moving from formula to BM

[cottoncandy1]

Hi,
Hoping for some advice or to see if anyone has been in a similar situation. My DS is 4 weeks and lost 13% in 3 days when born. We had to go back to hospital for tests but was just told it was a bad latch. But my milk hadn't come in until that morning. Ended up giving him formula top ups in a bottle as not sure they would have let me leave otherwise. Also giving expressed BM but not really putting him to the breast as so demoralised by it all.
He quickly regained his birthweight and for the last 10 days I have started putting him to the breast for every feed before offering him an expressed BM or formula top up. I have started to not offer him top up at every feed but am just concerned about starving him as worried about the effect the first two weeks had on my supply.
Am taking domperidone 60mg a day. Putting him on the breast whenever he likes - 8-10 times a day between 5-25 minutes per boob.
Sometimes he will feed for 45 minutes but then still gulp down 100ml of formula (some of this will be sicked back up). Am getting my latch checked this week but am wondering if I just don't have enough milk for him so hesitant about how to remove formula from this equation without compromising his weight gain? Last night he had 100ml of formula after a lengthy breastfeed and then after I tried to pump and there was nothing there which makes me think I just didn't have enough milk to satisfy? Anyone know if its possible to get my supply back up or how long it would take? Have ordered some fenugreek and eaten some oats. Would love to remove formula if possible or at least reduce as much as i can.
Sorry for lengthy post, would just love some advice! Thanks xx

Hi Cotton and congrats on your new DS.

You should be able to drop the formula but you probably need to talk to someone about a plan to reduce it gradually.

How much were you pumping in the first couple of weeks? You would need to pump the same amount of times as the baby would have fed to maintain your supply (8 -10 times roughly). That said it's not impossible to get it back.

Also, don't assume that because you couldn't pump anything and he guzzled the formula that you are starving him. Babies will often guzzle a bottle down just because it is easier. Even if you don't pump much milk, it doesn't 't matter because the pump is doing the job of sending the signal to make more milk.

Have you tried switch nursing? You feed on one side, then the other, then back again (and again if needed). This ups the volume of milk going in.

Good idea to get the latch checked again as something was obviously not quite right after birth. Is the feeding comfortable now? Perhaps ask for someone to check for tongue tie if they are able to.

Some women find that they can pump more milk in the mornings or if they leave a break between a breast feed and a pumping session. You could also try some hand massage before pumping and some hand expression afterwards too -this has been shown to increase the amount of milk removed.

If you are able, you might like to try and have a 'baby moon' - lots of rest, skin to skin and just feed to feed. Of course this will only be a good idea if the milk is being removed properly so make the attachment is good and he has a big mouthful of breast.

Hope that helps for now, I can't give you any idea of timescales but just keep an eye on the weight and nappy output so you know that if your reduce the formula your milk can be enough.