Have I lost my supply?

[brokenboobs]

DD is 4 months old and has been EBF from birth. She's held at about the 50th centile for weight until the last month when she's seemed very fussy and dropped to the 25th. I have had my period every month since giving birth and it seems to make her very fussy and my supply seems to dip lower. This week I started my period again and she's acting very hungry and getting hardly any wet nappies. I've tried giving formula but she's point blank refusing the bottle. I'm at a complete loss as to what to do and getting very worried.

The water and the oats will have no effect - nothing wrong with oats but there is no evidence or plausible reason why they might work 😀 Two litres of water - two litres!!!! - is an uncomfortable amount for most ppl except in massively hot weather and no evidence that huge vols of water are any help at all.

Domperidone - not licensed for this use in the uk. Most docs would refuse to prescribe.

Suggestion 1 is ok 😀

The likelihood of nipple confusion after four mths of happy BF is minimal at most.

Apols for being negative - hats off for the EP, which is hard.

Oats most certainly do boost milk production. Research in this area is not strong, but LLL is about as experienced as you can get!

http://www.llli.org/docs/Tear-Off%20Sheets/english/10245increasinggyourmilkksupply.pdf

And domperidone is commonly prescribed off license - I was prescribed 80mg daily before the new guidelines came in. And the best thing about domperidone as you can buy it over the counter for a short period if need be.

As well as being available, it is evidence based too

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5158159/

I'm willing to eat oats with or without evidence but domperidone is actually fairly dangerous. It's failed to gain approval in the US on safety concerns several times and has been pulled here for use in infants because safety concerns.

www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/InformationbyDrugClass/ucm173886.htm

I read the safety information very carefully, the increased risk for adverse cardiac events was seen in a specific patient group

www.gov.uk/drug-safety-update/domperidone-risks-of-cardiac-side-effects

I was very happy to continue at 80mg daily. However it is of course a personal choice and I understand people being reluctant to use it.

FruitCider - eat oats, tell other mothers they helped you, fine. But don't say they 'most certainly' boost milk production 🙄. LLL's cautious, anecdotal mention in their tearsheet is as much actual 'evidence' as you're gonna get.

To be fair you'd have a hell of time getting a trial funded and designed that tested oats for milk production. It would be a cow of a trial to control for other variables.

Exactly broken and I'm a huge advocate of evidence based practice and love appraising research!

Power pumping seems to have helped. She seems a lot more settled and is taking fuller feeds. But the wee beastie won't drink BM from a bottle. I thought it was the formula she didn't fancy but the bottle itself appears to be a problem. It's a Dr. Browns one. Anyone know of a bottle she might prefer? I suddenly had a glimmer of hope that I didn't have to ALL the nightfeeds.

I had a huge dip in supply when my periods returned at 9mo pp. Baby was constipated for 3 days until it came back, it was frightening, I hadn't realised how drastic it could be. I found calcium and magnesium supplements taken as described here helped for subsequent periods:

kellymom.com/bf/can-i-breastfeed/herbs/natural-treatments/#calcium

Glad things are better broken

Bottle wise we had all sorts of fancy teats which ds wouldn't entertain, then someone said try boots own cheap ones and bingo happy baby. I suppose breastfeeding is a funny thing to replicate, baby has to suck but milk literally sprays out when they do.

Give it to your baby in an open cup? Or at that age try a beaker instead?

And also if you are trying to increase supply you need to empty your breasts (pump or breastfeeding) at least once a night. Sorry x

Once a night would be bliss. She was down to only one wake up before the dressed regression hit. Now it's every 45 min - 2hrs and I'm bone tired which I'm sure isn't helping the supply!

Can you put her in bed with you? You might get more rest that way and I always found it helped my supply when I let DS have open access as it were Not the most restful sleep but I found it better than getting up and down.

She's in a cosleeper crib part of the night and I'm with us the rest. DH sleeps like a drunken bear and I hate having her in with us as it does my back in. DH is so nervous of rolling on her he fell out of bed two night ago. I got a whooping three hours of sleep last night. I don't think it's helping the supply issue.