help! not enough milk

[diggingintheribs]

Baby is 1 month old.

since birth she has fed every 3 or 4 hours for most of the day and then cluster feeds over 6 hours feeding once or twice an hour.

the problem is that by the last cluster feed i am out of milk in both breasts. I have resorted to formula once and she only had a little.

On a couple of occasions dh has given her a bottle because i have taken ds out but i have stopped that so i am fully feeding on demand. I just can't seem to get the supply right.

What should i do?? Just persist and my supply will increase? Or make her go longer between feeds?

She gets so angry and its exhausting me!

You really are not out of milk, the flow will be slow but she needs to keep pulling at it so that your body knows she needs it.

If you give her formula your body will not get this feedback so you will have a self fulfilling prophecy. If she gets angry and frustrated take a break, even 10 minutes can help you get your head together to continue the marathon.

It gets easier!

Breastfeeding works on a supply and demand basis. Your breasts are never empty. If it helps then think of it not as a pond but a river. The milk is always flowing. As she feeds, you make milk. The flow may be slower at the end of a feed or after cluster feeding but the milk is still there.

If she is happy, alert, gaining weight, weeing and pooing, then chances are she is just fine. Just put her to the breast as required and have faith.

And they like to feed/latch on for comfort as much as nutrition. This is a good thing.

Kellymom is an excellent, excellent website if you want to understand more.

See here

Thanks - feel reassured. Have stopped supplementing with formula and will just bf. thanks for link - will give it a good read.

i thought i was out as she latches, has a few sucks then pulls off screaming, then latches again and the same thing. tried hand expressing and nothing came out.

I will palm her onto dad and get my head together before starting again!

This will make you feel better:

I also have a 1 month old. She feeds at least every 30 minutes/hour throughout the morning/early afternoon, then has a longish sleep then cluster feeds from about 5pm until she goes to sleep at around 8-9pm. Then she sleeps quite well through the night waking up between 3 - 4 times for quick feeds.

Basically I feed all the time and am envious of the fact that your baby will go for 3 - 4 hours during the day. I wish my DD would - I would have a tidier house and the my older children would be able to eat something other than frozen meals and sandwiches!

But,it's normal at this stage. The more you feed, the more milk your body will make and making her go longer between feeds will only upset your baby and decrease your supply.

Stick with it - in a couple of months, bf will be a doddle.

Sounds like typical growth spurt fussing to me.

it's funny how different babies can be. had no problems at all with ds

feel for you tryharder - especially as you have more than one older one!

DD isn't on a 24 hour o'clock so the cluster 6 hours vary. tonight i seem to be lucky that she is cluster feeding now - some nights it is overnight and it always seems to be the nights i am on my own with the 2 kids the next day!

NATBA - thanks for the link - seems like she is fussing. will try and rope dh in a bit more at this time!

I've tried offering extra feeds/offering a bit earlier than 3 hours but she won't take them if she doesn't want them! Just screams blue murder at me while pulling away!!

When DS2 does that silly buggers we deffo have a break. DH takes him for a bit or I just try to distract, it is completely maddening when they go through the on/off phases.

you could try expressing to increase milk supply. i went through this twice with DS, it's really a distressing time. but stick with it, you can increase your supply you just have to work at it.

also the thing re squeezing your breasts and finding nothing in it, i used to do the same thing and think there was nothing left but an NCT BF counsellor told me that a baby is more efficient than anything else at getting the milk out so even if i do that and nothing comes out it doesn't mean there's no milk in there.

having said that, and whilst it did reassure me somewhat, it doesn't take away from the fact that DS would still be distressed at that time. usually what i would do is distract him, even just for 10 minutes, to give a bit of time for more milk to come in so he'd be less frustrated when i popped him back on.

I posted a thread a few weeks ago similar to this - my DD is now 20 weeks and I was sure that my supply was low because she was cluster feeding in the evening and pulling on and off. Now when my DD fusses I put her in her bouncy chair for a wee while or her dad holds her for a little while. I was wrong about my supply, it was absolutely fine (as lovely mumsnetters told me!). My DD was going through a growth spurt. The more she fed, the more milk I produced so I would just keep going.

Its so hard not to worry though - I worry if feeds are long in case my supply is low and if feeds are too quick in case she isn't drinking enough ! I have finally accepted that the amount of milk my baby is getting is not reflected in the frequency or length of feeds. She feeds when she wants for however long she wants. Wet and dirty nappies are a good indication of how much milk your baby is getting I think.

When my DD was 1 month old she would cluster feed in the evenings for up to 4 hours. I think that most mums would tell you that this was their experience too.

Thanks for advice - she is much better now and i have managed to get the cluster feeding during the day and she can go 7 hours at night now (sometimes with a feed)

I spoke to my HV about it too and he was very reassuring. I've lways had a low opinion of HV as the ones I saw were never very encouraging and never gave me a straight answer, but this guy was very knowledgable and reassuring.

Reminded me of a convo on here about wanting a female midwife as they would understand and a male midwife wouldn't. Well this male HV shows you don't need someone who has experienced breastfeeding to help you with it!

Hi I posted a thread about this a couple of months ago. My dd went through a growth spurt and cluster fed all evening. I was not bothered about sitting feeding her for hours but, like you, I was worried that My supply was poor as she would pull on and off and got so frustrated. My dh and a few other people suggested a formula top up but I stuck with the feeding on demand and my supply did adjust. My supply has always been slower in the evenings which is quite common apparantly. The milk is there it just doesn't gush out the way it does in the mornings. I do occasionally give my dd a top up of expressed breast milk though this of course will do nothing to help my supply, but it does mean that my dd is satisfied quicker. I always feed her before offering a top up.

What everyone else has said, and also it does get easier!
mine was similar and the corner turned for me at about 6 weeks. Just keep at it and remember that your body knows what to do. All of a sudden it gets a lot less stressy.