feeding

[board]

hello i was wondering how long did you feed your child breast i ask becouse i was reading on a nother web site about this was it hard to get them of the breast becouse they dont like change i have 5 children and breast feed the 4 boys for 6 to 7 month okay but with my dd it took 2 years 6 month and couldnt get her off it she had no bottle so was wondering if the children with asd are diffrent that early on or did you notise a diffrents between your other children when they was that small makes you think all the best hope i have wrote this so you understand jill

[lil_me]

My son was early, about 7 months, as I took ill.

 

I think it depends on mother and child, but some do worry me, I know of a parent who goes in to school to breast feed a child at lunch time

 

I suppose with ASD kids they rely on routine a lot more so always harder to make changes.

[sarahjane]

I stopped with H when I went back to work and it was a nightmare- he refused bottles and then fed all night from me. Eventually he got onto formula however he was 4 before I could get him off formula and onto cows milk- even now only takes choclate milk with powder in!

[justamom]

Hi ya, my AS son i battled to breast feed maybe all in all about 4weeks, we had problems feeding him from the word go. My NT dd i breast feed for 18mnths could not get her off the breast had 2lots of medicine to stop my milk and then a injection!!!!

[Zemanski]

Com came off all by himself - he was only taking a couple of feeds a day by 8 months but then just stopped 2 days before his first birthday, it was so sudden I got serious mastitis. I liked feeding him but 12 months was about right for us.

 

Dot, who's supposed to be NT but has just been referred to CAMHS and has various sensory issues (visual and proprioceptor) dyspraxia and severe dyslexia, was dreadful. She did not stop screaming for 6 months except when on the breast and used to only sleep clamped on (used to draw blood ). At 18 months I went away to force the issue because I couldn't bear it any longer.

 

the major problem I had was that neither ever learned to take a bottle and I think this was mostly about dyspraxia for both of them - once they had learned to suck one way (it took Com ages) they couldn't learn another way (bottle and breast require very different motions). I tried Dot from day one but she just refused point blank and poor old Nemo had a terrible time of it.

 

neither of them would take a dummy either.

 

Zemanski

[Flora]

William for 7 days because I got really bad flu, and William for 4 weeks because he had a tongue tie and couldn't feed properly so he was jaundiced and losing weight.

 

Lauren

[Guest flutter]

neither of mine would be breast fed,

both had to be force fed in fact, and son was seen as a failure to thrive and under paed for a long time

[barefoot wend]

Kerre gave up feeding at 4 months - he just point blank refused. He wouldn't have a bottle either so we ended up having to give him water from a beaker and feeding him solids.

 

I thought he was just a milk-hater but he has always quite happily had it in cereal, milkshake, etc.

 

Barefoot

[Lynden]

Logan wasn't breastfed at all - I had so many problems feeding Leona I decided not to even try with Logan. He didn't take to solids well at all though and was 14 months before he'd take anything with any lumps or finger feed.

 

Lynne x

[CarerQuie]

Rh wasn't keen to completely stop and it ended up being forced because i had to go on an anti-fungal medication for 6 months and you could not breast feed on it.Even now (age 8)he mentions with regret that he wanted to carry on.(He was 2 when he stopped).xx

[bid]

I fed my AS son for 6 months until I had to go back to work... He had absolutely no problems feeding as a baby, and has always been a dream about food in general.

 

NT daughter#1 for 8 months.

 

NT daughter#2 for 12 months because she has a true allergy to all dairy products.

 

NT son for over 12 months because he also has a true allergy to dairy...by the end it was a nightmare because I was so worn out

 

But I loved feeding all of mine, despite mastitis with two of them. Nothing cosier than settling down for a feed

 

Bid

Edited June 16, 2006 by bid

[DaisyProudfoot]

I fed the older boys for about 3 months until I went back to work

 

The twins for 6 weeks - it was a bit of a challenge - especially at the same time. One under each arm! But Martin had no bother converting to the bottle although I did have to use a larger teat size as he was a lazy feeder.

 

The youngest - he's "fostered" so I didn't breast feed him but I understand his mother did until he was about 7 months. But that all ended pretty abruptly when he went into care.

[BusyLizzie100]

I was really into the breastfeeding idea and, despite a tricky start, fed DS1 for 15 months, introducing a beaker of cow's milk at about 11 months to get him used to it. He fed very well during the day and slept all night 12+ hours) from 10 weeks old.

 

DS2 was very, very different. Born three weeks early, he just couldn't feed but we only sussed when the health visitor weighed him at 10 days and found he'd lost a quarter of his birthweight. Straight into hospital, I thought he was dying because he also had a hole in the heart, consultant paed said it was dehydration typical to what you see in the Third World. Thank you, midwives, for totally ignoring my concerns.

 

As you can imagine, heDS2 was 'in the system' from the beginning, the concern being that the dehydration (and bronchiolitis that he caught in hospital!) might have caused problems eg brain damage. He had to be tube fed and it broke my heart when my milk all but dried up and he had to have formula. But thanks to a v sensitive paed, I got my milk back and when he left hospital the day after his due date, he was breastfeeding again. Although - I had blisters on my nipples for the next five months and he wasn't really very good at it! It took him until about 3 to manage a proper sippy lid and still (at 61/2) has difficulties with a regular cup, preferring a straw. I believe his early feeding problems were part of his ASD; obviously didn't know that at the time.

 

DS3 - wasn't so precious about breastfeeding this time round! But managed to get to 13 months, this time swapping in formula in a bottle from about 9 months. He's so much more coordinated than the others that he could probably have mixed the formula and sterilised the bottle himself. I'd mastitis a few times before, but with DS3 I got it every month. I think I might even have had some sort of milk fever.

 

So, I feel a bit of a martyr to the breastfeeding cause! Glad I did it, but it didn't stop glue ear and ear infections or stop any of them from being v fussy eaters. Hey ho.

 

Lizzie

[lisann]

My DD wouldn't b feed she was a right madam and had no food for two days so went on the bottle.Char was like a duck to water and feed untill 7 months then went to the bottle becuase he was a hungry baby and need filling up.

 

 

I don't have a problem with brest feeding and think it is what ever suits you and your family and don't think there is a right age to stop it is when you and baby are ready.

Lisa x

[smiley]

My little one turned up 9 weeks early - so the first six weeks of his life he was fed through a tube in his nose!

 

I had the joy of expressing (great big machine borrowed from hospital; affectionaly known as Daisy... ), and sterilizing the bottles, as he didn't have the strength to feed properly and needed prem bottles. Broke my heart at the time - i really wanted to feed him myself - but i persevered with the expressing for five months .

 

He did not like changing to formula at all!!

[Viper]

I fed all 4 of mine with no problems, until Ben!!

 

DD1 9 months

DD2 AS 16 months

DD3 2 1/2 years

Ds (Ben) 3 1/3 years.

 

I had sooo much trouble getting Ben off it was awful. He would scream and have enormous meltdowns and I still fed him through the night every 2 hours. I was exhausted but had to stop so I used to give him a cuddle at night instead of feeding him and eventually it worked and he stopped waking up.

 

The other 3 stopped on their own.

[board]

i like to say thank you for that very intreasting my dd was 5 weeks early hospital made mersake she wased breathing was taken away to a nother hospital didnt see her for 3 days she as bad asthma now as well as aspergers she waslike a little doll we waited so long for a little girl after 4 boys we planed to have 4 moved house and that was it a little girl we are all so blessed sorry to go on been haveing bad time its just nice to come on here and talk all the best jill

[jlp]

I bf ds#1 (AS) until he was 13months, he did have the ocasional bottle of formula when my mam had him. Gradually got him onto cows milk in a bottle from 13mth and it wasn't too tramatic.

 

ds#2 (so far nt) was bf until 2 1/2 and was a nightmare to stop feeding! He had a milk allergy (which he now seems to have grown out of but still won't drink it) and this made it much harder to stop feeding him. He also had barely any solids until he stopped feeding but has improved a lot. With ds#2 we set a day to literally stop feeding cold turkey style as cutting down gradually wasn't working - we (I!) had a nightmare few days but he's fine now at 2 3/4 and is eating much better.

[Vix]

I fed Kyle for roughly 6 months. It was easy enough, no problems and he took to bottles fine. Different matter with solids though and I wish I'd left it longer than the 4 months that was recommended back then.

 

He had a dummy too that I got rid of just after I stopped bf as I was fed up with him losing it in the night.

 

I'm glad I did it then as I think he would still have one now otherwise. He still has a bottle of milk before bed every night, and gets very upset if we forget and try to put him to bed without having it.

 

Glad I gave up bf too (although would have liked to have gone on a bit longer) as much as I am pro-breastfeeding I don't think I could stll be feeding a 4 year old. Especially as I have 2 year old twins, who fed till they were 9 months, I couldn't have fed all 3 of them!!

[debsy]

I breastfed my Son for about nine months, and I didn't really have any problem getting off the breast, the only thing was, he used to put his hand down my top and play with my boobs, even now at 4 he still tries to knead them, which can be highly embarresing when we are out, plus it ###### hurts, I just try to distract him. He still has a bottle for milk though, in the morning with breakfast and before bed, he won't go anywhere near milk in a cup.

[Kathryn]

Interesting thread.. I've always wondered if early feeding problems went with AS, but it seems here that people's experiences are mixed.

 

L (AS) did not take to breastfeeding at all - We spent a nightmare week during which time she was probably frantically hungry and I was miserable and panicky. I remember her dad pacing the floor with this screaming bundle one night because I was just too sore to let her near me. Eventually a lovely midwife I've never forgotten went against the received wisdom that one should persist, listened to how awful we felt, and advised us to start bottlefeeding. Result - a much happier baby, although I felt guilt and failure for a long time afterwards - I was frequently the only one wielding a bottle at ante natal gatherings.

 

When my NT son came along 8 years later I was determined to breastfeed for a few weeks just to prove I could. I was terrified of another bad experience, so we had the steriliser, the bottles and the formula on standby just in case! He turned out to be much easier to feed, and knowing I could stop at any time helped me though the difficult early days - I fed him for 17 months!

 

Going back to my daughter - it was very difficult to wean her from a bottle on to a cup. Until she was about two she was still sitting on my lap drinking milk from the bottle which she wouldn't hold herself.