Will my supply go

[pigletmania]

I am expressing for my ds (5 months) as well as giving formula when that is not enough. When ds is 6 months my sil and kids will come to stay for 10 days. We will probably be out and a out so might not be ab.e to express that often whilst they are here. Will my supply go

Hi, I am not an expert but I would say 10 days is quite a long time, even if your supply doesn't go you may be in quite a bit of discomfort!

Could you not express just at the start and end of each day, enough to keep your supply going? If you're too busy to sterilise the pump or freeze/store the milk you could always just throw it away and keep giving DS formula for that period. Then your supply will be maintained for when the 10 days is over?

I used to express a lot and sometimes did this, my supply was fine - in fact I sometimes had so much milk I expressed some and threw it away just for my own comfort

Thank you. I could express but it will be difficult in the middle of the day when we are out

If you did it at the start and end of each day you may not need to do it when out at all. If you needed to in the middle of the day just take yourself off somewhere private (loos?), get pump out of bag, express, pour milk away, rinse pump, pop back in bag. DS can drink formula, but you'll be keeping your supply going/relieving discomfort.

I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will come along in a bit...

You wouldn't need to throw the milk away as BM will keep at room temp for 6 hours at least (longer in a cool bag) and I am sure your DS is feeding more frequently than every 6 hours!

Pumps don't need to be sterilised each use either, just washed with hot soapy water or at a push rinsed with very hot water (I'm sure the water in a public loo would be hot enough as I normally manage to scald myself washing my hands in the local shopping centre!).

You might find that expressing a lot in the morning/evening would be okay - you could do cluster pumping before bed or slot in an extra pumping in the night - not great if you are used to sleeping all night but it would be only for 10 days. Yes your supply may drop a bit and you may feel uncomfortable during the day a bit (then even a few minutes expressing would help to ease pressure) but if you went back to expressing as normal post visit, you would hopefully go back to previous levels.

Your supply should be responsive to demand. When DD2 was ill and took less for a while mine dropped but it picked up again once she recovered and went back to taking normal amounts.

Thanks everyone, might have to pump more when kids in bed at night