Problems with milk supply

[Flaya]

I have a problem with my low milk supply. My baby was born via ventouse, I had retained placenta and was separated from my baby for an hour after birth, she also had jaundice which made her very sleepy and tongue tie which was cut. She is now almost 11 weeks (very small, not much heavier than when she was born) and we’ve been on a feeding plan since she was 8 weeks. I am topping her up with 360 ml of formula over 24h although sometimes I give her a bit more. For the last 10 days I wasn’t able to express every three hours and I think it really affected my milk supply, my baby is also not very effective at sucking, she doesn’t feed at night as she falls asleep and I feel like my milk supply currently is really really low 😔 I am very determined to breastfeed but I don’t know how realistic it is to increase my supply to the point of exclusively breastfeeding. I bought 2 wireless breast pumps and I’m very determent to express every three hours. Is there anyone with a similar situation or anyone that managed to increase their milk supply significantly, especially at 11 weeks? Or is it too late and I should just switch to full time bottle feeding?

Are you offering the breast more often than 3 hours?

Does she fall asleep at the breast even in the day?

The baby will be better than the pump BUT eat oats, drink lots of water, take time to relax and recoup. Once you’ve got some energy has your pump got a few different settings? Ones to increase vacuum and cycle so that it mimics what baby would do.
I also found looking at a picture of my baby was key, a cute one, the hormones just released and the milk started flowing.

@Flaya congrats on your baby. It sounds like you had a bit of a traumatic start!

My little girl (now 15 months) had tongue tie, high roof of mouth and really poor latch and even with her tongue tie separated at about 8 weeks I still topped up.

I was advised to top up small amounts after every feed rather than 1 or two big bottles a day. It's easier to express 30/40mls for the next top up rather than 100's of mls for a full bottle. I actually gave up with trying to express for top ups as I found I had no time between feeding and expressing.

We carried on top ups till about 7 months when, with weaning and introduction of some water, my little girl was ok with just milk from me. I'm still feeding her at 15 months although I do offer her a milk bottle in the evening after a boob feed and sometimes she has it, sometimes not.

If you haven't seen a lactation consultant then please see if you can, mine found me the "koala hold" for feeding and that was a godsend, I wouldn't have carried on without it.

At the end of the day, only you can make the decision of which way to go, I've described my daughters journey, but I also have a 17 year old 6ft tall son who was bottle fed all the way due to severe tongue tie and he is absolutely fine and no one cares or asks how he was fed as a baby 😀