Baby not gaining enough weight been told to top up with formula

[ZoeCl]

Just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience to this and has any advice. I seem to have a low milk supply but no one really knows why. My baby is two weeks old, and breastfeeding got off to a really great start (or so I thought) his output seems really good, lots of wet nappies and poos, he feeds a lot, some days it's constantly but I figured he's just building my supply. We do loads of skin to skin and I've had his latch checked several times and it's perfect, no issues with tongue tie or anything in his mouth, no issues with my breasts and yet we get to the two week measurements and he hasn't regained his birth weight (he did gain weight though, but only 100g) so I've been told to top up each feed with formula. Instead so far I've now added in pumping after nearly every feed but I only get 15ml or half an ounce altogether from both breasts (15mins a side) and it's now getting pretty exhausting as that seems like it's still not enough. Yesterday he was feeding literally non stop for 9 hours aside from when I pumped between those feeds and my husband took him to burp him. Ended up with only 30ml/1oz of expressed milk to top up with after the hours of feeding and he was still acting ravenous and my boobs were aching and coming up empty by this point so I finally gave him the formula and he ended up drinking 50ml of that and then he finally fell asleep for four hours. So I guess my question is, what else can I do?? Is it just not possible for me to make enough milk? Also my breasts never get firm as though they are full. Never have - one side sometimes will get firm lumps like after he slept for the four hours. But never properly firm. I'm worried it seems like everything works but the milk just runs out too quickly no matter what I do... Oh I also do use nipple shields at the moment but my lactation consultant said they aren't interfering as his latch is good and when he pops off they are full of milk and milk is leeking from his mouth. So everything looks like there's milk there but he's not gaining the weight and he isn't ever satisfied :/

So sorry you're going through this OP, I know from experience that it's so stressful when your baby isn't gaining enough weight despite everything on paper looking normal.

It's great that you have a proper lactation consultant supporting you as they'll be able to give you the best advice. Based on the IBCLCs I've spoken to (many!) they won't advise you top up unnecessarily, but they do take weight gain seriously.

There's been good advice already but just a couple of things to add:

When you say checked for tongue tie, was this done by someone properly qualified and was it a full oral assessment? TT can be easily missed especially in the early days, but very frequent feeding combined with slow weight gain can be a red flag.

Re low supply, it's rare but not impossible as some people will have you believe. Do you have any risk factors for low supply, eg PCOS, thyroid problems, gestational diabetes? Is there any possibility you have insufficient glandular tissue? (Again, rare but not unheard of!)

I hope you get some help from this thread as well as lots of real life support.