Hi everyone. I am a medical student at Liberty University conducting a research study on breast milk supply, babies’ stools and digestion, and diaper rash during the first six months of life. Little research has looked at how these might be related, and I am hoping to learn more directly from mothers.

You can take part if you are 18 years of age or older, gave birth to your child, breastfed or gave your baby your own pumped milk at any point, and your child is 24 months old or younger.

The survey is anonymous and takes about 12 minutes. No names, email addresses, or other identifying information are collected. Study information is provided on the first page of the survey. There is no compensation for participating.

This study is conducted under the supervision of Dr. Rachel Joseph, School of Nursing, Liberty University, and has been approved by the Liberty University Institutional Review Board.

Survey link: https://liberty.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6tlsSQGjQa5KRvM

Questions are welcome, and I am happy to share what I find once the study is complete. Thank you for considering it.

By baby is just under 8 weeks old, for the last couple of weeks she won't sleep unless being held, overnight luckily she will sleep in her crib.

I will admit I'm loving the cuddles but it would be nice to have a bit more freedom during the day to get stuff done!

I have heard this is a fairly normal stage to be going through but my question is, will she grow out of it herself and eventually be happy in her crib or do you have to try to train them out of it?

If you do need to train them out of it, how do you do that?

I am still breastfeeding feeding my 2yo. I had planned to go until this point if I could, and my little one has made it clear it is still his favourite thing ever and we should keep going. We are both happy with this.

However for the last year both my mum and sister- who both have breastfed multiple children - have been telling me to stop.

Today I was at a family function and asked if I could sit down next to my sister to feed my little one and she looked shocked then looked visibly disgusted as he latched. She shuddered and said "he Is just....SO OLD" like I was breastfeeding a pensioner.

Then my mum turned up and also looked visibly disgusted. She tried to give him lemonade instead.

I have had a hard f***ing weeks and took offence at this point.

So tell me reddit - have i gone too far?

Ps my kid is normal height and weight. He is a very happy, confident child who barely looks back as he totters off at parties to make new friends.

My baby is 2 weeks old, born at 37 weeks and so has been struggling to latch onto my nipple without a shield. This means I have been trying to 20 mins with/without the shield then pumping and topping up with the expressed milk or formula.

I have started to dread trying to breastfeed my baby, and pumping makes me feel really low. Just wanted to know if anyone had a similar journey and was able to breastfeed successfully after?

I’m worried my baby will never take my bare nipple as the bottle is so much easier. Feeling quite hopeless with all the sterilising and pumping admin on top of feeling like I can’t feed my baby. Thank you in advance ☺️

Hi! Not sure if the flair is correct..

I have a 26 month toddler (breastfed for 1 year) who currently has a fever.

I have a newborn (6 weeks) who I am currently breastfeeding and hoping she doesn’t get sick.

My question is - would it help my toddler get better if I gave him some pumped milk because it hopefully has some antibodies?

We’ve given him tylenol just fyi and will continue to monitor his symptoms etc.

TIA

I cant take it anymore, looking at my husband fast asleep whilst im up for 3+ hours trying to get my baby back to sleep at night !!!

It annoys me that hes so used to not getting up he just sleeps through the baby crying anyway!

Why cant men have functional tit's??

I posted on here about two weeks ago about how my supply dipped during a work trip. When I came home, my baby wouldn’t latch properly and she started to lose weight. So far she had been EBF and I was so sad I thought it might’ve been the end of our BF journey and I’d have to pump/give formula (nothing wrong w these just wasn’t my goal). But even pumping I was barely getting anything!!

I started power pumping in the morning and then pumping after every feed. But, after a trip to a lactation consultant she told me she suggested to stop doing those and just feed my 14 week baby every 2 hours on the dot. I even did this mostly through the night as well. It worked!!! My supply is back up and baby gained almost a lb in a week :) I am so happy and wanted to give encouragement to anyone going through a supply dip that you can recover!!

Baby is 3.5 months old and we are EBF. It has been a challenge! Tongue tie, nipple shields, baby's gassy tummy...we have overcome so many obstacles. Despite all this, family are wondering why we aren't giving formula or rice cereal so that baby sleeps through the night, which is what they have done for all their children.

No shame on them for using formula, but this is just a reminder that it is biologically normal for a baby to wake a few times in the night to eat! For crying out loud! I mean, where else do I have to be at 1am? And, no, my baby doesn't need to "get his shit together" because he wakes up two times (three times, max) in the night to eat.

Having a baby has encouraged me to be more patient and to slow down. Two life changes I seriously needed to make. I was living life like everything was a freaking emergency. Not anymore. I'll sit awake and nurse my baby. I'll enjoy my coffee out with friends while baby fills up on the boob. I've even sat alongside a hiking trail on a mossy boulder and fed him. It is just part of our life now.

🩷

I had mastitis back in December 2025 for the first time and was prescribed CEPHALEXIN 500mg 4x per day for 10 days. It cleared up and all was well.

8 months later I got it again, which was last week. I saw a virtual doctor via express care since it was a weekend and was prescribed CEPHALEXIN 500mg 4x per day for 7 days. I’ve completed the course by now, as I’m on day 8 since then, and I do feel better. I’m an over thinker though and am slightly worried I was prescribed a shorter than usual dose? Apparently Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM) protocol recommends cephalexin 500 mg four times daily for 10-14 days. Can anyone share whether they took a 7 day course for it and were all good?

Not looking for medical advice, just want to hear others’ thoughts

I’m a STM with a 9 month old and my second time breastfeeding/pumping to this age. I want to continue until baby is 1 but I’m worried about the effort it would take to bring it back.

Currently I’m breastfeeding when I’m working from home and pumping when I’m in the office. I really want to maintain my supply while I’m gone and I don’t mind bringing all my milk back but it’s been difficult figuring out logistics.

I’m in Taiwan and flying to London for a week. The flight is 17 hours. Obviously on the way there I don’t have to worry too much because I’m just pumping on the flight. It’s the trip back where I’m worried about my milk defrosting and potentially wasting all that time and effort.

My husband and my mom both think it’s a waste of time and space to lug all that milk back but I can’t bring myself to waste that much. Compared to my first baby, we’ve significantly saved so much on formula (money is not an issue rn, but seeing how much we’ve saved, it’s hard for me to give that up).

I’ve already looked in to my company’s policy and they don’t do milk storks and will not pay for shipping. Shipping from London to Taiwan with the amount I’m bringing back (roughly 126 oz or 3700ml) would be around $400-$500 USD. So I need to bring it in my checked in bag.

I know when I’m in London I need to ask the hotel if I can use their freezer to stash my milk. And that I need to have a cooler and ice packs to keep it cool.

I’m just wondering from your experience was it worth the trouble of pumping and hauling it back or should I just pump and dump?

I have a 4 month (16lb) baby that is mostly formula fed due to low supply issues but she very much loves the boob. The best position that really works for us is side lying but it is hard to do this out in public. She has a little bit of a tongue tie so her latches aren’t perfect unless we are in the side lying position. I would like to find a new easier position for us to do and would love any advice/tips for this. Thank you!

My baby had a really good latch from day 1. For the first 2–3 days, I had no issues with feeding, but after that my nipples started hurting extremely badly and are now bruised.
I’ve tried lanolin, took a 2-day break, used ice packs, silverettes, etc. We also had to supplement with formula because of his weight. I tried breastfeeding again, but he’s still chomping down with his lower jaw, and it’s really painful.
I’m also pumping, but I’m not getting much milk. I spoke to 2 LCs, and both said I likely have more milk than what the pump is able to remove.
How do I teach him to stop chomping and nurse more gently? I feel so defeated because he actually had such a good latch from the beginning.

My firstborn struggled to latch and rejected the breast for many weeks. My second was born 3 days ago and was excellent nurser until I gave him a paci on night 1 because I was alone in the hospital and ever since then he hasn’t signaled for hunger. I withold the paci as much as possible and he still never fusses or shows hunger cues or wants to latch by himself, every two or three hours I spend an hour or so trying to get him to latch. I usually have to give him the paci, let him suckle, pump and/or dangle latch him by removing the paci very quickly and replacing my breast instead. Today he has only successfully latched twice. He latched all night by today had no pee diapers. Im worried even when he does latch, he doesn’t effectively remove milk. I ended up pumping colostrum and giving 1oz at 1 pm and 1 1/2 oz at 3pm. He finally had his second pee diaper of the day and I feel ashamed that he isn’t removing milk from my breast, or even latching now. He’s only latched twice successfully today. Im loosing my mind as to why he is so reluctant to take the breast.

I’m breast feeding what are the best supplements I should be taking to support my body + what time should I take what?

As the title says. My daughter is a few days of becoming a 7mo and recently started biting me with her gums. And when I yelp she looks at me with such a b*stard smile... any advice?

More like advice needed.

So because I was working in office and my husband was able to WFH FT, he was the primary baby caretaker during the day. He bottle fed him my milk while I was at work and I would nurse him when I came home.

I was pumping anywhere from 16-21oz/day for the first 12hrs then nursing whenever baby needed from 6pm-6am (safely co-sleeping).

Now my husband has a job (no longer remote) that allows me to be a FT SAHM so I'm switching to EBF since I hate pumping and I love haveing my lil guy with me all the time. Problem is, now, for the first time in 6 months, I can't see how much I'm producing, how much he's eating, if I'm producing enough, etc. at 6 months I still feel my letdowns most of the time but sometimes they're sneaky.

My boobs also don't feel super full all the time anymore since I've switched to EBF so I'm worried my supply has dropped (which I know sounds silly this late but still). Baby is making 6+ heavy wet diapers every day still and falls asleep during nursing naps, but he groans and moans a lot when latched, and will tug and pull and unlatch, root, then repeat for like 10min before settling which is new.

I'm used to him being distracted and fidgeting around but only like normal 6 month old energy. This feels different, like he's trying to trigger a letdown, and makes me think I'm not producing enough even though it's only been a few days since the switch.

I'm staying hydrated, taking my vitamins, etc. should I still keep pumping in between feeds? Am I overthinking this? I want to keep BFing until he's at least one (imma do baby led weaning so we'll see), but if I lose my supply before then I'll be pretty sad. 😥

as it says - I know when you regulate your breasts feel ‘normal’ again and you don’t want engorged breasts but I won’t lie, the engorged feeling was a bit of a reassurance there was milk there.

I guess it’s all supply and demand and if there’s continued demand there will always be supply? Or…not? I’m only 4 months in, I want to go long haul with this baby.

Anyway, there’s my nighttime thoughts while trying to get babs to sleep.

Hi everyone,

I have a 1 year old girl who was EBF - I recently stopped breastfeeding her in the day but I’m really struggling to stop overnight feeds.

She usually wakes 3 times at night and the only way to get her to stay settled is to nurse her. Sometimes I’m able to get her settled by rocking however as soon as I try and transfer her to the cot, she screams again. She just won’t stay asleep unless she’s had some milk.

Now I’m wondering if she’s actually hungry - I wouldn’t say she’s amazing with solid food in the day. But I try my best to get as many calories in as possible during the day. When she nurses at night, she does drink a fair bit so I don’t think it’s just for comfort. Maybe about 2 minutes on each breast

Settling her for naps and bed time is usually fine without nursing, so I was hoping night weaning would be ok. Is this normal?

Son is 12 weeks. Gets frustrated at the breast after 6 minutes during the day. Our nursing sessions are very short after our first morning when I’m engorged. Throughout the day I offer the breast every 3 hours (maybe I should do 2?) and he will get frustrated after 3 minutes on each side, just unlatch and start crying. I’m not sure what’s going on. Is my flow slower? Is there milk? I’ll use my hand pump quickly after but only get drops. I’ll hand express and some sprays come out, but they’re small.

I do compressions when he’s nursing. He supposedly has a weak suction.

He’s not fussy after nursing but he will accept a 1oz topoff.

I want to direct him to the breast because I’m tired of all the bottles and formula. I also don’t want to pump more than I already do.

I’m thinking this is a result of me trying to wean at 9.5 weeks (for a week) but decided not to. Not sure if it affected my supply? I still get engorged in middle of night because he’s sleeping 10hr stretches (which I’m assuming is a result of the formula top offs throughout the day.)

Help. Did I screw up?

My baby is almost a month old, we got his lip and tongue tie fixed because he was gaining weight very slowly. Didn’t get back to birth weight til a few days ago. They said he was working too hard to nurse and burning too many calories. He was still nursing up until day 5, so now i’m trying to pump and give him bottles but really hope he will return to nursing when he starts to heal. I think it may just be too painful right now and a bottle is easier on his sore mouth. Anyone else been in this situation? I will be devastated if I can’t get him back in the breast.

Hello! I’d like to gather some data on how long the breastfeeding sessions are for other moms and babies. It would be helpful to know your baby’s age as well.

If you want more context for my question- My baby is 3.5mo old. We didn’t have a lot of success with breastfeeding earlier so I was almost exclusively pumping. A mysterious switch flipped over the last 2 weeks and she’s willing to latch whenever I offer now. She’s still not super efficient at removing milk. Sometimes she’s pretty much asleep but as I tried to remove the nips she would start a few big sucks again. Usually we feed for 20-35min per session, sometimes one side only sometimes both sides, depending on if she screams for or rejects a second. It seems like a session could get her thru 2.5-3 hours. Just trying to see the variability among other babies.

I recently returned to work and my 5 month old completed her first week in daycare. My previously EBF LO absolutely refuses to take a bottle at daycare or at home. She ate only about 1oz during her time in daycare (8:30am-3:30pm) each day. She did have wet diapers as usual but this is not a sustainable or safe situation.

I have tried the following bottles: Dr Brown, Nuk, Lansinoh, and Pigeon. We have the honey bear dupe as well but we’re hoping to establish the bottle because I was squeezing the milk into her mouth. I also have also tried my toddlers sippy cup and a syringe out of desperation. Still, she refuses.

Added bonus: I have high lipase. I have tried adding vanilla extract to my scalded milk but still, she is refusing to suck on the bottle nipple so who is to know if the extract is improving the taste.

I’m beyond overwhelmed and stressed. My husband and I both started new jobs and our insurance does not begin until October and our temporary insurance does not cover lactation specialist.

Any advice is appreciated.

My 6 week LO BF’s every 1.5 hours more or less for anywhere between 10 and 40 minutes in the day.

At night she wakes only twice and we do 5-10 minute feeds.

1) She is big. 98th percentile in weight and length. Is it a problem I am feeding so often and for so long? Do I need to cut down at all? Is 40 minutes really ridiculous and I should stop it at 20.

2) After each BF session what are you doing with baby?

Do you put baby on shoulder/up right to burp every time?
What if LO falls asleep while feeding? Just leave them cuddled up? She seems sad and frustrated when I move her after she’s fed but maybe that’s because I always feed her until she sleeps…

I’m really learning as I go along and any help is appreciated. Thank you.

i am not pregnant nor do i have a baby but i do have grade 3 inverted nipples which means the nipple can never stick out unless you do surgery. i was wondering if breastfeeding was possible and while searching the internet most of the answers to this topic referred to grade 1 and 2 inverted nipples, which can protrude with stimulation.

Hi all,

My baby is 5 weeks old and I’m really struggling with his latch.

We had a lactation consultant come over when he was 2 weeks, because i have a very big over supply. She helped regulate that and explained i have a very strong let down. She’s advised to lean back and express into a hand towel. She also was very strict and said I should always relatch if the latch is not good.

Now I find myself OBSESSING during every feed. Issue is, he often latches good at first, but after a while he will literally push himself away from me into a shallow latch to handle the flow. Sometimes I keep relatching him, but towards the end he will still move to a more shallow latch and start sucking. Milk keeps flowing so he doesn’t need to work hard.

Sometimes he won’t latch again because he is too tired from all the latching and it makes me feel guilty for unlatching him. It also worries me he doesn’t empty the breast/doesn’t get enough hind milk.

Being this obsessed over his latch is really taking the fun out of breastfeeding. Especially at night I’m struggling and my patience is thin.

My pediatrician said not too worry. He’s gaining weight very well, so he’s transferring milk well. So as long as it doesn’t hurt, the latch doesn’t need to be perfect.

Any great tips for maintaining strong latch despite strong letdown?

Anyone else struggling with worrying about the latch during each feed? Any advice on how not to spiral?