Urgent Advice Needed re milk supply

[TALLULAHBELLE]

Urgent advice needed here re B/F. My milk seems to be drying up. My LO has lost weight at every weigh-in and yesterday the m/w advised me to top up with formula. Had been trying to top up with EBM but an hour's pumping gets me barely an ounce which is guzzled in seconds & just not doing the job. Gave her some formula & she then slept for hours, couldn't wake her for next feed & when did eventually get her on the boob she was very half-hearted and barely fed at all. Today she has tried to feed from me but I just don't seem to have anything to give her. She is only 16 days old and I really don't want to stop B/F - is there anything I can do to boost my supply or do I just have to accept that B/F is over for us?

Have you tried pumping LOTS!
It boosted my supply quite a bit but I did it regularly ontop of BF-ing!?

Oh and try to Chill out
Stress will have an effect on your supply!
I know its easier said than done tho

Babymoon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have you taken her for Cranial Osteopathy?

Have you checked for tongue-tie?

When I wanted to increase my supply, my HV suggested putting DS to the breast every hour or so.

Have a look at the La leche league website. Do you have any numbers for bf counsellors? Some are available 24 hours a day so you could call tonight.

Do a search in the archives for the numbers.

Good luck!

the best way to boost supply is to keep on feeding.
Make sure you have lots of skin to skin with her, take a nice bath with her, just keep her close. Feed as often as you can- don't push it if she isn't interested, but feed as much as poss.
if you supplement with formula then your supply is likely to drop even further as baby won't be stimulating the extrea milk that she needs.

pumping never worked for me, just feeding constantly, hubbie took time off work and looked after the others while I went to bed and fed ds, after 4 weeks I grudgingly allowed a bottle, third child first bottle, but it was not the end of B/F it was just a top up 1 or 2 bottles a day, if you arent ready to introduce a bottle then hang on in there,

how much weight has she lost? is she weeing and pooing on days when you don't give formula?

whatever the answer though, stop the expressing - I only ever got an ounce or so and I've breastfed 2 babies exclusively to 6 months. I think some women just pump better than others or something. pumping for an hour must really stress you out.

babies also do sometimes seem more fussy and it may not be anything to do with your milk supply. it might be though - can you call a breastfeeding counsellor?

Can you spend the day in bed , with lots fo skin to skin contact to try and get her feed as much as she shows any interest. formula may well just skew the demand /supply process so unless you pump at regular intervals if you substitute feeds your supply will diminish. A breast feeding counsellor could check your positioning to ensure she is feeding properly.

How often have you been feeding (bf) her? Has she lost weight continually since birth, or gained at any stage?

It's a fallacy that how much you can express is indicative of actual supply.

The only really effective way to boost supply is to feed, feed, feed. Lots of skin-to-skin contact. Put her to your breast whenever she stirs or cries. Feeding should be done in preference to expressing, as it is far more efficient. 16 days is not too late to turn it around!

but in general, as the others say, keep on feeding.

also don't believe that because she guzzles a bottle that she needs it. I made that error with dd and did stop breastfeeding before I was ready. It can happen.

oh darling, it can be so hard can't it?
My advice is to keep on going - lots of skin to skin contact in between feeding
Offer boob ALL of the time - every half hour to one hour
Keep giving babe option to take boob even if you don't think she wants it. The more they have it the better the milk supply
Limiting to every few hours won't bring milk supply in well enough
keep us posted with how you get on
Cpongrats on new babe and well done you
x

How are you feeling - knackered, stressed, are you eating? milk supply is all totally dependent on you, so you need to take care of yourself, get some sleep/nap time and eat decent meals (and some chocolate) to boost energy making milk supplies. I would say DO NOT PANIC, you are not failing at breast feeding, it sounds like LO is latching on and feeding fine, so you are doing everything right. Babies patterns change all the time in the first year, one minute they are hungry the next not interested and it changes every few days. Just keep doing as your doing and things will even out. But please remember to take care of yourself.

it took ds3 over 3 weeks to regain his birthweight (not sure how long cos i stopped the weighing). mw told me to ff as i was def not making enough milk. i ignored her and he is now still excl bf at 4.5 months. lovely hv told me to look at the baby, not the scales - have you met your hv yet? if you get a good one it might be worth talking to her as mine said mw want baby to regain birthweight so they can discharge you, hv see you longer so not as much rush. i cant express btw, takes me ages to even get half an ounce but i know i am producing fine!

fruit cake, that was what my health visitor recommended

Oh, I was a rubbish expresser too. ds had a phase of breast refusal - cue me sitting for bl**dy hours on an industrial Medela to get a measly couple of oz. It meant 3 1/2 weeks of mixed feeding. But at 4 weeks he had his last ever bottle, was excl bf to 6 1/2 months and is bf to this day

Eating well doesn't actually directly influence supply, but is very, very important all the same. Newborns are exhausting and bf can be exhausting.

Thanks for advice folks.Will keep trying & see if can LO was 3.12kg @ birth, was 2.96 when left hosp. Initially put on well in first few days home but then I got really bad mastisis & think milk was just not getting through. She is now down to 2.98. I have tried to b/f her all day- she will latch on, feed for 5-10 min then just lay there with boob in her mouth giving very occasional suck. She has good p&a as had lot of help with that in hosp. & m/w has checked too.
berolina when u say mixed feeding do you mean breast & bottle with EBM or breast & formula? I have already given formula top up cos couldn't get enough with the pump & m/w panicked me by saying baby not thriving & need to get some calories into her immed.

Tallulah - contact one of the bf helplines first thing tomorrow...you are right to be concerned about this and to consider ways of turning it round.

Stress will not affect your milk supply, fortunately (CakeandFineWine's post), but you do need the chance to talk this whole thing through.

Hiya, Really well done for not just giving up - it is so horrible when you're worrying about whether your baby's getting enough to eat but it's such a good idea to seek as much information as possible before making a decision that is very hard to reverse.

Pumping can be really depressing - it takes ages, doesn't get much out, can make your breasts sore and worst of all convinces you you've not got enough milk. That's because babies are far far more efficient at propelling milk out with their tongues and lower jaw than the pump is at sucking it out. On top of that there's the hormone reflex - it can be really hard to fake the 'let down' reflex that really gets the milk flowing down from all the milk sacs to the areola.

If you can possibly get 'time out' to retreat to bed with your little one and let her feed as often as she wants for as long as she wants (do heed sensible advice about co-sleeping such as not using pillows and preferably using sheet and blankets rather than a duvet). Spend as much time as possible in close contact (maybe a sling or front pack?), letting her nuzzle in close to you even when she's not actually feeding. That should help super-charge your hormones and within about 24 hours your body will have responded to the extra demands she's making for milk by producing it.

Some people find that bottles, either of EBM or formula, make babies less keen on the breast because they have to work for their milk from you (which is good because it opens the tubes in their ears, which is why bottlefed babies are much more likely to get ear infections). If this seems to be the case, it's better to reintroduce a bottle later once breastfeeding's fully established - around 6-8 weeks.

All the very best with it and definitely call a helpline or find a breastfeeding support group in your area. There are a couple of really good sites you could look at too. This is the help and support page for a site run by a Breastfeeding Network Supporter and this is recommended by our local breastfeeding support group: kellymom. The NCT b'fg line is 0870 444 8708 or La Leche League is 0845 120 2918. As almost everyone on here has said, it can really help to talk things through with someone. Go well!

your midwife telling you to top up with formula shows that she is not supportive of your wish to breastfeed. Instead, she should have put you in touch with a breast feeding counsellor. Do as tiktok recommended first thing in the a.m. and call one of the bf helplines.

ABM 08444 122 949
BFN 08700 604233
NCT 0870 444 8707
LLL 0845 120 2918.

I had the same problem and had Maxolon to start the flow in the first place. I was feeding three hourly for 45 minutes each side at one point BUT I ended up breastfeeding for nine months.

In hospital he was formula topped up and everything was fine - but maybe that was because my milk hadn't yet come in.

DONT GIVE UP & topping up isn't necessarily the end of the world - Avent teets have a really natural shape - the only thing was that my son got a touch lazy and tried to avoid sucking but he got over it fairly quickly.

I'm in Australia, and don't know if it's available where you are but if it is a supply issue there are natural drops called Goats Rew and Fenugreek that REALLY work to get supply up after a cold or something. DO NOT overuse as it is really effective and you'll be really sore.

Good luck & it will get better (one way or another), "try" to relax and enjoy you staring down at your little one - put on nice music or a DVD or something and relax those shoulders.

Cheers

M

Hi Tallulah

I'll post this on the pg thread as well in case, but QMH breastfeeding support number is 0141-201 0110. I've heard very good things about them, so definitely worth giving them a call (I think WO got some help from them when DD was tiny, didn't she?)

tallo - posted on other thread. i think i have emailed you with my home number.

all i can say is - do not give up!!!!!! you need support on this but it will prob be ok. ther is loads of advic eon egting supply back up. it is different for everyone but -- ii helped mine by havign the baby on teh boob alot and hwner she wasnt - i expressed (even if it was only a few drops) it helped.

woudl rather meet and chat?? giev me a call honey

I think you have had lots of great advice here but one thing to consider is night feeds. Is lo waking regularly at night to feed or is she a sleepy baby? Feeding lots at night at her age is very important as it builds your supply. I know it is awful to wake up if you don't have to but if she is doing a long stretch can you pump in the night as well? You have to balance doing this with the sleep deprevation thing as being too exhausted makes things worse.

tallulah...hope you manages to speak to a BF counsellor today and are getting some help to get things back on track.

Take care and rest up and babymoon. I babymooned with babyboo for a week and it got the bf off to a flying start.

Hope you feel more positive about things today
luv daisyxx

Thanks everyone - HV was here today, she didn't really have any advice tho wasn't worried at all about baby's weight & says she is healthy & alert. Have phoned my hosp & made appt to see b/f support person tomorrow. She advised me over phone - contradicting what had been told to do by m/w about topping up with formula. Also said that due to having had mastisis I wouldn't be able to take whatever they usually give to boost supply. Will see what happens tomorrow & will definitely give all your helpful suggestions a go.