Wondering about nursing our 18 month old?

I think you could very likely get your baby nursing! My daughter started nursing at 12 months, when we'd had her for five months. She was a very challenging case, for many reasons. She was born with a serious birth defect and had been treated more like a lab rat than a baby. Her birth parents had maintained custody, but rarely visited her and never held her. When she didn't grow, they put in a gastrostomy, so they could pump in high calorie formula through a tube. She was a full-term baby but when we got her, at six and a half months, she was just over nine pounds, developmentally delayed, and antisocial. Fortunately, I had acquired a lot of knowledge about infant feeding by then. I didn't have much trouble getting her eating totally by mouth, gaining weight and catching up on her development. She'd spent all that time doing very little sucking, but quickly learned that she loved to suck. However, she would freak out if I tried to get her to take my breast. I spent a few months trying to convince myself that she was too old and make the most of bottle feeding, but I just couldn't stop hoping that there was a way. I could never pump more than a dribble of milk, even while I was producing around 12 ounces a day for her older brother, so I couldn't offer her my milk in a bottle. She was very prone to pneumonia, which she would be very sick with, since her lungs were very small and underdeveloped. Besides wanting her to have my milk, I wanted her to have the nurturing from breastfeeding. I was doing my best to provide that with a bottle, and she had responded well to it, but I felt that having her nursing would be even better. I finally figured out what to do. I got her on a Playtex nurser with a Nuk nipple. When she was used to that, I threaded the tube of a supplementer through the nipple hole and positioned it so that it just barely poked through and was secure there. When she sucked, she got the milk from the supplementer, but it felt the same as if she was just getting a bottle. I would start her out as for a bottle feed, but when she was settled in and half asleep, turn her toward me, so that the bottle nipple was right over my breast. I fed her like that for a couple weeks. Then, I started trying to remove the nipple half way through a feed and see if she would take the breast. Since I wasn't producing more than a tiny bit of milk, at that time, I would have another tube taped to my breast. She would open her mouth, but close it when her tongue touched my breast. I got a latex nipple shield and used that for a while, then started trying to remove that. One day, she started to fuss when I removed the shield, but after a few seconds latched on, and she was a nursing baby! She nursed for 13 months. Throughout that whole process, I had always been prepared to give her back whatever she was used to, if she started getting upset when I tried to make a change, and then would try again the next day. I was guiding her to the breast, not forcing her. I've been in contact with many moms, since then, who have been trying to get older babies nursing. Usually, the more traumatic the baby's prior life has been, the more resistant they are to change, and the more careful and patient the mom has had to be. Some don't need to go as far as I did, and some do. Since you were lactating for a baby only a year ago, I wonder if the BCP/domperidone protocol is likely to make that much difference for you. I would think that just domperidone and pumping or nursing would be fine. It isn't necessary to take meds. I never had access to domperidone so, like most moms prior to about 2000. I just had my baby's sucking to stimulate milk production. I produced an average of about a third of the milk they needed, while they were on only my milk and formula. But dom helps almost everyone, to some extent, and it helps some moms a great deal. I believe that taking the BCPs helps some women, more than just taking domperidone, but some do just as well just taking dom. I don't think it helps hardly anyone when taken for only one month, though. Since you have been on it for two, you might get some benefit from it, but I think you would do well just stopping the BCPs now and starting to pump while working on converting your toddler to the breast. You can give her some of your milk in a bottle, in the meantime. With three little ones all ready, I know you don't have much time to sit. The Medela Freestyle pump is designed to be completely portable, so that you can do just about anything while pumping. It is very expensive, but there is also one called the Medela Swing breastpump, that has a small motor than I would think you could carry in a pocket or something. There are several others out there with small motors that I think you could use that way. If I was getting a baby like Julia now, instead of 20 years ago, I would have gotten on domperidone as soon as I heard about her and gotten a portable breast pump and a bustier or bra to hold the horns in place. It would have been very nice to be able to offer her some breast milk in a bottle, while I was trying to get her to take the breast. I also had three other little ones when we got her. I hope I haven't rambled to much, here and everything makes sense. I have tried not to make it too long, but didn't succeed very well. Oh, one more thing I wanted to say. If you decide to try the bottle nipple with the tube threaded through it, you need a wide based nipple that has only one hole in it, which is small enough to close around the tube, both to hold it in place and to keep the baby from sucking air around it. Latex holds it the best, but you can use silicone. Just be very careful threading the tube through, because silicone tears quite easily. Please feel free to ask questions, or email me, if you like! Aloha, Darillyn noelani54@hotmail.com

P.S. I just realized that I have written to you before, so I probably repeated some things. I tend to have a lot of distractions and forget to notice the name before reading the post and commenting. Sorry about that!

Thanks so much for that awesome reply! I am going to be getting my pump this week and then getting off the BC then. I'm so nervous to see if milk comes in right away, or it takes some time. I'll keep everyone updated on if our 18 month old will nurse or not :) Thanks again!!!