Advice please: suddenly producing less breast milk?

[Bexy99]

Hi everyone,

I'm wondering if anyone can offer any advice or reassurance. At the weekend my baby son turned 12 weeks old however in the last few days it seems that I'm producing much less breast milk. I used to have a problem with over supply/fast let down. However, now I think I'm not producing enough milk. My breasts feel really soft/empty. On the occasions I have tried pumping I only manage to get around 100ml by interchanging the pump between both breasts over a period of time. Previously I could fill a bottle with one breast very easily! Also, my son seems to be fussing at the boob as if he's not getting enough and I have to keep swapping him from one side to the other repeatedly. He is feeding very frequently so I feel he is constantly on the breast. In the last week he also seems to have taken a dislike to going in the pushchair and the car/seat - he starts crying as if he's hungry. Also, he's not really napping during the day as he wants to feed so often - and then falls asleep at the breast. When I transfer him to the cot to sleep, he wakes up a few minutes later crying. Any advice would be most welcome! Could this be due to a growth spurt? I'm worried I'm producing less milk at a time when my son needs more. I had a bereavement recently - could stress cause my milk supply to drop off?

Many thanks in advance,

Bex.

I don't know about stress affecting milk supply I'm afraid but it could well be a growth spurt. Also, your milk supply will settle down to match your DS's appetite hence the boobs feeling softer and less 'full'.

My DD is 17 weeks now and my boobs don't leak half as much as they did (I'm still wearing pads though) but she is still growing well and following the centile line. If your DS is still gaining weight and seems happy otherwise, it could be a p completely different reason as to why he is napping less, being grizzly etc. Leave it a week and see if he settles back down?

Sounds like a combination of a growth spurt, and a developmental change - he's more aware now and out of the newborn stage, not happy to be put down away from you. Lots of babies also seem to wake up a bit after the newborn bit and need more help getting to sleep in the day.

Expressing 100ml seems like loads to me btw! Around 3-4 months your supply tends to settle down a bit and be regulated by the baby's demands, so your stop feeling engorged (unless you skip a feed) and don't leak so much.

2 things reduced my breastmilk (as judged by how much he was feeding, since I could never pump)

1: Having my period (a couple of days leading up to, and during)
2: Being pregnant (just dried up about 6 weeks along)

Could either of those be it?

It could just be your supply settling down.

At about 3 to 4 months, your supply is likely to settle down and you'll produce more f the milk during the feed. Your body stops being on 'full systems go', so you stop getting engorged between feeds.

For me, this coincided with my children becoming very fast, efficient feeders. I though they were getting fussy, but in fact they just needed 10 mins at the breast instead of nearly an hour! It really did change very quickly.

The ability to express shouldn't be used to gauge supply, but I also went from filling the freezer to having to work very hard to fill a bottle.

I went on to feed my twins to 2yrs 6mo and 2 yrs 9 mo, when they each decided to stop. So certainly for me, it was my supply settling down, not my milk drying up.

Thanks everyone for all the advice and reassurance - all really helpful. I'm going to try taking it easy for a few days and making sure I eat/drink more regularly. I'm also going to the baby clinic tomorrow so will see if they have anything further to add. Hopefully situation will improve in a few days.

Chunky - I haven't had a period as of yet. Oh and there's no chance of me being pregnant! :-)

Thanks again all x

It all sounds very normal tbh. Probably a growth spurt combined with your supply settling. 100ml is loads to express in one go! 30-60ml is more common, but even if you were getting more initially, it's natural to be able to pump less as your supply settles.

I would just keep feeding on demand and switch breasts as often as you need to during a feed.

Have you changed anything? Started taking any sort of medication? (antihistamines? hormonal birth control?) How is your health generally?

Bexy, this is normal.

With well-established breastfeeding, sometimes mothers notice a sudden change to soft breasts.

This is why this happens (not always suddenly, actually - more often gradually):

• the milk-making and storing tissue of established bf has taken the place of fat that gives breasts their shape
• the over-supply many women experience has settled down and the breastfeeding 'production line' is responsive to and commeasurate with the baby's needs

Mothers tend to stop having loads spare for the pump at any one time, but that does not mean their baby is not getting what he needs. 100 mls is way more than most women would get anyway :)

Your baby may well be going through a developmental stage where he needs you more and he may be even sensing your own disorientation at the bereavement, and needing to check in emotionally with you.

There may be some temp. effect on let down (though not supply) of your stress, but I think that is less likely than the other reasons.

Continue to feed him according to his needs; lower your expectations of his sleeping and so on; things will settle down soon :)

Good luck bexy, hopefully all settles a little before the next thing!
I have some similar symptoms and hope you don't mind me coming on your thread. my breasts are also much softer and have that squishy empty feeling, but i'm only at 6 weeks - is that too early for the supply to settle?

Definitely milk supply settling down (switching from hormone to demand based supply) - it happens at about 3 months and I find it astonishing that nobody ever tells anybody about it!

Read this - it's badly titled in my opinion, but it's a great explanation of the changes which occur and are normal at this time.

Not necessarily Stuck - how is baby? Plenty of wet nappies, alert etc? If so then perhaps you are just settling in very early.

Hey Stuck

I remember google being my frenemy as in those early days I did a lot of reading about DD's cluster feeding. I read in many places that my boobs would settle down once bfing was established at 6 weeks. I would long for mine to stop feeling huge before feeds and leak everywhere (esp when getting out of the shower) but in reality it took longer for mine to get softer etc.

So what I'm saying is I think it's also normal for your boobs to start feeling softer from 6 weeks. Everyone's different. And as Yoni said, as long as DD is still wetting her nappies and putting on weight then that's fine.

Perhaps chat to your HV?

Thanks for the replies, we have got wet and dirty nappies and where before she was just getting longer (out of newborn and into 0-3 sizes) and staying skinny, but we think she is now starting to fill out that 0-3 length!
HV is not interested and won't see us till 4 months but I am off to gp today about my non healing scar and will ask her to give Daisy a quick once over regarding her weight and size.

Bex - I hope things have improved and settled down for you...