Breast Milk & Formula

Kellymom has some wonderful information on helping get baby back to the breast here http://www.kellymom.com/bf/concerns/baby/back-to-breast.html
My niece was born 2 months early and in the NICU. It took my SIL some work but she's been able to get her off all supplemental formula and on the breast a good portion of the day. She does still pump and give bottles of expressed milk. She used information from the page I posted above.
La Leche League http://www.llli.org/ has some wonderful information on their webpage. You can also find a local chapter and the ladies are amazing and can help get the baby back to the breast.
I can't offer any suggestions on formulas. I never used any with my 3. La Leche League and Kellymom have always been my "go to" places when I have any problems. LLLI's book "The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding" and Dr Sears' "The Breastfeeding Book" are my favorite 2 books. My copies are so beaten up form lots of love :)
Best of luck! Congratulations on the new grand baby!

I don't have any formula information, but have had experience with difficulty latching and increasing supply.

As far as milk banks, most are used for NICU babies, or others with medical conditions. Most everyday people can't buy from them. There are sites that allow those with a surplus of milk to donate to those that need it. (I have donated to a mother adopting a baby.) If she goes this route, make sure that the donating mother is willing to get a letter from her doctor attesting to her health, and that she isn't doing it for profit. Typically milk bags and shipping (if necessary) are plenty of payment for those of us doing this to help others. Let me know if you need any further information.

I havn't had an issue with formula before only used once with my first. Breastfeeding I did do and I would nurse baby on one side while I pumped the other. Then when baby woke again feed baby on the pumped side at that feeding and pump the other side. I mananged to get plenty of milk this way and still work my 40 hours a week. I did most of this pumping at night and one or two during the day when I was at work. Not sure how busy you are, but my partner and oldest child (6) was lots of help. Good luck!

one word nutrimagen. It worked wonders for my son. It's by enfamil and is exspensive but worth it for a baby in need.

Is she using powder or liquid formula. I tried formula on my son when he was 3 months just to have something as a backup for my husband in case of emergency - like an earthquake. He threw up 5 different formulas all powder until I tried the liquid. He never threw up the liquid. I don't know why it was that way but it may be something for her to try if she is using the powder.

Hi M., my experience is from a long time ago, my kids are 18, 16, 13. But all three of my breastfed babies had some formula. For 2 I used plain old Similac. I started by mixing the formula with BM, just a little bit of formula, like 1 oz formula to 3 oz BM, you know? My middle child was a 1 lb 11 oz preemie. He was fed BM from a feed tube at first. The hospital suplemented my pumped BM with Alimentum. He eventually took to bottle and breast same as the other two. The Alimentum has proteins already broken down is very expensive and difficult to find.

Anyway, this worked beautifully for all three. They were primarily nursed, but anyone else (especially dad and grandma) could feed them as well without my pumping like a crazy person all the time.

I stored any extra BM in the freezer in bottles with caps.

I wonder what her pediatritian says about the vomitting of formula?

Hope this helps! (Can't give any ideas about BM banking)

Congratulations!! Enjoy!
:)

I breastfed exclusivity so can't provide formula advice but perhaps I can help with the fussiness that may be contributing.
I did notice you said she's 3 weeks old and awake for 5-6 hours at a time. My experience is babies that young can't stay awake that long and really need to be put down to sleep much, much earlier. We had problems with my daughter not sleeping well and being a fussy nurser at times, falling asleep during marathon nursing sessions and finally my sister told me to help her sleep. She said a newborn can handle about 1.5 hours then needs to go back down and we were in essence keeping her up and overtiring her without realizing it. As she grew, the periods of awake time did too, but to things like 3 hours, then sleep, up three hours, then sleep, even at 4-5 months old.
Giving her the sleep she needed changed everything for us and then it was just dietary changes for me, stopping foods or drinks that seemed to cause gas and fussiness.
Good luck to you all!

This may or may not help, as we don't do formula, but my son does the same thing... Cry waking up and a real hard time getting him to latch on... I have found that swaddling him and then feeding him works a lot of the time... can't advise on the formula, though.
Good luck!
R.

i'm so sorry that she is going thru this. nursing problems are so frustrating. i don't have any info on formula, but i have had latch issues with all 3 of mine and have found that things tend to get easier sometime in the 2nd month. my 3rd LO wouldn't latch for the 1st 6 weeks. so i just pumped and tried to get him to latch everyday. then at 6 weeks he just latched as if he'd been nursing the whole time. he's almost 2 now and we're still nursing:) also, i donated milk to milkshare.birthingforlife.com
i had a very good experience and think it's worth researching if need be. mostly i just remember appreciating all the support i received from my family, lactation consultants and la leche league. and it sounds like you are doing a wonderful job of that:) keep it up and enjoy your 1st grandbaby.

I have heard that liquid formula stays down better than powdered. Have your daughter ask her pediatrician for some samples -- most have them. It will allow her to experiment with brands, liquid vs. powder without wasting a ton of money (formula is expensive!!) I hate that anyone would try to make her feel badly about not exclusively nursing. I have 2 kids - one formula fed, one (mostly) breast fed. They are BOTH thriving. Wonderful that she has a mother there to support her.

Best of luck!

Hi!
I wondered, if the new formula doesn't work out, could it actually be the bottle nipple? My daughter & I had a difficult time with breast feeding so eventually I had to resort to formula. That was a while ago (she's just 11 yrs), so I don't know about the latest information but you can always try different ones to see what works. That's what we had to do.
Hope it all gets easier very soon.