Concerns: Older baby, medication side effects... Help?

Welcome to the board!For some reason, I am having trouble with this site and have lost two posts I had written to you. I will try to keep this short and write more later.It does take several hours a day to induce lactation, whether that is with pumping or with nursing a baby with the Lact-Aid. Of course, it takes a lot of time to feed a baby with a bottle, too so if you nurse with the Lact-Aid it doesn't take a great deal more time than bottle feeding. You can't let other people feed the baby, of course, except for maybe an occasional bottle. I always feel like even bottle feeding adopted babies should be fed by their new mothers most of the time, help them bond.If you are mostly interested in providing breast milk that would be fed to the baby in a bottle, you would probably need to take domperidone, along with pumping. Everyone is different but I haven't known many moms who have been able to pump much milk without the help of domperidone. A baby at the breast increases prolactin levels, but a pump doesn't do that as well, so the domperidone makes a big difference. Whether or not a baby in the 3-4 month old range will take the breast depends on the individual baby. However, most babies at that age will take to it without a major production. I wonder if the six month old you read about was my daughter, Julia. I have a story about her that is still posted on the internet. She was not only six months old, but had serious medical, emotional and developmental problems, that complicated things. I assume your baby would probably be healthy.I am sorry I can't give you a more definitive answer, but it really depends on the baby. You could certainly get a Lact-Aid and then just see how it goes, when you get the baby. Do you know if there is a lactation consultant, or a La Leche League group where you are? That would probably help a lot. Even if you have a friend who has breastfed, that would be helpful. Another option is to try to see if the baby will just nurse for comfort. That is pretty much what I did with my first son, in 1983. I had very little knowledge or support, at that time, so I just did what I could. It wasn't what I had hoped for, but I was thankful for it, especially the night after he had his first round of immunizations. He had a very bad reaction. For the first 24 hours after that, he wouldn't take a bottle and screamed constantly except for when he was nursing. I didn't think I had any milk, at the time but, looking back on it, I am pretty sure I was producing at least a little bit. So, I don't know if that answered your questions or gave you more questions, but I hope it helps at least a little bit! Would you say that you are more interested in providing breast milk, or nurturing at the breast? That might make it easier for me to know what to suggest.Best Wishes,Darillyn

Many thanks for your note, Noelani2. It is helpful. I've done research on this but there isn't really all that much to read, and almost all of that is concerned with newborn adoptions. I am most concerned with the nurturing issues because we are adopting from your typical sterile and completely impersonal Eastern European orphanages. We also had reasonably good success physically with formula with the first child - significantly weaker immune system the first year, very strong immunities the second year. I think there was some catch up to do as a result of not breastfeeding. I would love to have milk if that were possible but I have serious doubts about the honesty of information published on hormone medications after my terrible experiences with IVF medications and so forth. I would do it if it was a matter of life and death but the information I have read about domperidone is very erratic. Can you shed any light on side effects? I live in a country that is at least 30 years behind the US in terms of breastfeeding education and consultants. I doubt the consultants here have ever heard of adoptive breastfeeding and would probably think I was a nut. Even my DH would think that, but I can badger (ahem, gently persuade) him into cooperation if necessary. :evilgrin: So, not much support to be had. I would probably be harassed by every relative and all their friends, if I tried this, but I know the benefits involved. I researched the lact-aid before the first adoption. I think I decided it was too expensive, given that the baby was unlikely to take to it. Any idea how to get one as reasonable as possible? Any experiences trying to use one while caring for a toddler as well? Does it require a lot of coordination to hold onto, leaving no finger free during nursing? It really all boils down to whether or not there is a realistic chance that a 3 or 4 month old baby would even try it. I tried to get my first interested in a breast just out of curiosity. She was 11 weeks at the time and fairly well adjusted considering, but she was seriously uninterested. She wouldn't lick a finger with milk on it or anything. She wanted her bottle with the exact right type of nipple, OR ELSE! :) I'm sure different babies are different but that was discouraging.

Well, I haven't received many replies here, although the one was VERY HELPFUL. :flower: It also inspired me to do more local research and I'll let you know what I found out because there may actually be more people wondering about the older baby and drug side effects issues. I have now found articles by some Czech adoptive mothers who have done this, and because you can only adopt older babies here and the drugs are very hard to get, they are de facto in my situation. Pumps are now possible to get here but weren't until very recently. So, what these women did was just get a Lact-aid type supplimentor and get the baby to try sucking on it (they taped the tube to their fingers and to bottle nipples or pacifiers to get things rolling). Then, they just used the Lact-aid for a long time. After about A YEAR, those who were writing ended up producing enough milk to stop using the lact aid when the child was nearing 2 years old. They continued nursing without the Lact-aid for 2 to 6 months. It is probably that there are many less successful cases that aren't writing articles about it but the basic gist is that it is possible to do this with only a Lact-aid. I don't even think they had the herbs. I think I am going to try this strategy and I've invested about $140 in a Lact-aid, some extra bags and a bottle of herbal tincture. I'll let you know how it goes eventually. My foremost goal is to simply use the Lact-aid as an alternative to a bottle. If it ends up producing milk as a side effect, that would be wonderful, but I'm not counting on it.

My apologies for taking so long to get back to you! A week seems like a couple of days. I wonder if one of the ladies you found out about was Marta Guoth Gumberger. In 1990, while I was living in Germany, Marta and I were both nursing adopted babies and were part of a presentation at the La Leche League European conference. Marta has written about it in German and Hungarian, I believe. Is the supplementer you heard about the Medela SNS? I have used that as well as the Lact-Aid. I also used supplementers for a long time, with some of my kids. Of those of my kids who nursed long-term, two were willing to do without the Lact-Aid, one at 18 months and one at about 10 months, while the other two insisted on having it there until they weaned at a little over two years old. My third child, and first long-term nurser, continued nursing occasionally until he was four. I know that sounds weird to most people, but he just needed it some times. This is not uncommon with a child who has some king of challenge, like minimal brain damage.If you had said that the most important thing to you was to be able to pump milk, I would have to say that domperidone was really important but, since you said that the most important to you is the nurturing, you can do just what I did. I did not use medications, except for a brief trial with metochlopramide and produced up to 16 ounces of milk per day although, like most adoptive moms who do not take domperidone, I couldn't pump very much. I have some bits and pieces of various supplementers around. Since you live where the economy is different and purchasing things from the USA is difficult, financially, I will see what I can find and try to send you something, if you would like. You can email me at noelani54@hotmail.com I also have some pictures, somewhere, that Marta Gumberger took during her efforts to get her extremely fearful and resistant 10 month old to take the breast. I didn't think to take pictures while I was doing the same with Julia. Our babies were very resistant, because they were not only older but had been through hell in their little lives. Marta's article was published in the German lactation journal, the name of which I am blanking on. Babies who have been well cared for during the time before placement tend to be more willing to try new things. It may take some effort to get them started nursing, but usually not a marathon effort like it took me with Julia.I hope your father isn't going to go over there and "Help" you this time! I read your post on a another board about that. I hope you will be able to tell your ds to take care of himself and just concentrate on the little ones. Do you have a nice big recliner to sit in? I found that the best way to deal with a preschooler, while I was nursing an infant, was to have him/her in the recliner with me. Some kids will do that better than others. My sixth child, Joanna, rarely nursed without her older brother, Joseph, in the chair with us. We would read books or watch videos of the "Our Gang" series, AKA "The Little Rascals". I kept the remote and phone by us and something to drink. As for domperidone, I know that a fair number of moms get headaches from it, but it can usually be avoided by starting with a small dose and increasing it slowly. But, unless you get a baby who can't tolerate anything but human milk, it is really optional. I hope that is helpful!Darillyn