EBF after supplementing

[americanexpat]

My DS is now 16 days old. I was EBF until day 11 when we started supplementing with formula due to low supply and weight loss. I lost quite a bit of blood during his birth and am anaemic which the midwife said could affect my supply. My goal is to eventually return to exclusively breastfeeding but I'm really having doubts it's possible to increase my supply enough. I breastfeed him for hours but he's never satisfied and takes 60-90ml of formula when I'm finished.

I have an appointment at the breastfeeding clinic tomorrow to discuss it but I'd like a perspective from someone who has been in the same situation. I'm taking iron tablets and fenugreek, eating oatmeal and grasping at anything that could possibly help. The breastfeeding support worker said he's latched on fine when feeding and left me a double pump to use.

Thanks for any advice.

american sorry to hear you are having problems. I haven't got any experience but thought this might help.

Just wanted to say too that feeding a 16 day old DS for hours at this age is perfectly normal and may not be a sign he is hungry, even if he is taking the formula. My DS seemed permantely attached to me at that age.

Hope the appointment goes well tomorrow and you get the support you need.

How many top ups is he having each day? You will want to be reducing them gradually so that he takes more of his milk from you.

Expressing some or all of the top ups would be grim, but it would ensure your supply is increasing to meet his needs and you are avoiding the risks with FF at the same time. (I have done this, it was horrible but worth it, got back to excl BF by 8 weeks)

Seeming 'never satisfied' is quite normal at this age - it is healthy to be feeding very frequently, on and off all day and night.

It can be done, you will need to think about starting tapering the top ups down, have confidence - but the top ups will reduce how much milk he takes from you, which can lead to a reduction in how much milk you make.

Have you got a Baby cafe or BF support group you can go to? Or talk it through with a BFC from one of the helplines?

Thanks for the replies.

He is having a top-up after every feed, 60-90mls. I wouldn't be as concerned about feeding constantly and not seeming satisfied if the weight loss wasn't an issue previously. I suppose it really knocked my confidence. I was feeding constantly for the first 10 days and my supply couldn't keep up.

I did pump after every feed for a couple days but only got about 20mls total from both breasts. Before we started supplementing, I tried pumping then giving him the expressed milk after breastfeeding but he would guzzle it down and still be hungry. I suppose I need to start pumping again and offer it after feeding THEN formula if needed.

american please don't worry about not expressing much milk, how much milk you can express is no indication at all of how much you are producing.

Can understand that the weight loss knocked your confidence as it's very easy to loose confidence especially in the early days with a PFB, how much did he loose? Was it more than 10%?

hi americanexpat, great posts so far. he needs to be feeding effectively to use the milk in your breasts so your brain knows the milk is needed (the bf clinic should help with positioning, the more you 'use' it the less you 'lose' it , is he clearly drinking? and you can up your supply by giving your breasts extra stimulation with pump, and/or some extra feeding from him.

how much weight did he lose?

like JJJ says - wome differ greatly in how much milk they get. some are not able to express hardly any but feed a baby happily.

i'm pretty sure there is research to suggest fenugreek does work so give it time to

He lost over 11% in the first 8 days, we spent a night in hospital and he had blood tests that came back normal. He is like a completely different baby since we started supplementing though - much more alert during the day, waking on his own for feeding, less lethargic in general.

I did have a look at the kellymom plan, I may print it and take it to my appointment tomorrow. I want to get back to EBF ASAP but don't want to be too aggressive and have him lose weight again.

Do you know who your appointment is with american? Is it with a Bfing Counsellor?

I didn't have exactly the same problem but did have to supplement bf at around 2wks as I had emergency surgery!! It took quite a long time but I did build my supply up so that when my dd was 8wks ish I was more or less exclusively bfing. It took quite a lot of grit and determination plus a lot of ignoring dds slow weight gain and the hv huffing and puffing (I put faith in my instincts which were telling me she was fine and I was right!!!)

It is def possible, feed as often as poss, eat and drink loads - really look to increase your calorie intake (I know others on here will tell you it won't make much difference but for me it really did!!!) Slowly decrease the amount you supplement but don't feel bad if when you are tired or feeling weak and you have to supplement more. I found to start with the evenings were hard as dd seemed hungry, unable to settle and I quite often had to top her up but then the next day would start again and eventually it sorts itself out!!!

If you can find a bfing suppoort group try and get to one as I found them so helpful!!!

Good luck.

I've been there and DD is now ebf after a scbu start, tube then bottle-fed, losing 15% of her birth weight and me being anaemic.

You need to drop the formula as a priority otherwise your supply will suffer and you're stuck mix-feeding. Pumping can take a while to get used to - you need to relax more and do more massage/compressions than if your LO feeds.

Our issues were efficiency and exhaustion - DD wasn't feeding efficiently enough to take enough milk from me before getting exhausted. A big part of our probelm was positioning - not latch.

To get back to ebf, you have to prioritise your supply (as well as your and LO's health). And no drugs will help if the milk isn't being taken out of the breasts. When I was exhausted with fast dropping supply, a great NCT BFC pointed out to me that as DD was already used to bottles, it wouldn't make a significant difference if she only had bottles for a day or two. So I had a break to enable me to pump alot and also get some rest and actually that saved us. My supply upped and we then transitioned from formula top-ups to ebm top-ups after bfing sessions and then gradually reduced the top-ups as DD needed them less.

americanexpat - it's good news you are going to talk to someone in person about this.

It is certainly likely you had difficulties with supply at the start - many poss reasons for this,which you can discuss tomorrow.

The difficulty now is that your baby is having a truly huge quantity of formula - you don't say how much your baby weighs, but any 16 day baby having 60-90 mls of formula at each feed is not going to have much room for breastmilk...and this means the very first and most important thing to do is to protect your milk supply from disappearing. This will mean as a matter of urgency reducing the formula supplements, not all at once (as your breastmilk will need time to build up), but certainly systematically. This can be part of a plan you work out with the clinic.

Hope things go well tomorrow.

JJJ - I think it may be a BF counselor. I was referred by the breastfeeding support worker who was visiting me at home over the last week.

tiktok - you're right, it is a large amount of formula but 60ml is what was recommended by the midwife (due to his weight loss?) and he usually takes that amount.

It may well have been the case he needed an 'emergency' supplement, americanexpat - and obv you would need to follow what the midwife said, if she gave no other options.

But it's an unusually large amount to be offered at every feed.

Hope things work out well with the clinic tomorrow.

american don't feel too afraid to ask her who and what she is. Hope it all goes well for you today.