HELP! Milk supply low in the afternoon/evenings

[Elvis]

ds3 is now 10 weeks old. His weight is fine, but by the evening times my mulk supplies are getting low. I'm eating and drinking enough, but rest isn't possible with the other children to sort out too! I bfed the others for 11 months and want to do so again this time. My hv advised me to supplement with bottles- very supportive. She reckoned that giving up to 3 bottles a day wouldn't affect my supply. Crap surely! I won't be going back to see her.DH is trying to be helpful but is also keen on top up bottles. Any advice anyone?

If his weight is fine, is there any problem at all? Are you finding that you have to feed a lot in the early evening? Agree that your HV is talking rubbish....but you could probably do one bottle feed a day without too much problem, if you kept it to that time of day. But it would be better for your supply if you just fed him when he needed it.

I've always expressed a bottleful in the morning and then fed it back to the baby in the evening, as I also find myself fairly empty in the evening. that way you don't have to use formula but the baby gets tanked up at the critical time.

Elvis, your HV is talking crap, sadly.

If your baby seems to want feeding on and off in the evening, this does not mean a low supply...in a baby who is otherwise doing fine, it just means he is what's known as 'cluster feeding' and it is very, very common. Eating, drinking and rest will make no difference - their role in milk supply is grossly overstated.

One way of managing it is just to feed him, if that's what keeps him happy. Of course if you have other children it is about the worst time of day for just chillin' on the sofa with baby, and you need to work out a modus operandi, maybe involving partner, different routines for the older kids, a sling so you can do other things while the baby helps himself.

Feeding him not only gives him what he wants, it maintains your supply in line with his needs.

With an established milk supply, one bottle may (I say 'may' not interfere with supply, but you need to factor in the hassle factor of it...someone has to make up the bottle, sterilise the teat and bottle, cool the milk (and then warm it up, though this is prob not necessary), and sit and feed him. You might say this would free you to bath/feed the older kids....but someone else can do that while you breastfeed

My Dr. said the same thing about giving a bottle in the evening when DD was cluster feeding in the evenings (at 2 weeks old!) She reckons everybody's supply is low in the evening. I smiled and nodded and fed the baby when she wanted to be fed. To give her credit, she did say that would work too. DD stopped cluster feeding rapidly. She gets one bottle of EBM a day these days, just to keep her in the habit of taking bottles, and interestingly she tends to take less when it's the evening one. As she gained 4 pounds in 2 months, and often sleeps an 8 hour stretch it does not seem to have done her any harm. I think it'll sort itself out either way.

Elvis, I had that advice too, and ended up feeding dd2 solely with formula. I'm sorry I've nothing useful to add, just imagine with me it was the stress of having two so close together. Milk just wasn't arriving.

This is probably nonsense, but my friend's midwife suggested having a mars bar mid-afternoon to make evening milk richer! Even if it isn't entirely true, nice to be able to have chocolate and feel virtuous

eddm - funnily enough, I had a midwife who told me never to sit down for a feed without a glass of water and at least 2 chocolate biscuits (this was when ds wasn't gaining weight well). It may have been bollocks, it may not have been bollocks, but ds started having a proper weight gain not long after I started taking that advice!

Either way, it was a great excuse to eat chocolate biscuits...

I know the problem is have stopped breastfeeding now but can't let go of my chocolate biscuit habit... sigh...

Chocolate biscuits!
Now that is my kind of advice. I'll certainly give that one a try.

DS has settled well at night time for the past few weeks. Now there are evenings ( all day today) when he is really fractious and I don't feel like I have any milk for him. He won't settle at night either. DH gave him a bottle and he zonked out straight away.

I'll give the biscuits a try anyway.

I have always found expressing a real hassle and would rather avoid it if I could.

I support the expressing idea. I wish I had done it. I never had enough for the feed before bed and hence had trouble getting him off to sleep. DS was a GF baby but I skipped her recommended expressing thinking that it was just more work - next time I will follow her recommendations to the T!

Elvis, what makes you think you don't have enough milk? I remember having exactly the same anxiety when dd was around this age. But in actual fact I came to realise that there always was milk. My breasts may have felt 'less full' to me but that was really just my body having adapted to the different times of the day. Also the fractiousness, if he's settling well as you say, may be to do with other things like wind or tiredness / overstimulation and nothing to do with your milk being low. If I were you I'd stick with the feeding. At worst IF your milk was low then keeping on feeding him will be the best way to boost it, giving bottles would be the worst way unless you're ready to drop some feeds and replace with bottles anyway.

Someone posted on another thread a while ago that we shouldn't think that when babies drink a whole bottle of formula after a b/f that it means there wasn't enough milk. Apparently babies will always drink formula when its on offer, even if they have had enough breastmilk - just greedy! And formula is very easy to drink, they don't have to do any work for it.
So don't beat yourself up (easy to say I know, I had the same fears about never-ending evening feeding).

I read that too eddm, I think it's because the relatively bigger teat stimulates them into sucking.
You culd just have a very sucky baby Elvis, rather than a hungry one. dd was like this and I found giving her a dummy was the answer. It satisfied her need to suck something, and she gave it up voluntarily after about 6 weeks

Elvis - your milk is not less in the evening - it is just that cluster feeding and you feeling anxious and tired makes you worry you do not have enough. Babies breastfeed because they love to be attached, not necessarly because they are hungry. If you feel you cannot spend that time every evening I would get a dummy before giving regular formula. I remember every baby I had wanting to be permanently attached in the evening. Frankly I used it as an excuse to sit on my bum and watch the telly They key is to have a partner who supports you and does all the other things that need doing.
In fact sometimesd I would deliberately offer the boob to the babe when I heard his car reversing up the drive so he would make the tea.
Babies who take formula are not necessarily doing it because they are hungry - it is because it is something different. And they will conk out because their stomachs are full of milk that is much harder for them to digest. That only lasts for a short while till they get used to it. Always question why there is a need not to feed in the evening - are your talents truly needed elsewhere? Take advantage of sitting down and feeding - in the long run your milk supply will be boosted no end. And I found Galaxy chocolate to be expecially beneficial

Hi Elvis,

I have two other little ones to sort out at the same time as looking after my baby as well. I have found it impossible to get any rest in the day. I have found it helpful to breastfeed whilst moving around - whilst doing things for the dds. This has meant that I've not been stressed to get everything done as I've got most things done whilst feeding eg making meals, playing, sorting clothes out etc.... I just demand/comfort feed with baby in my arm - preferably the left so my right hand is free.

Your hv is talking rubbish!! - it's so annoying that someone medically trained gives such useless advice. If you give bottles you wont have any hands free to play/sort things out for your other children plus all the time to organise this. Milk production is on a supply and demand basis - so yes your supply would be effected.

Best Wishes

Thank you everyone. I'm so glad this isn't my first baby so I'm relying on my hv for advice. I see why so many mums give up breastfeeding, I should know better as this is my third child, but it doesn't take much to knock your confidence. Things have settled dowm a bit and he seems more settled. Maybe it was a blip.

Mears - LOL at feeding the baby when you hear DH's car coming up the drive ... I do that!!!!
Elvis ... I find DD very fractious in the evening too ... but I don't think it is because there isn't enough milk ... even though my breasts feel emptier (I keep telling myself "Tiktok says ... " and "Mears says ..." ) I think she is fractious because it is the end of the day and she is tired and often she hits 'meltdown'...
So I let her 'cluster' feed and then eventually I give her a dummy and off she goes to sleep. It is the sucking she wants really. On days that she is really fractious I make DS a 'picnic' tea ... healthy stuff that doesn't need cooking!

I've had exactly the same problem. DD (6wks now)feeding for 20mins each hour from about 6pm to 11ish and even with no other kids it is exhausting and does make you wonder if you have enough supply. What I have tended to do is give her a small portion of formula (or ebm if I am able to get any in the morning) just to give me a moment to catch up and then finish off the feed on the breast.
It has seemed to work OK so far but I can't wait until this cluster feeding stage is over. It has been especially bad the last week and a half - growth spurt I'm hoping.