Poor supply

[anne74]

I have been struggling with breastfeeding for ages but think I may have made a breakthrough tonight which is quite exciting as I was just coming to terms with the idea that I might have to give up. However I think I am just not producing enough to meet his demands. When I have expressed today having not breastfed very much today I have only got 20-30mls in total each time. I used to be able to get 60-70 mls. I don't eat much as I'm on my own most of the time with DS and I find it hard to find the chance to eat (he's 6 weeks) and Im pretty sure I am not drinking enough.

What can I do to boost my supply and how long will it take before I could expect to see a difference?

i had similar trouble anne, ds did indeed grow into his latch. I am so glad I persevered - after a few weeks while it had been so awful I decided couldn't possibly stop as all the effort and pain would have been wasted. Probably not the most positive way of thinking about it but it worked for me.

get some lansinoh and try the shields - I believe they are now usually silicone, not rubber as I used 6 years ago and probably swearymary did, they were a bit thick and not wildly helpful.

If you want to continue bfing, I'd do whatever you can to keep going - shields, lansinoh, limiting bfing for now but expressing top-ups, etc, etc. As their mouths get bigger, it does seem to get easier naturally.

anne74
Can't remember if you tried the jelonet dressing for your nipples- you can get it from pharmacies.

If you're not putting him direct to the breast to feed, you need ideally to be expressing 8-10 times in 24 hours to protect your supply.

Hope you get the help that you need from your LC - she'll be able to see alot easier what's going on.

Maybe though, as japhrimel said, you just need to give it some time.

Right, I've now read your other thread and actually 'remember' you from other posts, but did not recall your name IYKWIM.

I'd agree, it all depends on how important it is for you to continue BFing: if you do want to in principle BF then do whatever it takes to keep your supply up. And there has been lots of good suggestions re this on here already .

FWIW, I exclusively expressed for preemie DS2 for a few months - not half as nice as proper BFing, but did work. And certainly when he was tiny, I found his latch v v painful - he also grew into my larger generous norkage . And I found expressing FAR more comfortable than proper feeding initially.
Frequent expressing is the key, the aforementioned 8-10x/day with ideally at least one pumping session at night. Block expressing can be good to boost supply: 10min either eitherside, repeat 3x. Also double pumping ie both sides at the same time made a difference to me.

There is a good book, I'll try and find it.

And also (and I say this as somebody who become somewhat unhealthily obsessed with BFing) remember, FF are NOT poison ...

This book

any news anne?

They've got thrush now on top of everything else (see other post).

Sorry for the lack of update. Have been meaning to fill you in. I saw the LC on Monday night. She advised me not to go mad with the pumping until he latches a bit better as she felt I'd then have all this milk but he wouldnt get it. So I havent pumped much. However this is meaning I'm having to use a lot of formula for the top ups and he's really struggling with his tum so I'd rather use EBM. I'm about to pump now and will pump more today. The supply was a bit better yesterday. I think it helped that I felt a bit more rested. This time yesterday I managed to get 60mls from the left and 30mls from the right. I've never got that much before. I did some skin to skin yesterday morning. I didn't eat much yesterday though so I need to improve that today.

He does seem to have got better at latching on in the last 24hrs. He no longer seems to be attacking the nipple. Now he's causing a bit of friction on the areola. I don't know if this is related to the fact that he's getting a lot of bottles at the mo. I've been trying to heal my nipples so most feeds have been topped up and some I dont put him to the boob at all, mainly at night. Nights are particularly bad for latching on so to reduce my stress levels I've been mainly bottle feeding at night. I need to pluck up the courage though to try the boob again. My nipples are healing so I need to be a bit braver. I'll see how today goes. It's not helped by the new addition of thrush :-(

If you're giving top-ups, you need to pump or your supply will drop IME. The LC's advice is only good if your LO is getting all his milk from you.

Have you checked LO's lips are pouty? Dr Sears calls the trick to correct an inward-turned lip the "lip flip". Doing this has helped us: www.askdrsears.com/html/11/T021900.asp

anne - check you have understood the LC ok.

Your milk supply will go if you neither feed nor pump sufficiently.

Hope things work out for you.

Thanks. I have been able to bf him twice so far today without the need for top up (yay!). Will pump a few times as well to boost supply. Right boob doesn't seem to be doing as well as left boob but he seems to be satisfied and he does let me know if he's not. His latch seems to have improved which is allowing my nipples to heal l. The one thing I think he is doing is using his bottom jaw on my right boob rather than his tongue. I'm not sure how to encourage him to stick his tongue out when he latches on.

Thanks for all your help. It's much appreciated