Expressing- can't keep up with demand!

[Tissy]

I've looked for this in the archive, but I can't find an answer to this specific point...

DD is now 6 months old, at nursery full-time and drinking around 14 oz of milk a day plus taking about 3 tbs of solids-mostly veg puree- for lunch.(You may remember me whingeing previously that she wouldn't take anything from a bottle...). My problem is that try as I might,I can't express 14 oz while I'm at work- I average around 10-12 oz. This means that my stockpile is gradually diminishing, and I'm starting to feel rather insecure about it!! DD is offered a bottle of EBM at lunchtime before her solids, and usually takes 3-4 oz, then the solids, and then another 2-3oz. Should I ask them to give her the solids before the milk, or to give her water to drink with her lunch(although I haven't succeeded in persuading her to drink the stuff!), or send in some formula as a lunchtime drink?? Alternatively I've thought about a course of domperidone to boost the supply for a while?

Any comments would be appreciated

14oz is a lot to express at one go, every day. Could you express a couple of ounces first thing in the morning and some over the weekend to top things up?

With the amount you are expressing you do not need domperidone. Definately give her the solids before the EBM. Also you can up the solids to 2 courses. If she won't take water try fruit juice.
You have to be congratulated for managing to continue to B/F for all this time. You do not need to give her formula at all. You could also start increasing her solids by starting them at other meal times.
I remember sometimes not having quite enough expressed for a night shift because dd would usually take 7 oz when I was working. I just cheated and topped up what I got ( 5.5oz sometimes) with water !! She didn't know thw difference. Much better than starting formula

My ds continued to drink loads of EBM while at the childminder - none of this "storing up" for a big feed when I got back after work. In the later months (I bf till he was 13 months, although from 12 months gave the childinder cow's milk fro during the day) I was not managing to express enough during the day to keep up, so also had to use my stock pile.

I did two thing - at first what I did (some may be horrified at this) was water down one of his bottles (I would give the child minder 2 6 fl.oz. bottles of EBM - and one I would dilute so he got about 10 fl.oz). Once he was drinking water on its own, I stopped doing this. I was also comfortable doing this because I knew roughly how much he drank at a feed (from having given him alternate feeds of EBM for a period when we were worried about his weight gain), (for example, his 7am feed was about 10 fl.oz. - confirmed when I had to leave early on business trips by the bottle of EBM that he would drink from dh and by the amount I would express to "relieve" myself) so I knew he was still getting plenty of breast milk.

The other thing I did was to do extra expressing sessions at weekends. He never seemed to "need" as much feeding with me as with the childminder, so he didn't seem to mind not getting fed quite as much, which gave me some "spare" milk to add to the stockpile!

When he stopped needing a 10/11 pm feed, I continued for a while to use this time to express extra for him - however the "supply" quickly diminished, so the effort stopped being worthwhile.

Glad to see Mear also "cheated" by topping up with water!

Glad to see Mear also "cheated" by topping up with water!

That wasn't a deliberate double post (and sorry for missing the "s" off of your name Mears!) - my pc claimed on the first attempt that it couldn't make a connection with the server.

No offence taken

Enid-I'm not expressing that amount in one go!! I'm lucky that on a couple of days a week I'm left to my own devices at work, so can fit in several sessions. The 10-12 oz are usually the result of three sessions at roughly 8am, midday and 3.30pm.

Mears- I'll ask the nursery to give the solids first now, and try a little fruit juice, maybe. She does get "breakfast" and "tea" but usually only takes a couple of tsps of whatever she's offered. This leads me to suspect that the nursery are chucking my lovingly prepared purees down the sink and telling me she's eaten them, but they wouldn't would they??

Remember the watered down EBM as a drink after solids if you don't want to introduce juice. Janz and I used the same technique. It means she is getting milk and being introduces to water as you can increasingly make the EBM more dilute so she doesn't notice she is getting water. Got to be smart thinking with these babies

Yes- I will water down her milk if the other things don't work- I'm not violently opposed to juice, just don't really want her to get used to drinking sweet stuff (OK- i know breast milk is quite sweet, but you know what I mean!). Felt a bit lazy this weekend, and couldn't be bothered to make any purees, so DD was offered choc mousse out of a jar- she turned up her nose and DH wolfed it down!!!

Today I felt really pleased with myself- by some Herculean effort, I managed to express 15 oz.

Nursery phoned at 3.30pm to say that she'd run out of milk- I'd sent in 2 7oz bottles and a 4oz frozen "emergency" bottle- she'd guzzled the lot!!

No way can I express that amount in an 8 hour day at work, so tomorrow she's getting porridge before milk for breakfast, extra solids for lunch, and a nice bottle of dilute apple juice to wash it down with. Unfortunately she didn't think much of her first taste of apple juice this evening, even though she loves apple puree!

Message withdrawn

Update- the slurping has almost stopped- she only does it occasionally now and stops if I take her off and look stern!! Mears was right again

Now another thing, any one know why my left boob appears to be drying up? For the last two days I've been expressing at work as per usual and have only been able to get an ounce or so out at a time, even after a good let-down sensation. The right one produces 3-4 oz no problem! DD ate virtually no solids this weekend- change of routine, too hot, God knows what reason, and consequently bf more than usual. I was therefore expecting that I'd get an increase in my expressed volume, rather than a decrease! Today I tried to express every couple of hours with no nticeable improvement, and tomorrow I'll be lucky to get two sessions in an 8 hour day.

Any suggestions?

Sorry, the slurping problem was another thread- perhaps I should have one entitled Tissy's BF problems!!

You can get into psychological turmoil here. When left boob doesn't produce you start to get worried that it isn't going to produce next time - when it doesn't you worry more and so it goes on.
I got very little from the left but lots from the right. I always switched sides when the milk flow stopped and never wasted time expressing 10 mins each side for example. So when the left started dribbling again I switched back to the right. Try massaging the milk forward to the nipple area prior to expressing. You probably don't make a point of doing that any more because you are so proficient. Try and nor get uptight over it - it will sort itself out even if it means that the right side is going to be the main producer. You are not losing your milk - just nature playing 'silly beggars'. Have you known me to be wrong

Your increased milk production will probably only be about to start kicking in now in response to the extra feeds over the weekend.

Thanks, mears do you ever go to bed?

I really do think that I am starting to need help - I am still clicking on whenever I pass the computer for a quick look then ending up posting on lots of threads. I like night time because my kids are in bed. When I post really late it is because dh is on night shift. I really must get a grip

Kids are watching a video just now and I am still in my nightie - how sad it that