When Bubbaleechie was born (4months ago now – amazing how time flies), I was told I shouldn’t breastfeed due to medication I was taking. She has been doing really well on the bottle, growing at the right speed and everything.
I had an operation last week that removed 15cm of my small bowel most affected by my Crohns disease. The medication I was taking (called Imuran / Azathioprine) which suppressed my immune system I no longer need to take. In theory could I start breastfeeding? I’m not really up to leaving the house just yet so I thought I’d post my questions here until I can get to see the maternal and child health nurse.
I can barely carry a cup of tea from the kitchen to the lounge let alone a baby so I would have to wait for a few weeks before trying. Also does the drug have a half life in my body?
As Bubbaleechie is growing well and not having any developmental problems is it worth trying? I have to go back to work 9am-5pm / 5 days a week at the beginning of October which would also be a problem.
Having not breastfed at all I’ve no idea if this is even possible let alone practical with my circumstances.
In theory you can induce lactation. You will need a Supplemental Nursing System. Put the formula into the SNS and tape the tube next to the nipple. The stimulation - over time - may induce lacation.
Some people have success. Some people don’t.
The next issue is getting your baby to latch on. It is possible that she (he?) just won’t be interested.
You may want to search the web for adoptive breastfeeding. That information may be most applicable.
I’ll ask for a Hales look up on the drug from a friend with a copy of it.
OK – it’s possible that you could lactate but not a definite given. Really unlikely you could totally feed her, supplementation would be necessary still, I think. It’s rare if supply was not established at birth for a full supply to be feasible.
The only person who can answer whether it’s worth is you :). How much did not bf’ing grieve you? If you think that this is something you really want to do for her, any breast milk is a Good Thing developmentally but it would be hard work to induce lactation.
You probably would get the best advice from Nursing Mothers – are they still called that? The Australian version of La Leche League? You’d need to pump and an SNS system would help. Bubbaleechie’s latch could be problematic as well because bottle feeding develps their latch in a different way. Did your hospital have a lactation consultant on staff? She might be able to help. I’m not sure if you can get the meds which are sometimes used, here in Australia.
Wow I’m sounding really negative here and I don’t mean to. It’s more of a reality issue. I think it’s a great idea to try and I’m happy to help in any way I possibly can. I’ll ask around for ideas too if you don’t mind.
Good luck with your recovery from surgery as well. P the Y might be having bowel surgery in the near future so I’m all about hearing positive stories
Thanks for the feedback. I hadn’t even thought of talking to the hospital where I had Bub’s. Seem to recall they had a home visit service as well so I might give them a ring today.
Breastfeeding from what I’ve read seems to be a great bonding experience and worthwhile trying. Also with our family history of allergies I’d love to try and give her some of that extra protection breastfeeding provides.
Apart from the pain all has been good with my bowel surgery (painkillers are my friend). Very happy I had it. Even ate KFC for dinner last night with no adverse effects Best advice I had was to get out of bed and moving around as soon as possible after surgery. This really helped me feel human and got my insides working properly very quickly.
consult your doctor first! You just had major surgery, and are still recovering from that. If you do manage to induce lactation, it will divert resources and nutrients from your own healing to your breast milk production. Perhaps this diversion would be trivial, but perhaps not. Your doc would be able to advise you better.
Thanks for the advice QtM, my dad who is a doctor has said the same thing. But I’m having a few issues with my GP so I’m not sure what doctor I could see about this. My gastroenterologist, my surgeon or Bub’s paediatrician? I’m going to talk to a nurse from the hospital first and then go from there. As I’ve said I can barely lift a cup of tea at this stage, so until I can actually hold Bub’s the whole question is theoretical. I’m thinking by the time I can hold my baby I should be well on the way to being healed.
[side note]It is unbelievable upsetting not being able to cuddle my baby.[/side note]
and if your wondering why I just don’t discuss the whole issue in detail with my dad the doctor. Because every time I talk to him I end up in tears. He keeps telling me all the bad things that could happen and it scares me. All well and good to make sure I’m aware of the issues but not to the point where I’m afraid to talk to my dad.
If you’re really serious about trying, and after you get a doc’s go ahead, you could try starting out by pumping only. Then you wouldn’t need to worry about supporting baby’s weight on a healing incision. I had a c-section and can attest to that being less than pleasant. Ouch! You could always just discard any milk you produce if you’re still on painkillers, depending on the meds they may or may not be safe for baby. But I think any latch-on problems would be minimized if you already had at least a small milk supply established when you start trying. If you’re going back to work in a month you’ll need to get used to pumping anyway.
I don’t know how easy it would be to start up at this point, but I must say that breastfeeding, for me, has been well worth all the trouble. I spent the first month sore, engorged, and bloody (baby’s suck wayyyy harder than you’d ever imagine) but now that we’ve both gotten into the swing of things I’m loving it. It’s convienent, easy, cuddly, and cheap! Good luck leechbabe, and hope you’re feeling much better very soon.
If you want to try for the extra health benefits and are willing to really put a lot of work into it, fine. However, your baby does not need to breastfeed to bond with you–at all. The whole “bonding” thing is a big, loaded diaper. Your baby loves you just as much as any breastfed kid, and vice versa.
You’ve had two doctors tell you you should NOT do it. Here is MOST CERTAINLY not the place to solicit medical advice. You say you have been off the medication for a week. I am not a doctor, and I don’t think anyone who has posted to this thread so far is, and even if they say they are, I would not trust them.
Go back to your doctor and ask if it is NOW safe to breastfeed. Then get a second opinion. But please do not ask for medical advice from the great unwashed. Do NOT take any medical advice here, or anywhere else besides a qualified professional!
Also I think a few people here (myself included) are getting a little confused about whether the medication she was taking will endager her baby, or endanger her, or whether the medication made her unable to produce milk. in any of these cases, none of us are trained to offer medical advice.
Suggesting she start pumping, or doing anything besides consulting trained professionals is highly irresponsible and dangerous advice. This isn’t aimed at those of you who said “after getting your doc’s approval you might try this…”
zuma I’m not going to rush into this without talking to health professionals. I’ve come here to get people’s opinions on wether it is possible or not to start breastfeeding. Currently I’m stuck at home and all I’ve got to keep me company are my thoughts and 3 seasons of Buffy. I’ve finished watching all the Buffy so I’ve been doing a whole lot of sitting around thinking “Breastfeeding? wonder if its possible?”. Rather than drive myself nuts thinking the same thing over and over I bring my question to the SDMB.
Bella that is a good point about the pumps, thank-you. Don’t like the sound of that bleeding stuff though.
MIL rang last night to say she is 100% sure Bub’s is teething. Much as I love Bub’s and want to give her the extra protection via breastfeeding there are places I don’t want teeth attached to.
zuma, nobody’s given any medical advice here except QtM. Leechy asked if it were possible to bf in theory after ** a few weeks**. There’s no medical reason on god’s green earth after she has recovered from this surgery and is off painkillers and off the immunosuppressants not to try bf’ing. If someone can find a medical reason, I’m interested. Is there anything on medline?
If somebody had waddled in here and said Fine Idea! I’ll ship you my hospital grade pump and you get right onto in the next 24 hours, you’d have a point. But nobody’s done that. She’s had advice it is possible, suggestions of the right professionals to talk to and ideas on how to do it when the time is right. Which is not now. Obviously.
I had trouble maintaining supply while pumping - baby sucks far better than a pump and while some of my girlfriends could have had second careers in the dairy cow business - not everyone is good with it (and the pump is not pleasant - although I had an intimate six month long relationship with mine - it was a rather abusive love/hate thing). But, if you are serious, its worth a try.
Think carefully about why you want to do this and how you will feel if it doesn’t work. I’ve watched many adoptive moms give it a shot and tear themselves up when it fails. The success rate on inducing lacation after pregnancy hormones have left with a four month old infant isn’t high. It isn’t impossible though.
And Cher3 - thank you too. I have one bio breastfed daughter (who was prone to ear infections) and one adopted non-breastfed perfectly well bonded, well adjusted, healthy, smart son (with apparent pet allergies and prone to febrile seizures - maybe he’d be perfect and be the first five year old in Harvard if he’d been breastfed - huh?).
Yay - spoken to the nurse and we are going to trial breastfeeding next week. Still trying to get hold of my surgeon as I must get his okay first. Damn specialists always too busy. I think he will be sympathetic though as his wife had a baby the week I was in hospital (their 4th child!), thus he should know the importance of breastfeeding if at all possible.
Unfortunately, Crohn’s has a tendency to recur after surgery, and people often take drugs to maintain remission. You may no longer need something as severe as Imuran, but if you are at some point going to go on some other drug, you might want to check that out before your attempt.
OTOH, this website indicates that most of these drugs (including Imuran, FTM) are pretty safe while nursing.
Best advice I had was to get out of bed and moving around as soon as possible after surgery. This really helped me feel human and got my insides working properly very quickly.