Increasing supply.

[MummyPig24]

Please give me all your tips. I need to increase my supply, ds weight gain is poor and sleeping is even worse. He is 5 months. He's happy but I just feel my supply has dwindled.

The last two days I've started expressing. I've managed about half an oz in twenty minutes, I would also like the option of Dh giving ebm in a bottle and using ebm on cereals when we start weaning.

Thank you!

What is his feeding pattern like? How often? Night feeding? Is feeding comfortable? Dummy use?

Hi mummy pig. Expressing is a good way to increase supply. Better than this or rather alongside this is more frequent feeding. It's removal of milk that drives supply but of course to drive weight gain the milk has to get into the baby

Can you do switch nursing ( google it) as well?

What is the issue with your baby's weight and how long standing is it? Are you certain he is not heavy enough and not just naturally small?

I don't really think there is an issue with baby's weight, but the people at the clinic are keeping an eye on it. He was born on the 75th centile and has steadily dropped down to the 25th. I didn't expect him to stay on the 75th, my other children are 25th-50th children. And he hasn't ever lost or stayed the same, just gained very slowly.

Feeding is comfortable, no pain at all. We introduced a dummy at bedtime about 3 weeks ago but this has been refused the last few days.

He feeds every 2 hours during the day, sometimes 3 but that's quite rare. I don't think I could get him to feed any more frequently than 2 hours. Usually he goes to bed at 7ish and feeds around 12, 3 and 5. Last night he was woken after an hour in bed (thanks big sis) so he had further feeds at 8 and 10, then 1, 3 and 6. I've just expressed about 1.5 oz.

Nothing you say indicates a problem, then. It is within normal for a baby to drop two centile spaces ( which is what 75th to 25th is). Your baby is happy and well. No one professional has indicated any real concern about his health and growth.

Why are you so sure there is something wrong?

Are you eating regularly yourself and drinking enough fluids? I find this has a big impact on my supply.

I didn't really consider there could be a problem until the HV said if he drops below the 25th he needs to see the gp to check there is no underlying health problems. That worried me a little.

I still would like to express enough for dh to give a bottle and to store some in the freezer to use when we wean.

I think I eat enough and try very hard to drink enough. Is fennel tea as good as they say it is?

eat lots of oats - porridge, flapjack etc. was recommended to me and I didn't really believe it would work but gave it a go and it really did! now every time I have the slightest idea that my supply is reducing or that I will be needing to express, I bake a batch of flapjacks

Perfect excuse for flapjacks!

There is no evidence that eating anything special or drinking extra fluids makes any difference to supply - nothing wrong with oats and some people feel they help, but drinking to thirst is quite sufficient....deliberate over-hydration is not good.

Mummypig - local protocols in many places indicate that babies who fall more than two centiles should be checked over. But no one sensible would think a healthy, thriving baby feeding well and often has a problem....the HVs are almost certainly just following their 'rules' and getting a medical opinion, because in a very small no. of cases a baby who falls more than 2 centile spaces may have a metabolism problem or has some other environmental issue which the doc can rule out.

Why not ask the HVs, and see if this is the case?

Thank you very much for all your advice. I really appreciate it. I feel kind of silly for worrying. Obviously ds is now much more efficient at feeding, do shorter feeds stimulate milk production less?

Length of feed has no effect mummypig, if the milk removal is efficient and sufficient. Older babies like yours often take what they need super quick

That's good to know.