Mixed Feeding Milk Supply

[M8000]

I'm mixed feeding DS who is 6w old. I BF him every feed, then FF, and I pump a few times a day too but don't get much. I wanted to exclusively BF but for various reasons my milk wasn't enough so after a lot of advice and a LOT of guilty crying we went to mixed about four weeks ago.

Trouble is he's a slow feeder and so feeds take an hour and a half if we're lucky, usually more like two. He falls asleep on the breast all the time, bottle's better but still slow. It means I can't do much else and am knackered.

I was thinking about dropping the BF from a couple of feeds but I don't want to reduce my milk supply so much that it puts him off breast altogether. Anyone got any experience/thoughts on this please?

If you drop feeds your milk supply will surely reduce- unless you pump more....? Sounds just as draining to me. Depends what you ultimately want to achieve? How long is your target? Do you want to continue with mixed? Work out your goal and aim for that. Good luck.

I'd like to keep with some BF until five months. I met someone who said she just cut down slowly and it was fine, which made me seriously consider it, but I'm not sure it would be OK for us because of the supply issues and I don't want him to lose interest in BF...

I would choose either 1 or 2 feeds and stick to it- maybe the first thing in the morning and last thing at night? And stick to them. If he loses interest but picks up more on the bottle and you would rather the opposite, then swap the bf feeds for the ones he's more interested in. If he then swaps interest it would indicate that he may be happier on the bottle. I have no advice there but would say you would prob be best to stick to a good pattern then you would know what to increase/decrease if things changed. HTH

Have you tried anything to up your supply? And you say you're bf and then ff? Is this straight after? At 6 weeks he could still be clusterfeeding to build up your supply so I would just keep him at the breast as much as you can take. Nothing wrong with a bottle when you're tired of it though! Dropping feeds will worsen your supply and if you aren't getting much pumping I would honestly just offer the breast as much as possible. To me it sounds like he's trying to clusterfeed. Don't put too much pressure on yourself though

Yes he has the bottle straight after. I BF first because he's hungriest. I tried feeding and pumping every two hours to bring up supply (so it was almost constant!) but he didn't put on weight, he is only little anyway so needed to gain.

Oh bless you. It's worrying when they don't gain weight isn't it. I would just feed him whenever he cries at this stage, even if he doesn't take much. See if that works to get your supply going a little bit.

Have a lovely Christmas

I had a similar problem. As I wept at the bf counsellor to explain how I would feed for an hour and a half or more, then top up, then express then have about fifteen minutes to myself before j had to start the process again (as they advised to feed every three hours) she looked at me with sudden understanding. She said feed for no more that 20 minutes on each side. Then top up and express etc. And then feed again on demand or when time for the next three hourly feed. I thought just having the baby feed and feed would improve my supply,
But she said when it means it is constant like that is can be a bit counter productive as you get so sore and tired.

If you want to drop a feed etc- fine do whatever works for you and don't feel guilty. But I found once I stopped feeding for such a hugely long time, though I probably fed more often, it was more manageable and I got to a point (after a very long time) where I was ebf.

If you do drop a feed make sure it isn't a night one as they affect supply the most.

Also- at this stage missing one feed will not destroy your supply. So one day (Christmas Eve maybe so you feel better) why not hand the baby over to someone else as soon as you have bf. Express then go to sleep. Skip one round of feeding and expressing- give the baby formula and ask not to be woken until the next feed after that. The bf midwife suggested this. If you did it often it would affect supply, but my goodness when we did it having a run of more than a hours sleep made me feel soooooo much better.

Well done- it is such hard work.