Fail: Stubbornly sticking to the Breast Feed Only Rule
Lesson: Break the breast-feed-only rule when your baby is dehydrated. Don’t feel bad or guilty about using formula in this situation.
Lactation consultants taught Em and me, as if it were a religion, to feed Luke breast milk exclusively. We both firmly believe in the benefits of exclusive breast feeding, so I'm not arguing against it. When we brought Luke back home from the hospital on Day 1, Em's milk hadn't come in yet. We were alarmed about his having only 1 wet diaper that day, which the pediatrician said was worth calling in for. The nurse on call recommend that we feed Luke with 1 oz of infant formula. What to do??? We were conflicted. Formula is like a poison, or so our lactation classes would have us perceive. I decided that hydration outweighed the incremental nourishment of breast milk. I made a late night trip to Walgreens to pickup formula and fed 1 oz for each feeding until Em's milk came in 2 days later. We haven't fed him formula since.
Luke is now 3.5 mths old. He smiles, interacts, coos and hasn't gotten sick. He's 76th percentile in weight. So fear not about a couple of days of formula, especially if it means that it'll keep your baby's kidneys from failing, right?
Lesson: Have a little bit of formula ready in your stock of baby supplies before the due date just in case you I need it. It'll save you a late night trip.