunately really regret we didn't opt for a private clinic).

My wife tried to express milk today but it proved very difficult. We will continue though and hope it will get better. If possible we want to bring him something to hospital.

Yes, we did contact LLL today and my wife had a very helpful conversation with one of their leaders. We also think about asking a professional nurse/lactation expert (e.g. from Annerly) for help when my son is discharged.

If anybody had a similar experience and/or can recommend good postnatal nurses or lactation consultants or has any other good advice, we would appreciate a lot.

Thanks. Christoph

 

[dueJuly]

Don't wait any longer, get some pro help in.
I used Wendy Salinger contacted thru Annerley and she was fantastic.

Try not to stress about a few bottles of formula. With some help I have no doubt that breastfeeding will be established for you guys.
I had a similar experience at QMH.

 

[yellowmud]

Yeah sounds reasonable.
My wife knows this service exists in Mainland but has never heard about it in Hong Kong. I found out about Annerly through this site. Since they are in Central and we are in Shatin, are there any further places that offer such services? How would you call this in Chinese? 产后护士 or something? I could try to search the Chinese internet while my wife rests?

 

[LeahH]

Yvonne Heavyside, lactation consultant and health visitor, from the Family Zone is great.

Check your insurance policy, although it may not cover maternity costs or delivery, now your son is born is he covered under your policy? You could maybe get your doctor or Paed to refer you to her or another specialist for help as a result of his jaundiced condition.

As well as bringing pumped milk to the hospital, can your wife try breast feeding him directly while she's there?

 

[woodstock07]

I went through a similar situation. After an emergency c-section, my breastmilk did not arrive until nearly day 5. My baby was put on the drip in the first 2 days and the doctor recommends that he takes formula to give him energy to fight any potential infection of the lungs. When I protested against the bottle, he suggested cup feeding to avoid nipple confusion. The nurses at the hospital (a private one) followed these instructions.

When I got home, I still could not get him to latch on properly, I got help from a lactation consultant and meanwhile, I used the Medela Soft Cup Feeder (you can get it from bumps to babes) to feed him with expressed breast milk/ formula.

My lactation consultant is May Hui and I was very happy with her. Her mobile number is 9070 2668. She came for 3 visits over 3 days and my baby was able to latch on well after that (from not being able to latch on at all). She is also punctual and goes out of her way to help (eg. visiting on Sunday when she doesn't usually work). She does house visits and charges $500 per hour.

Regardless of which lactation consultant you choose, just get one as soon as possible. From my experience as a first time mother, not being able to breastfeed my baby properly was distressing.

 

[yellowmud]

Yvonne Heavyside, lactation consultant and health visitor, from the Family Zone is great.

Check your insurance policy, although it may not cover maternity costs or delivery, now your son is born is he covered under your policy? You could maybe get your doctor or Paed to refer you to her or another specialist for help as a result of his jaundiced condition.

As well as bringing pumped milk to the hospital, can your wife try breast feeding him directly while she's there?

Thanks for the tip. I checked out family zone.

We didn't check our insurance on that yet. In any case, money will not be the issue in this situation although we certainly wouldn't mind to pay less. Might be a good idea to check out if we could get some refund because of the jaundice.

 

[yellowmud]

As well as bringing pumped milk to the hospital, can your wife try breast feeding him directly while she's there?

Problem is, there is no (or hardly any) milk yet. This probably caused the jaundice condition, at least we were told so.

 

[yellowmud]

I went through a similar situation. After an emergency c-section, my breastmilk did not arrive until nearly day 5. My baby was put on the drip in the first 2 days and the doctor recommends that he takes formula to give him energy to fight any potential infection of the lungs. When I protested against the bottle, he suggested cup feeding to avoid nipple confusion. The nurses at the hospital (a private one) followed these instructions.

When I got home, I still could not get him to latch on properly, I got help from a lactation consultant and meanwhile, I used the Medela Soft Cup Feeder (you can get it from bumps to babes) to feed him with expressed breast milk/ formula.

My lactation consultant is May Hui and I was very happy with her. Her mobile number is 9070 2668. She came for 3 visits over 3 days and my baby was able to latch on well after that (from not being able to latch on at all). She is also punctual and goes out of her way to help (eg. visiting on Sunday when she doesn't usually work). She does house visits and charges $500 per hour.

Regardless of which lactation consultant you choose, just get one as soon as possible. From my experience as a first time mother, not being able to breastfeed my baby properly was distressing.

Thanks. Might be good for us to have a Chinese speaking consultant actually.

 

[slamdunk]

had the same thing when my son went in for jaundice therapy after we were already discharged. stay at the hospital as much as possible to directly feed. it doesn't matter that there is not much or no milk yet. the key is to keep pumping or direct feeding and the milk supply will build up (maybe a day or so later). the paed/nurses may suggest formulae which helps flush out the jaundice as well as the UV lamps but should try and nurse directly first (when baby is hungry) before giving the bottle. i think milk is established if you pump (or go thru the action of pumping) as if giving a feed. even if you don't get to use the expressed milk, pumping establishes supply for when baby goes home.

 

[dolphinyp]

My son also had to return to the hospital after discharged. His Paediatrician told us that if we don't stay with him the whole time for bf, he would probably reject breastmilk for formula. It was actually a good time for me to learn more about breast feeding from the lactation consultant. They taught me and my hubby how to massage to ease the pain from engorgement. The milk flow then come more steady, with regular rest and enough of food intake, i could bf my baby until 6 months, but sadly had the breast infection which stopped me in doing it longer. I know there're many nurses that might not be too helpful on bf, but i hope your wife can try a bit longer, and you can encourage and comfort her a bit more. Its not a easy thing as it looks. Hope all the best.