can your milk supply start to dry up?long sorry x

[harryruby]

i feel like i need to give you a bit of background info.dd is 14wk old.been bf since birth,but at 10wkish she was found to have reflux which doc gave me gaviscon to give her after feeds. when i give it her with water and syringe she spits it back,shes fine if you mix it in a bottle of ebm and manages to keep milk down. now iv settled into a routine with her of 2-3 bf between 7.30am-12pm and then 8oz ebm then 2-3 bf between 2.30pm-6pm and then 7oz of sma staydown milk at 7pm. im not over keen on giving her formula but i cant express enough for 2 bottles a day and i want her to keep some feeds down. i express at 10pm roughly 4oz then another 4-5oz about 4am for her midday bottle. i feel like my supply is drying up though because my boobs never feel full these days and sometimes its a struggle to get even 2-3oz off when expressing.also i was going through 3 boxes of bpads a wk now im lucky if i use 1 box as i dont leak v.much. sorry it was long, thanks for reading. some reassurance needed x

harryruby - everything you are experiencing goes with the territory of established breastfeeding:

less leaking - normal
softer breasts - normal
less production when expressing - normal

there is a lot in the archives on this, and a current thread, too. You can also get an explanation of it at the wonderful kellymom site - one of the relevant pages is here

Having said that, you'll support a good, continued supply better if you can feed more often....but with 4-6 feeds a day plus 2 expressings, you will probably be ok, now that everything is, as I say, established. One concern might be however that because your expressing is not as productive (normal, as I say) you'll give more formula and this will lead to less bf, so this would be something to watch.

But no, you are not drying up

Leaking and fullness does tail off once your supply is established and is no indicator fo how much milk is available. Similalry expressing is an art in itself , I rarely got more than a few oz's , amount is more technique than supply, but managed to feed both mine until over a year. tbh it would be more effective for your supply to b'feed her direct as the whole expressing lark, especially at 4am , must be a faff perhaps you could compromise and use formula , or gaviscon/thickener in regular formula/ebm and gradually increase the b'feeds in between. You may well find the reflux eases enough for her suddenly to cope better. Have you spoken to a bfc, she may be abel to help re upright feeding positions to minimise the reflux. I found feeding less more often helpful. 8 oz in a refluxy baby of whatever age seems a lot to me. dd never took more than 4 even much older, and a recipe for it to come straight back. hth

thanks for replys. im going to try her with two bottles of 4oz trough the day rather than one 8oz bottle,but the prob is that shes so greedy. iv given her 8oz before in one go and she then wants a top up off me

harryruby - not sure why you are expressing and giving bottles at all. I understand you want her to have the gaviscon, and you feel she only takes it in a bottle. Reflux is something babies grow out of, so it may be an idea to try dropping the gaviscon and the expressing and seeing what happens!