Milk seems to have reduced overnight!

[wakarimasen]

Hi

My baby is 4 weeks old and I have BF from birth. He had trouble at first latching on due to my nipple shape so MW gave me nipple shields to draw it out. I usually start off each feed with the shield then take it off - though a lot of the time he struggles to latch back on.

Anyway he had an extra feed from me last night as DH was away and normally gives him a bottle of expressed milk to help me get some sleep. This morning I expressed for tonight and got less than normal. My breasts don't feel full and DS seems to suck 4 or 5 times before swallowing anything and is taking much longer with each feed.Could my supply be drying up? This seems to have happened to a few people in my NCT group. Should I supplement with formula until supply returns?

Thanks for any advice

i wouldnt supplement yet.

you need to tell your breasts to make more milk... best way to do this is to get your baby to feed as much as possible, so her sucking tells your breasts to make more milk

good luck

oh and eat well and drink lots and lots and rest where possible

No, don't supplement.

Feed, feed, feed and your supply will meet your babies needs.

Ditch the bottle top up just now too.

There are times when it feels they are 'emplty' but they aren't - your boobs and baby reach a perfect equilibrium. Also, when the baby is having a growth spurt, they need a few days of very frequent feeding.

Feet up, baby on boob and dh bringing cake!

Also try the BFN or Nct helplines for some confidence boosting.

You ARE enough! In fact, you are perfect for the wee one.

Variations in the amount expressed are normal and it is very normal for expressing amounts to fall as time goes on. It is normal for breasts to feel ess full, too. It is also normal for babies to vary in the time they take to feed.

Sadly, it is all too common for mothers to interpret normal signs as something going wrong with bf.

Supply does not dry up overnight.

You don't need to do anything except continue to feed responsively day and night :)

Resting, eating and drinking will not make any difference either (though nice to do!) - nannyl, I have read posts from you before, I think, where you suggest mothers do this. It's really and truly more or less irrelevant to milk supply, you know :)

Thanks so much. I'll press on with feeding as much as poss. Its funny as the HV told me that if i had been very active my body would use up calories doing that rather than making milk. She said i've to put my feet up!

Your HV is ridiculous and ignorant about bf.

Hope you feel things start to look better from now on :)

"Its funny as the HV told me that if i had been very active my body would use up calories doing that rather than making milk. She said i've to put my feet up!"

Aarrgghh what a load of tosh.

I just read an article by a lady who ran a marathon while BFing. Well, she wasn't BFing WHILE running .