Milk demand in evening

[hoorayforharoldlloyd]

We are mixed feeding, one bottle of formula between 9 and 12 at night while i sleep, the rest breastfed. This was fine but in the last week or so he's been crying around 8, has a breastfeed but keeps crying until he has a bottle, having a full feed.

My baby was premature so i was warned my milk supply might be an issue of an evening as my body will have mistaken the demand at 6 weeks as the regular demand, when he was still quite small then. Should i just accept that he might have 2 bottles a night as he will still be 80% breastfed or is there anything i can do about evening supply? He seems happy with feeds the rest if the time (feeding usually every 1.5 hours in day and 2 hours at night).

I was expressing to build milk supply at the start but only got tiby amounts, like 30ml, and am currently using a hakaa if i miss a feed to avoid engorgement.

Thanks for any thoughts - i cant decide if I'm just creating a problem for my baby as i know this is starting to annoy my partner who i would rather just give him a bottle immediately when this happens whereas i try to calm him first or offer breast again - which sometimes works.

Most babies want to cluster feed in the evenings. How old is he? I'd just breastfeed again.

Have you spoken to La Leche League or a lactaction consultant? They can be really helpful.

The important thing is that he's fed, and if a bottle does that, that's good too. If you do want to feed more, though, it's worth persisting a bit and you can build supply up a lot. It helps to feed little and very often, and check when you're expressing. If you get engorged, have you tried feeding him first before expressing? Another thing that helped me when my supply was low with ds2 was to lie in bed with him for a good few hours in the evening, watching Netflix and just feeding on and off (the lactation consultant called it a babymoon...), the relaxation and frequent feeding helped...

Good luck!

Settle in for the evening with a good supply of drinks and switch from one side to the other when they start to fuss. DD cluster fed like that for hours in the evening when she was smaller, I often didn’t manage to put her down between 8 and midnight, then it’s got gradually shorter to maybe an hour now at 5 months.

Yep just settle in and breast feed for a few nights-it won’t take your body long to match supply to demand.

Thanks all for quick replies! Will try settling in for cluster feeding. I have done this a few times alreadt but it didn't seem to stop the upsets - any ideas on how long it takes to see any difference?
He's 10 weeks but was 7 weeks prem. It was a lactation consultant who warned me that something like this might happen.

Will see how it goes and if its too stressy/he still seems upset, will make my peace with offering an additional bottle on the nights he seems to need it.

If you let him cluster feed at night then it will up your supply at that time. It's worth a shot.

If you miss a feed then you need to actively express, a HAAKAA doesn’t stimulate it just collects let down unfortunately. Getting a cheap electric pump or manual might be worth it (the Amazon bellababy is reasonably priced and good) or have a look online.

My baby has mixed feeds also and definitely finds bottles easiest, often panicking me into refusing breast for bottles. The 10 week mark was the worst for this but it soon passed and I just got with the cluster feeds. Back to my point, look up paced feeding - simply stops a breast fed baby developing too much of a bottle preference by making it a supply and demand rather than free flow.

You could do the breast feed first then bottle for your last evening feed, it’s then more of a top up than a full feed. If you also only have to do a slight top up you could consider splitting the amount into 3/4 bottles after a breast feed to encourage your own supply to catch back up to fully remove the bottles... please ignore this if it’s a medical nessecity to add in the formula amount.