What does it mean?.....

[MrsDoolittle]

I have been really sick over the last couple of weeks and my milk production appears to have dropped dramatically. My beautiful nights of 8pm-6am are now interrupted for a feed at 3am and whereas my baby used to have a lovely huge feed at 6, it now seems to have have depleted so that she cries in frustration.
What I don't understand is why she latches on and pulls off (ouch) repeatedly when she is feeding even when my breasts are full? In the morning she does this and cries at the same time and feeding takes a long time. Although, eventually she does seem to be satisfied.
I have had to feed her formula, but I have stopped that now. Having said that I tries to top her up last night with formula after breastfeeding to help her go through the night but she refused, laughing instead.
Are there any tricks to getting my milk production back? Will it come back? Why is dd feeding like this when we have have no problems before now atall?
Sorry this is a long post but I am still not 100% and I am really tired, has anyone any suggestions please?

I should add dd is almost 16 weeks!

Please?

I seem to remember that ds went through a bit of a growth spurt at about 16 weeks, so it may not be to do with you having been sick.

Like yours though, he had been sleeping through, but I did have a few days of him waking in the middle of the night for an extra feed - although I think I started waking him between 10 and 12 to give him a feed, woke myself in the middle of the night to express extra (I was actually on a skiiing holiday at the time, so was having to leave milk during the day for the nanny) and then gave him another good feed at between 6 and 7. That helped boost my supply. (I also expressed on the slopes - but that's another story !)

Just have confidence that your supply WILL build. You've stopped the formula, so that is a start. Your boobs might no longer "feel" as full - that doesn't mean that there is not enough in there.

Your dd is getting to the age where she is interested in waht's going on around her - so her pulling off may be more to do with curiosity rathern than dissatisfaction. Why not try taking her off, playing with her for a minute or two and then putting her back on again.

Hi MrsD! (aka karen99 here!) Sorry to hear about the feeding issues. A couple of things here which might help...

a) boobs def start to feel softer after about 3-4mo bf and it's very difficult to judge what's in there.. you just have to trust it.
b) fidgetting on the breast may be related to a woosh of milk at the beginning, but I would have thought an accomplished feeder would be used to this by now. Sometimes fidgetting can happen when milk is low.
c) I found the quickest way (takes about 3-4 days) to up your milk supply is to constantly express in between feeds so the breasts are stimulated to produce more. It's hard work and you do have a demanding baby on your hands for a few days, but the increased milk supply usually becomes more noticeable on the third day. Do you have an electric breast pump? I had an ameda (white double one on RHS of LH picture) and couldn't live without it!

Here are a couple of threads to browse if you you get the chance:
My milk supply has unexpectedly gotten low..! - this one was my experience of exactly the same thing!
Is this is a sign of poor milk supply?
Weaning advice for 5month old - it was around 16wks my ds started to ask for more than just milk..

HTH and let us know how things are going.

Thank you, thank you Jan and Karen. This is very reassuring information. This all points to the fact that it will come back again.
We have just had another feeding session with the latching on and off thing. I had to leave her to cry a bit in the end as I am getting sore. I don't think it's ditraction because she cries in between latching on. I feel the flow is just not fast enough, one is better than the other. I had thought about expressing to stimulate it, I definately will now.
I did wonder if I was pregnant last week, however a test was nagative. I feel sick all the time but I think it's just because I am not well yet. (Infact dm thinks it's demand feeding that's caused me to become ill!! I can't make her understand. Nevermind hey!)

Hi MrsD. Definitely expressing will boost the supply again. I think I even remember someone saying you can start bf again even with a few weeks gap in feeding and it appears to have all disappeared, so please don't fret any more about it completely going. And as I mentioned in one of my threads, starting to feel relaxed again, drinking lots of water (it's so hot at the mo you must remember this) and eating healthily, the supply will increase again.

You can hire the breast pumps, which I remember not being too bad on the wallet. Other people raved about the medela pump, which I think you can get in Boots, but I never used that one. Once you get a pump (manual or elec) it will help to keep dd on the 'good' side and give the other side a break and just express. The machine is much kinder to your nipple - atleast that's what I found! Also, if you don't want to get a pump then just putting dd to the breast every couple of hours will do the same thing. If she 'snacks' for a few days it won't do any harm and you can get back on the routine when things settle down.

Hope you start feeling a bit better. Treat yourself to something nice, you deserve it.

(Ps. Sorry I haven't emailed in ages. Will send you one shortly!)

I used to have one "good" and one "bad" boob. I did try to make myself use both evenly and not favour the "good" boob, so that the bad one wouldn't get worse - but if ds was needing a good feed, I did used to gve him the good one!

In practice, though, he used to consistently need both boobs in a feed (AND was a slow feeder, so it felt like I was forever feeding!), so even if I gave him the bad (ie less good) boob first, he was still going to get a go on the good one.

I really noticed the difference in the amounts I could express from each boob. I used the Avent hand held pump. I found that "tired" my nipples less than the hospital electrical one I borrowed for a while.

Good for you in not being put off by your mother!

Hope you feel better soon.

Thank you ladies - I really do appreciate your help and dd will do too I will stop worrying. I have an Avent Isis hand pump, so I will continue with that at the mo.

Hello Mrs D! I had terrible trouble with dd (now 5.5 months) wriggling on the breast and pulling her head away with nipple still in mouth. It generally happened at night or in the evening so I concluded that she was really hungry but too tired or sleepy to feed properly. Then she would get frustrated and cry some more. I found it really depressing and thought it must be something wrong with me and my nursing (I had real problems with bf in the beginning).

What I did to deal with it was put dd on my shoulder and march up and down as if burping her. This would wake her up a bit more so she'd be better at feeding. I just kept doing it until she would latch on properly. It was awful making her wait, but my nipples couldn't cope otherwise (and the crying really does bring your milk gushing out!)

I found Lanisoh really good for sore nipples. It costs a tenner and you can get if from a big Boots, chemist or Waitrose (baby section). It helps you heal up and soothes the area. I used to wear a shirt with a pocket so I had my tube with me at all times and put it on after every feed.

It is a good idea to eat lots round suspected growth spurts. I was still in maternity clothes when dd was 16 weeks (sigh) so was reluctant to eat lots - however, now 1 stone below pre-pregnancy weight so it is okay to feed yourself up.

Hope this helps. The good news is that dd hardly ever pulls now - only if she's really really tired. Ditto what other people have said about the milk supply - it will increase to match your baby's needs so don't worry about it too much.