I am breastfeeding and my baby has been struggling to put on weight.
After several weeks the health visitor advised that I should be topping up with formula to help gain the weight. I was told this in a very brisk manner and felt belittled and incompetent for allowing this to happen - I felt like it was my fault.
The health visitor very quickly told me that my baby was hungry and needed to be fed straight away. I had an instant bottle in the house and brought it through to feed the baby. I went into the kitchen to wash my hands and came back and found the health visitor feeding the baby formula already. I hadn’t been given the opportunity to feed him myself and I missed giving my baby his first bottle.
They then advised that he should also be given the bottle of milk I had just expressed and even though I asked if I could feed him myself this time, they then fed him this bottle too. I was then told to top up with formula for the next week but wasn't told anything about how to sterilise bottles or make formula up.
Overall I felt unprepared, on the back foot and totally overwhelmed about how to manage things going forward.
"Introducing formula feeding to a newborn"
About: Forth Valley Community Services / Health visiting Forth Valley Community Services Health visiting
Posted by deltasx36 (as ),
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