Not enough milk? Move to mixed feeding?

[meepymeepmeep]

I would really welcome some advice and comments please.

My 8 week EBF baby seems to not be getting enough milk from me! I fed him for an hour and a half yesterday morning and he still seemed hungry (fussing, not settling, yelling), so to 'check' my DH gave him 7oz of expressed milk (from 2 hour long pumping sessions) which DS took in minutes.

Later in the day, having missed a feed (DH gave him another bottle of expressed milk while I was out shopping), I felt really full and fed, with him taking and hour and a half - DH tried to settle him to bed and again he still was very fussy - I then thought I would try him with one bottle of formula as I had previously discussed with HV - he took 6 oz easily, settled quicker than ever and my Duracell baby slept for 6 hours (unheard of, DS is a bad sleeper).

I felt quite full at 4am when he woke and he fed well then but grunted and groaned for the rest of the night and I am not sure if he slept well because of this (I know I don't when he does this). He is a very windy wee man - but he seems more windy when breastfed - could this be because he is fighting to get milk out as when he has a bottle of expressed milk one or two burps does it - when breastfed its an all night grunt and wind fest?.

Now this morning he has eaten from me from around 7am on and off until now 1pm but has been really 'angry' - pulling, grizzling, head butting me.

I do not want my baby to be hungry which he certainly seems to be but I also do not want to complete FF either - I know I could top up with expressed milk but I get so little at each session that I don't think I would be able to.

If I introduced maybe 3 FF's a day and BF the others and pumped and gave this when I could would my milk supply stay?

All my friends, my mother etc. all say just give him the bottle but I at the very least want him to have some breastmilk - I feel crap about him potentially not being EBF - I am prepared to put the effort in but not if he is not eating enough.

He gained 4oz the past two weeks (8 in total) but he did drop on the chart and HV is coming back to review.

I am out of my depth here and would really welcome some guidance.

Could he have a tongue tie? Sounds like he's possibly not breastfeeding very effectively for some reason. Could you see a breastfeeding counsellor to check your latch/positioning?

Not sure what tongue tie is - I think HV checked his mouth and said he didn't - his latch etc. all seem fine, I'm no expert though so yes I would see a breastfeeding counsellor - will have to try and look one up, am in NI

Not sure what tongue tie is - I think HV checked his mouth and said he didn't - his latch etc. all seem fine, I'm no expert though so yes I would see a breastfeeding counsellor - will have to try and look one up, am in NI

meep - can understand how confusing this is for you :(

You can call any of the breastfeeding helplines and talk about this. They will not 'make' you breastfeed fully, but you will get the facts from them.

Firstly, taking a 7 oz bottle of expressed means nothing - except you have a baby who likes sucking! The same applies to the 6 oz bottle of formula - means nothing.

If you give formula, you will make less milk, because you are introducing gaps into the breastfeeding. Long gaps between breastfeeds = less breastmilk made. Less breastmilk made = winding down of supply.

Conversely, short gaps/frequent feeding = more breastmilk made, more quickly.

If you think your baby might need more milk than he is getting with breastfeeding you can easily increase his intake by

• feeding more often, day and night
• using at least both breasts at each feed, switching breasts back and forth in a manoevre called 'switch nursing' which boosts intake and supply
• checking his positioning and attachment is as effective as it can be (see someone who knows about breastfeeding - ie not an HV whose only idea about this is to give formula)

It is not unusual for babies to fuss and fight even after an hour and a half feeding - but it may be of course he is trying to get more milk when he does this, and the only way you can make more milk is to do the above things (you can also express, of course).

The answer to your question about giving 3 ff a day and pumping the rest is no, your breastmilk would not stay....nor for long, anyway. You can maintain if you express at least 8-10 times in 24 hours, and you might as well just bf direct 'cos that's hard work! :(

It sounds to me like a crisis in confidence not helped by people saying 'give a bottle' :( - you can breastfeed, if you understand how to make it work.

Hope this helps :)

In my experience HVs have little idea (or training) when it comes to breastfeeding. NCT or La Leche League might be able to put you in touch with a local bf counsellor.

Thank you - will try to increase supply by feeding more by following your points. if I do express also when should I do this - when I try after feeding there is nothing there or rather nothing will come out! If I try between feeds I always fear he will get hungry and miss out. Also selfishly I like the sleeping after the bottle of formula - would one bottle effect my supply if I where to pump at this time and would it be bAd for baby?

He is a handful - doesn't nap at all and sleeps at night quite badly and the sleeping last night has made him much more contented tonight.

Will contact a LLL - do u know if there is a cost?

Again thank you!

Just a quick on the tongue tie mine had a posterior tongue, very difficult to see unless you are a feeding Specialist. Don't rule it out if trouble continue.

Meepy If you're trying to express from a breast you've just fed from it could be that your LO has cleared that breast. I've tried that and it didn't work for me. Whenever I've expressed I've done it in a morning and have treated it as a 'feed'. You may also find that you have more milk in the morning.

I would say though that some women don't get on with expressing and find it hard to get milk with a pump at all. No pump compares to the ability of a baby to get milk out of a mother.

Has your baby always been like this or is it just a recent thing?

Yes this is just a recent thing.

meepy, LLL is completely free :) List of local groups here. AFAIK the NCT is completely free too, they and LLL are both charities. Good luck and I hope you find some help with BF your DS.

Meepy Have you tried the old infacol/gripe water route? We had this with DS in the early days, he kept arching his back and being generally very unsettled at the breast. Infacol did work with us and since we've been using it DS seems to have settled a lot more. We also really really wind him well nowadays, really rubbing his back, patting him, sitting him on my lap and moving his upper body around in a figure of eight, or lying him on his back and cycling his legs. We also do baby massage on a night doing clockwise motions on his tummy as well. If it's trapped wind, it can be uncomfortable for them. It might be worth a go.