Do I need to pump to maintain my supply?

[lloveroftobleone]

DS is 3 months old and had a posterior tongue tie snipped at 9 weeks. It seems to have made a positive difference thankfully and he is now feeding better and gaining weight well.

Before the tie was diagnosed, his weight gain and my supply were a problem so we started to supplement with formula. He has been having 5 ozs in the morning and another 5ozs in the evening at about 7-8 pm. I have rented a hospital grade pump and been religiously pumping whenever he has a bottle to maintain my supply. We have gradually reduced the morning bottle down and as of this week it will be gone! Yay! That will just leave the evening bottle.

Realistically, I can't imagine that my supply will ever be good enough to get rid of the evening bottle so I have resigned myself to keeping it. I would like your advice about whether I should still continue to pump every time he has it? He pretty much goes straight back on the breast following the bottle and comfort sucks and catnaps for another hour or two before sleeping for a 2-5 hour stretch.

My hospital grade pump has to go back this week so pumping will take 40 minutes using the medela swing rather than the current 15 mins so would love to see the back of that pumping session!

Why wouldn't your supply keep up with the demand?

Why don't you try doing one evening with half of what he normally has in the bottle, then on the breast, then next evening a quarter, then next nothing.

I suppose if you want to keep the evening bottle going for sheer convenience and the fact that he will take formula, then keep going. However, I think you'll be fine.

To be fair, after the time you've had it's no wonder you have insecurity around milk supply, anyone would. However, I do think your supply is good enough and maybe you should give it a crack and see what happens. You can always put him back on the bottle if not.

How much less than the 5oz you feed dc, do you get when you pump in the evening? Supply should adjust and if baby still hungry you can supplement after the breast?
You are at 3 months, so worst case you should be able drop any supplementary formula around 6-7 months when your dc takes solids and starts reducing milk intake.

Thanks so much for your responses.

I am definitely insecure about my supply. I spent the first seven weeks ebf with DS crying and scratching at me every evening which I thought was just normal witching hour fussiness but after the tongue tie diagnosis and giving him formula, I realised he was just really hungry and I had been starving him which was a bloody awful realisation.
I currently feed him in the evening until he gets fussy and I can only get a few drops out when hand expressing. Then DH gives the bottle while I pump for 15 minutes. He then goes back on the breast but not really feeding, more dummying for comfort.

I barely get anything when I pump. Less than an ounce off both boobs put together. Tonight, one breast only had a few drops.

I would suggest that pumping is probably the least efficient way of getting milk out, babies are much better at the job, I agree with others, let him have a go, you could always give him (as someone else suggested) a top up bottle afterwards, and gradually reduce this. I'd perhaps be inclined to not have too many set ideas about when he might next feed, as there is a chance he will initially ask to feed more often to increase your supply, this will likely be temporary and will settle down once he's got everything organised!

I was v insecure about my supply for a long time due to numerous problems with latching and I Pumped for about 8 weeks, reducing down the formula until we finally went EBF.

Please don't be put off by what you get from the pump/hand expressing. Babies are much much more adept at getting milk out of you than a machine so it's just not representative. Also one lactation consultant explained that while they are sucking the breast will be producing more milk. So if you are feeding him from the breast for all other feeds you can almost certainly replace the bottle with breast for the evening one. Maybe just put him on before the time you usually give him the bottle to start signaling to your breasts they need to produce milk at this time.

I had a very similar story here. My supply was very very slow to establish. The thing that gave it the boost it needed was stopping the formula altogether (at 4 weeks). Within a week my supply had noticeably increased and baby's weight gain improved. I understand the fear about your supply but now at 19 weeks I have no doubt my boobs are doing the job.

Formula supplementing really meddles with the natural supply and demand process.

I understand the guilt too. I left my baby hungry without realising in the first few days and I feel awful about it. I just needed to feed more (not for longer but more frequent feeds in the early days).

Try upping the amount of water you drink and always express at least half an hour after last feeding to optimise the amount you express. If you feel you must supplement then supplement with your own expressed milk.

Have you tried using compression whilst expressing? I had supply issues and it was the only thing that worked to help me get milk out when expressing.

Google Stanford compression and expressing. It's.states it for premature babies but it works for anyone.