I have a 5-day old daughter and she just refuses to latch on. I had a normal delivery and wanted to breast feed her from day 1. I just saw a drop of colstrum on day 3 and I have been using breast pump and breast shells to get the nipple to stick out. We have been giving formula to our baby which we really wanted to avoid, but could not because of drop in her weight if she doesn't get any food. It is day 5 today and I still don't get any milk in my breasts. I am very worried that our baby will get used to the formula. Please help with any suggestions, recipes that will help the lactation process.
SARADHARAGHAVENDRA replied. Hi,
Congrats new mom. you should be cool&happy you should enjoy your motnerhood never thing that you have no milk, your tension will reduce the milk .

make your baby to suck your nipple atleast for some time if the baby sucks
the milk wilk come frequently and take lots of water and fruit juice and small 3times snaks ,3 small meals especialy take more milk atleast 1 glass every 3 hour.

This is most important take 10 small garlic fry it in ghee after peeling the skin then spray some sugar on it then eat it ,i am sure definitely your breast will be flooded with milk .

THIS IS MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE TRY IT DO THIS WITH CONFIDENT

GOOD LUCK
Hetal replied. congratulations chitra.
now, about your matter.
at first, its normal for baby to reduce from his birth weight in firsst 10 days of his life ! the one reason is he has been in water in your womb for almost 9mnths, with all ready to get nutrients,,now he is out and he has to work on himself to get all that nutrients by either bottle feed or breastfeeding. so he needs time to get himself to get into good sucking..which is often by 10 days and so on,,
other thing is, his body consists of more of water weight, even though he is out of womb,,and most of the body cells, nerves and all body parts were in water.. so when the water in his body comes to normal human %, his body will obviously tend to loose the water weight !
the other thing, is since you have startd bottle feed,its obvious your baby will give you hard time drinking milk from you. the reason being in bottle the nipple flow of milk is faster than breast and is continuous,,which is not the case with breast. and since he is getting a ready to drink milk without putting efforts, he will give you hard time in bf.
nothin much you can do, but to keep trying. he might bite, he might not suck well at first giving you sore nipples and all that prob will come, as he will be asking for bottle. babies until 2months can be transitioned to breast without ne worries,,just keep trying and have alot of patience. try to feed him 5min before his feeding time, this will make your life easy by trying to make him latch and he will not get wild with hunger or will avoid giving you sore nipples.. massage your nipples during bath if you think they are not of proper size. feed your baby when you are about to engorge and not when you are engorged..this will give him continuous flow and it will soothe him to stick to bf.
and since you mentioned its been 5 days, wats the exact amt of milk that you are collecting with breastpump ???? the reason being, with some % there are chances that later on once your body is out of post pregnancy depression, some women have shown considerable increase in their bm...in this case, bcause of very low bm, baby is very hard to latch and will definatly refuse to latch on !! he is looking for milk,,no matter where it comes from !
so keep trying with latching, pump your milk after feeds,at every specific interval, right now best time is every 2-3 hours,,never mind even if it comes just 1 oz,,it will slwly improve..
eat healthy diet and there are alot of tips i wrote before,,just posting the link about increasing bm,,you can try whatever suits you..

http(:)//www(.)indiaparenting(.)com/boards/showmessage(.)cgi?messageid=1319&table_name=dis_healthissues

please note the child was uncomfortable with fenugreek seeds, so watch for ne signs of uneasiness from your body or your baby body !

good luck and welcome to motherhood.