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Infant feeding

milk supply reduced at 12 weeks

9 replies

EDD24may · 20/08/2011 19:52

I'm exclusively breast feeding baby at 13 weeks and have been expressing to try (unsucessfully ) to get baby to take bottle.in last week I can only get 100 mls from both boobs combined per express sometimes only 50.previous was over 200ml and still dripping out. I'm worried any suggestions? Baby has v small posterior tongue tie but had been growing well 50th centile, wet nappies.I express same small amount whether am or pm, no diet change or new meds. Any ideas?

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homeedmam11 · 20/08/2011 21:06

Hate to say it, but some women just seem to be unfortunate for some reason. :( Are you getting much sleep?

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thisisyesterday · 20/08/2011 21:12

your milk supply is probably changing gradually from being hormonally driven (meaning you just have tons regardless of baby feeding) to more of a supply and demand...

see here for a good chart showing how prolactin levels drop

expressing really is NOT a good indication of how much you are making and how much your baby is getting.
there is really no reason to think that your baby is not getting as much as she needs... if she wasn't she would simply be asking more frequently in order to boost your supply naturally.

if you continue pumping regularly then you should see the amount you produce increase, but it may be a slow increase. some people can never pump, some people seem to get lots. some people get more out with hand expressing, some need a particular pump, there are lots of factors that could explain why you aren't getting as much as you were...

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lilham · 20/08/2011 22:45

When my baby was a newborn I was always engorged and leaking all the time. Things settled after a while and my boobs feel deflated in comparison. I can't express much anymore either. (I managed to exclusively expressed feed for 5 days in SCBU so this is a huge drop). What happened is my body regulated to just produce enough for my DD demands. It's all a normal process.

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Pesephone · 21/08/2011 08:46

thisisyesterday is totally right, your supply switches from hormonally driven to demand/supply driven at arround 3 ish months and this is very very normal and does not mean you are loosing your milk supply at all. sadly many women do think that this is what has happened to them at this stage and so begin giving bottles to "top up" which does infact have a very real impact upon supply so they end up with the problem for real and it often becomes a viscious cycle.
I have exclusivly breast fed three children and can't pump a drop by any means hand, electric, double whatever I can't get past a few drops. once my supply swaps over from hormone driven.
Judge your milk supply on your baby if they are plotting the 50th and having plenty of wet an dirty nappies there is really no reason at all to doubt your supply.
:)

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EDD24may · 21/08/2011 10:13

Thanks everyone for your replies. I wasn't too worried about my supply when breast feeding my son as he seems to be growing well and wet nappies but more annoyed about the pumping....we have our first grown up night away at the end of september after a week away (with our son) and leaving son with SIL with stash of expressed feeds..or that was the plan. As we are away visiting relatives/friends in run up to visit with SIL I won't be able to freeze a supply and at just 50ml per express from both boobs I don't think I'll be able to express enough for 24 hours away from baby in the 24 hours we're at SIL's house prior to leaving him. I really don't want to use formula if I can avoid it. It doesn't seem to be that culturally acceptable in this country but I'd be happy for her to breast feed him if he's hungry (if she is happy), she's feeding her own older baby. He seems to have his own ideas anyway as he won't take a bottle properly anyway at moment despite trying medula calma / dr browns, feeding when not too hungry, facing away from us etc etc. I won't stop breast feeding until I have to return to work and even then I would have preferred to express whilst at work and breast feed on days I'm not working but that seems doubtful now too. Ah well. We'll find a way round it and he's not little for long so I'll cope if we can't stay away for a night, just would have been a nice break.

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