Extended Breastfeeding Check-in, 4/6

[vvvvvfee]

For the purposes of this check-in, we will define extended breastfeeding as breastfeeding beyond 1 year. Questions are repeated and suggestions are appreciated!

1. How old is your LO?
2. How many times per day does your LO nurse?
3. Does your LO drink other milk besides breast milk? How did you introduce it?
4. Is there an age you know you wouldn't BF past?

Pregnant & BFing Moms: How are you doing this week? Any issues with supply, pain, aversion? Questions for other moms?

Tandem Nursing Moms: How are you doing this week? Any current challenges? Questions for other moms?

Non-breastfeeding question of the week: Last book you read and enjoyed?

[byjove]

1. Last check in as 15 months
2. 1-2 during the day, eleventy times at night
3. She takes unsweetened vanilla hemp milk. Very slowly, and mixed with breast milk.
4. I think 3. DD1 stopped just after age 2 (self weaned while I was pregnant) and I remember looking at her around age 3 and being like WOAH that would be weird. Maybe it would be less weird if I hadn't stopped nursing her?

NonBFingQOTW: I am obsessed with all things Rhys Bowen and am listening to the Royal Spyness series for the 3rd time through. DH and I are listening to Dracula narrated by Tim Curry, Alan Cumming, and other famous actors. I pretty much do all my reading on audio books right now.

[valie]

1. How old is your LO? 14mos & 34mos
2. How many times per day does your LO nurse? 4x & 3x
3. Does your LO drink other milk besides breast milk? How did you introduce it? Yup. Homo & 2%. They got it in a sippy around their 1st birthday.
4. Is there an age you know you wouldn't BF past? Pretty sure I must be past what I said the first time this was asked. lol IDK. He's so good about it so we koko.

Tandem Nursing Moms: How are you doing this week? Any current challenges? Questions for other moms? We're good. The kids are getting more aggressive with each other, even when nursing and I'm not enjoying the refereeing.

Non-breastfeeding question of the week: Last book you read and enjoyed? Mindy Kaling's books.

[lilyelayne]

1. How old is your LO? - 25mo

2. How many times per day does your LO nurse? - 3-5x

3. Does your LO drink other milk besides breast milk? How did you introduce it? - cows milk. Gave it in a sippy shortly after he turned a year. He only gets it with meals when he asks, so a few times a week?

4. Is there an age you know you wouldn't BF past? - no

Non-breastfeeding question of the week: Last book you read and enjoyed? - Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

[vvvvvfee]

1. How old is your LO? 20 months
2. How many times per day does your LO nurse? 4
3. Does your LO drink other milk besides breast milk? How did you introduce it? He gets a cup of WCM with his lunch at daycare. I mixed in WCM into BM gradually after age 1 since he didn't love the taste of it right away like DS1 did.
4. Is there an age you know you wouldn't BF past? I really do not want to go past 4 again. However, DS1 had terrible nursing manners compared to DS2, so maybe it wouldn't make me nuts in the same way. But a 4-year-old is just a big kid, man.

Non-breastfeeding question of the week: Last book you read and enjoyed? I just finished listening to Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee. I was absolutely riveted for the first 2/3, but it sort of lost steam for the last third. Still an excellent and interesting read if you're into historical fiction.

[byjove]

kelltothekell, Royal Spyness >>>> Evans Above IMHO. Hope you like it!

[billyhorrible]

1. How old is your LO? 21 months

2. How many times per day does your LO nurse?2-3

3. Does your LO drink other milk besides breast milk? How did you introduce it? he drinks WCM. I introduced it at 12 months by mixing it wth pumped breast milk. (25/75, 50/50, 75/25, then all WCM)

4. Is there an age you know you wouldn't BF past? It's a moving target. With my first I wanted to be done by 2, but he was only nursing before bed by 19 months. With this one, I don't see him dropping any sessions in the next 3 months.


Non-breastfeeding question of the week: Last book you read and enjoyed? I can't remember which I read last of the two of them, so I'll put both: Egg and Spoon by Gregory Maguire and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (after the first chapter, which involves someone trying to kill a child and I had a really hard time reading)

[valie]

vvvvvfee, nursing manners make such a big difference, don't they?

When DS has a couple days of bad manners I want to be like, "that's it! We're done!" But most of the time he's really good about it and lately he pops off and will say something really sweet like, "thank you for making me breastmilk, mommy. I really like my milk." or "thank you for my milk mommy. Drinking breastmilk makes my body feel happy." And then I'm like, "okay, we're clearly not ready to wean yet."

"makes his body happy" is his new thing. Painting, music, and cuddles also make his body happy.

[vvvvvfee]

awww, valie, that's so sweet!

i know DS2 is still little, but so far he hasn't bit me/done nursing acrobatics/wanted to nurse for hours on end and had a tantrum when he couldn't the way DS1 did. so it definitely makes me more willing to go longer if he wants to.

[jewel441]

1. How old is your LO? 13 months
2. How many times per day does your LO nurse? A lot 6+
3. Does your LO drink other milk besides breast milk? How did you introduce it? Not really. We have tried WCM a few times but she can't quite figure it out, she makes a really weird face... everything she drinks is from a straw cup or the boob. She never took a bottle and we stopped with the sippy when she figured out the straw, she likes it better than the sippy. She does get a smoothie everyday that is made with WCM/yogurt/Kefir though.
4. Is there an age you know you wouldn't BF past? I don't know, I feel like I could say a number but that doesn't make it true. I said I would night wean at 10 months and she still nurses overnight. It's so different in the moment from when you think about it ahead... we are currently NTNP though and will probably actively start trying this summer so I'll see how I feel if/when I am pregnant...

Non-breastfeeding question of the week: Last book you read and enjoyed?
The Handmaiden's Tail.

Does anyone remember what their LO's iron levels were? We went back for another draw today and I feel like our pedi is being very aggressive for what is only a minor deficiency. We did a full blood draw and are still waiting for some results but her numbers were 9.8 and 31.5 for the two they had/can be checked with the finger prick. They were 9.8 and 29 a month ago. We have just been doing the polyvisol and trying to up her iron food. I think we should give this more time before going onto a stronger iron supplement...

[billyhorrible]

Apr 6, 2017 15:01:36 GMT -5 jewel441 said:

Does anyone remember what their LO's iron levels were? We went back for another draw today and I feel like our pedi is being very aggressive for what is only a minor deficiency. We did a full blood draw and are still waiting for some results but her numbers were 9.8 and 31.5 for the two they had/can be checked with the finger prick. They were 9.8 and 29 a month ago. We have just been doing the polyvisol and trying to up her iron food. I think we should give this more time before going onto a stronger iron supplement...

My son was 9.3 on the initial test. We had 60 days before a retest, and at that time he was over 11.

If he was still at 9.3, they were going to have us retest in a month. If it was lower, they were going to do the full blood test.

[jewel441]

Apr 6, 2017 15:40:31 GMT -5 billyhorrible said:

Apr 6, 2017 15:01:36 GMT -5 jewel441 said:

Does anyone remember what their LO's iron levels were? We went back for another draw today and I feel like our pedi is being very aggressive for what is only a minor deficiency. We did a full blood draw and are still waiting for some results but her numbers were 9.8 and 31.5 for the two they had/can be checked with the finger prick. They were 9.8 and 29 a month ago. We have just been doing the polyvisol and trying to up her iron food. I think we should give this more time before going onto a stronger iron supplement...

My son was 9.3 on the initial test. We had 60 days before a retest, and at that time he was over 11.

If he was still at 9.3, they were going to have us retest in a month. If it was lower, they were going to do the full blood test.

In between the two tests what did you do?

[vvvvvfee]

jewel441, our pediatrician tests at 9 months. at 9 months, DS1's hemoglobin was 9.5 g/dL. pedi recommended iron supplements, so we did those and tried to push dietary iron sources. when he was retested at 11 months, he was up to 12.4 g/dL. normal range is 11-16 g/dL.

at 9 months, DS2 was 10.7 g/dL. she considered this "low normal" and didn't even recommend iron supplements, but we've been doing them a couple of times a week anyway.

so your LO's levels didn't change over 30 days? i guess you could ask to be retested again in another 30 days-- but iron is really important for brain development, so i would def follow your pedi's advice if it's not going up.

if you're using poly-vi-sol and having trouble getting it into your LO, i'd try novaferrum brand drops- it tastes way, way better than poly-vi-sol.

[jewel441]

LO doesn't mind taking the polyvisol it just makes her really constipated. But I think that would be any iron supplement. We are waiting for her full blood work to come back and then the doc said she would either say keep doing the poly or prescribe something stronger. I am surprised it didn't go up, because I do feel like we made a lot of changes... but the doctor said she isn't 100% on the first numbers bc they had an issue with the machine. But the full blood draw will be more conclusive of where she is at now at least.

[billyhorrible]

jewel441 - lots of iron rich food.
*Multigrain cheerios, which have 100% of daily iron in a serving.
*lots of raisins
*increase in red meat for dinner.

My older son always got spinach in his smoothies, which I tried with this guy and he wouldn't go for it. But he's really picky with smoothies. This morning I made him one with milk, mango, and cherries and he told me it was yucky.

[jewel441]

Thanks guys! This is make me think the doctor is not over reacting... it sucks that they aren't 100% sure about the first set of results but we have really been pushing the iron rich foods and doing the poly vi sol if not every day, more than every other... basically it does seem like it should be higher by now. We are waiting for the full blood results and then we'll see what the doctor wants us to do

[iqeb]

1. How old is your LO? 19 months (and 39+4)
2. How many times per day does your LO nurse? a lot
3. Does your LO drink other milk besides breast milk? How did you introduce it? Nope, she gets really angry and briefly boycotts even water if you put WCM or almond milk in a cup. She also is very hit or miss with cheese. Luckily she loves the mighty 4 pouches that have a fair amount of calcium in them, and also luckily there should be more breastmilk for her soon.
4. Is there an age you know you wouldn't BF past? Not sure. Some of her behaviors while nursing already bother me a bit, but I'm not sure how much of that is being pregnant. Definitely not planning to try to push her towards weaning until she adjusts to being a big sister.

Pregnant & BFing Moms: How are you doing this week? Any issues with supply, pain, aversion? Questions for other moms? Not really. The end of this part is in sight!

Non-breastfeeding question of the week: Last book you read and enjoyed? I'm so exhausted that I pretty much put on mindless tv and pass out after the toddler is asleep instead of reading. But my H has been reading animorphs aloud to her in the evenings and it's surprisingly enjoyable.

[byjove]

jewel441, fwiw our ped won't do a finger prick for iron levels as she says it's too unreliable- she only does blood draws. It sucks, but it's over fast. Can you just get it done now? Cooking in a cast iron pan is also an easy way to add iron to everything.

[byjove]

iqeb, eeep! Yay for baby!

[jewel441]

Apr 7, 2017 8:13:13 GMT -5 byjove said:

jewel441, fwiw our ped won't do a finger prick for iron levels as she says it's too unreliable- she only does blood draws. It sucks, but it's over fast. Can you just get it done now? Cooking in a cast iron pan is also an easy way to add iron to everything.

We had it done yesterday. We got the results that are the same as the finger prick, and they came back a little better than the finger prick, but still low. we are waiting for the rest of the results, they did some other tests too since they had to do the draw.

[byjove]

Apr 7, 2017 9:07:03 GMT -5 jewel441 said:

Apr 7, 2017 8:13:13 GMT -5 byjove said:

jewel441 , fwiw our ped won't do a finger prick for iron levels as she says it's too unreliable- she only does blood draws. It sucks, but it's over fast. Can you just get it done now? Cooking in a cast iron pan is also an easy way to add iron to everything.

We had it done yesterday. We got the results that are the same as the finger prick, and they came back a little better than the finger prick, but still low. we are waiting for the rest of the results, they did some other tests too since they had to do the draw.

Sorry I missed that! FX

[jewel441]

Apr 7, 2017 9:15:02 GMT -5 byjove said:

Apr 7, 2017 9:07:03 GMT -5 jewel441 said:

We had it done yesterday. We got the results that are the same as the finger prick, and they came back a little better than the finger prick, but still low. we are waiting for the rest of the results, they did some other tests too since they had to do the draw.

Sorry I missed that! FX

All the non iron tests they did came back normal, but regardless of where her iron was before it's pretty low, we got a prescription for a stronger vitamin and they are going to retest in a month. So hopefully it improves.

[flippinchica]

1. How old is your LO? 19 months
]2. How many times per day does your LO nurse? I have recently set a limit of 3x a day
3. Does your LO drink other milk besides breast milk? How did you introduce it? He drinks cows milk at daycare. I'm not sure if they give whole or 2% and mostly soy milk at home because we drink it. We just started letting daycare give it. I sent 1 bottle a day for about a wwwk after he turned 1 and then stopped.
4. Is there an age you know you wouldn't BF past? Right now I feel like that is 2. I'm getting tired of it. I want to be able to travel freely without worrying about it. Also we are tfas and I had really bad nausea up til about 24 weeks with DS and I don't think I can bf on top of that.
Questions for other moms? I'm trying to cut down gradually but wonder if it might be easier to do quicker. Constantly distracting him from the boob is exhausting
Non-breastfeeding question of the week: Last book you read and enjoyed? I haven't read a book since DS was born. But I loved Bossypants by Tina Fey

[sunfrogger88]

1. How old is your LO? 16.5mo
2. How many times per day does your LO nurse? 3-4
3. Does your LO drink other milk besides breast milk? How did you introduce it? yes, whole cows milk, in an open cup. She doesn't drink it often.
4. Is there an age you know you wouldn't BF past? Maybe 2? I'm

Non-breastfeeding question of the week: Last book you read and enjoyed? I love the Discovery of Witches series. I also enjoyed the January Parenting book club book.

[dramaphile]

1. How old is your LO? 16.5 months
2. How many times per day does your LO nurse? on weekdays, 3-5 times, usually when I get home from work, then once or twice more, then at bedtime, and about half the time once (or more) overnight. On weekends, who knows? Sometimes only a couple times more, sometimes she wants it all day long like a newborn. Usually when we're doing something active she asks less.
3. Does your LO drink other milk besides breast milk? How did you introduce it? She's been drinking WCM since around a year. She maybe drinks 4 oz a day, definitely is more into water than milk.
4. Is there an age you know you wouldn't BF past? In my mind, I don't plan on BFing past 2, but I don't know if that's a hard line. I'd like to be daytime weaned and maybe only do morning and bedtime in the next few months.

Non-breastfeeding question of the week: Last book you read and enjoyed? Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was very enjoyable, and I'm currently reading a romance novel by Kristan Higgins on my kindle, can't remember the title. I always like her unconventional characters and snappy dialogue.[/b]

[geners]

Is this the most recent check-in? I know I missed one somewhere...

1. How old is your LO? 16.5 mon
2. How many times per day does your LO nurse? We are down to 2-3 at most: once before bed, once either MOTN or very early a.m. (but usually not once he's up for the day) and if I'm home at naptime, once then
3. Does your LO drink other milk besides breast milk? How did you introduce it? Yes, WCM (whole milk). I just gave it to him in his straw cup one day and he drank it without batting an eye. He gets a cup usually once a day when the pumped milk runs out. He's pretty into water, though, so he doesn't always have it everyday.
4. Is there an age you know you wouldn't BF past? At one point I thought that was a year, ha. Not sure really.

Non-breastfeeding question of the week: Last book you read and enjoyed? It's been too long, I can't remember (which makes me sad).