Respite

She's gained half a pound since last Wednesday - i.e., in 5 days. That's on about 320mls of top up a day, plus 6-7 breast feeds. I can do all this on breast milk right now, I'm pumping about 250mls a day over 6-7 pumping sessions, one after each feed, then making the rest up from what we have in the freezer. Currently we have about 1.2 litres in the freezer so that will keep us going for 10 days or so at this rate, if not longer. By then maybe I can get the pumping volume up a bit, or perhaps get the supplementing need down a bit by getting her doing better on the breast. Who knows. For those of you who took domperidone, did you find that going up on dosage sometimes reduced your supply? I upped my dose from 100mg/day to 120mg/day to try and deal with her not gaining weight, but the supply seems to be down from then. Any advice much appreciated. I'm out of my more milk plus supplement, could that have made the difference?

Thanks for the advice re thrush. I found Dr Newman's protocol and while no chemist will make up the nipple ointment for me, I hope to be able to locate gentian violet by dint of calling every chemist in the surrounding area and hassling them until someone agrees to supply it. I remember this stuff being in the medicine cabinet whenI was a child, I had no idea it had become so hard to obtain.

The health visitor was happy with the weight gain, but is coming back on Friday to weigh her again. Do you think they don't trust me?

Comments

[Aurelia]

The nipple ointment can be made up yourself by just buying over the counter yeast infection treatment cream like Monistat, and mixing it with some glycerin or something else inert. You can also add some cortisone cream again available over the counter at 1% concentration instead of the betamethasone.

As for the gentian violet, if you can't get it there, let me know, I'm happy to Fedex it overnight.

In the meantime, try making sure your nipples are dry and uncovered a lot. Dark and wet makes yeast grow, anywhere in the body. I know London is pretty rainy and cloudy but can you sit in a sunny spot in your house and get some sun on your bare nipples without flashing the neighbours?

I'm pretty outrageous, so I'd flash them anyway, but I know you are more discrete! Maybe a sun or heat lamp?

I'm sure the health visitor trusts you---she just has paperwork to justify her budget for the NIH. ;)

[electriclady]

Unfortunately I have no help to offer on the domperidone front as I never went above 80 mg/day, but I just wanted to say WHOO for weight gain! So glad things seem to be steadily improving (except for the thrush, which, ugh, so sorry you're dealing with that).

[Eliza]

I used Gentian Violet successfully one time per Dr. Newman's guidelines; here in America it was easy to find at the drugstore and pleasingly cheap as well. When you do get your hands on some, be prepared for the MESS...I painted the baby's mouth and my aureolas, thinking naively that by using disposable breast pads and keeping a bib on the baby I could contain the mess, but ended up with a purple nursing bra, several purple-spotted t-shirts, numerous purple onesies, purple crib and bedsheets, and a purple towel or three. It's a very PRETTY shade of purple, but still. It spreads very easily. I do, however, have a really amusing picture of my second-born smiling with a purplish-black mouth and purple bib. Congrats on getting Pob onto breastmilk only--I wouldn't have thought it possible, and as someone who has dealt with supply and latch issues like yours I am awestruck at your tenacity and determination. You deserve a medal as far as I am concerned, Thalia--well done!

[Portia P]

I can't add much on breastfeeding!

I managed thrush through diet - but maybe it doesn't work the same in your situation.

Glad things are going well - she looks v cute.

xx

[DinoD]

Wonderful news about the weight gain! I was on domperidone with my son and I only ever experienced a decrease in supply when I went down on dosage but I think it was psychosomatic as it happened immediatedly when I decreased dosage (as in five minutes later type of thing).
DinoD

[Drowned Girl]

For the mother, oral antifungals, fluoconazole (sp?) is very effective, though they don't like to prescribe when you're bf. Can be bought OTC.

Well done re the weight gain!!

[Betty M]

Good news on the weight gain!

[moo]

Hurrah T & Pob! So happy things are better.

Hugs, Moo

[PBfish]

YAY!!!

[Tonya]

Congrats on the weight gain!

[Melissa]

Please forgive me if this is assvice, but instead of pumping, have you tried feeding more often? I'm feeding my boy 7-8 times in 24 hours and he's 4 months old. As a newborn I was feeding him every two hours during the day, every 3-4 at night. I was told I should be feeding him 8-12 times a day at first. The baby can get more out of you than a pump so it might help increase your supply as well. Again, sorry if this is something you've already tried, but the 6-7 number just jumped out at me.

I never had that experience with more domperidone decreasing my supply, but I did notice whatever changes I made in dosage would take about a week to kick in.

Sorry about the thrush. I've been battling it too and it's a royal pita.

[B. Mare]

You're doing a fabulous job- I take my hat (or should that be my shirt) off to you. Hang in there!

[Hetty]

We had an absolute nightmare here with thrush. BOTH boys had it for over a month, which meant a month of unhappy babies, 4 treatments per day (i.e., EIGHT treatments per day), boiliing everything in sight, etc. We finally got relief when I absolutely howled to our ped, who finally prescribed fluconazole for both me and the boys (me orally, in a pill, them in fluid form) and the damn stuff was gone in three days. If you are treating and treating and treating and it is not going away, you probably have one of the new *resistant* strains of thrush, which requires fluconazole to banish. I recommend going straight to it and not messing around! I did a lot of Internet research on the stuff before I would give it to the boyos, and it appears to be very safe.