1 week in, expressing going really well, at what point can I consider milk supply established?

[TheSkiingGardener]

So, for various reasons I express everything for my DS and he is feeding well. I've been expressing 5/6 times a day and am luckily getting loads, at least 200ml each time so am getting more than he needs.

At what point can I reduce the number of times I express? I really don't want to muck up the supply but also have a toddler so need to get into a routine of expressing which fits in with running around with him too.

ooh, not yet, I would say...

theoretically, if you were feeding him directly, you could expect to be putting him to the breast more than 10 times a day, at least, at this very early stage

because your breast don't have the stimulation of him nuzzling at them, you will have to be more diligent in expressing.
obviously holding him lots and having him close to your breasts would be good too

I would say 5 or 6 times will be the minimum at this stage - you may not be able to reduce no. of time pumping for couple of weeks yet...

good for you for committing to breastmilk

Ok. So how do I know? I'm putting loads in the freezer at the moment which will be good for later. Had a good skin on skin nuzzle with baby earlier which was lovely.

I agree it's still very early days in supply terms. I don't think my supply was established until around eight weeks.

As usual kellymom had done good info in this. Congrats on your LO

I found this on Kellymom

kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/pumping/exclusive-pumping/

scroll down to the section "When does it get easier?"

Quote:

Around 3 months your supply will probably be established. This is when you can begin to drop the number of times per day that you pump and not see too much of a decrease in total output (this is again, where the spreadsheet comes in handy). That?s why if you do the hard work in the beginning, I promise it will pay off when this time comes! If you don?t keep up the number of pumps per day in the beginning, you may continue to have to pump a high number of times per day just to maintain a small supply. Of course, this is all dependent on how each woman produces milk. So, you may have such a great supply and so much frozen that you can drop pumps earlier.

HTH

Ha! we both went to Kellymom

Would echo what Kellymom says on it - and definitely that it take a good few weeks (seem to recall 8 weeks being key) for breastmilk to be established.

DCs were breastfed and certainly at around the 6 week mark all were still feeding two/three hourly with perhaps one longer gap in night, but not more than 4/5 hours IIRC.

So if in expressing the main gist is to emulate the baby getting milk from breast, you'd need to continue to express frequently to achieve and maintain supply.

3 months!!!!!! Eurgh!

I know it's worth it but what with the expressing and the actual feeding its very time consuming. I'll see how it goes as I'm easily producing over a litre a day so will build up the frozen supplies I guess. DH goes back to work after Easter, I think that will be the test of what's going to work.

Thanks for the links, interesting reading.

I exclusively expressed many moons ago as my ds wouldn't latch at all. I expressed after every bottle feed, so was mimicking real life. We did this for 6 weeks and had no problem with supply. I can't remember why I stopped now ... I think it felt like a gaff as every feed took twice as long.

Good luck!