Tiny amounts of breast milk - is it still beneficial?

[Sleepingbeauty2510]

Hello. I'm currently only producing a few mls of breast milk that I hand express (I was producing more but had to stop pumping and can't breast feed but that's a long story).
Is there anyone knowledgeable out there that knows if the baby still benefits from getting tiny amounts of breast milk (surely some is better than none?). Or if it's just pointlesd? Online it says as little as 50ml can be beneficial but can't find anything about smaller amounts. FYI I'm still giving formula so I'm not starving my baby! Thanks in advance

Any milk is beneficial but I found pumping very hard, one thing that might help if you do want to continue expressing is not looking at how much you are producing. You can stress yourself whilst expressing/pumping of you don't think there enough coming out and the stress hormones can then inhibit milk production so it's a vicious cycle. Some Mums get more out if they express into a small bottle which is covered by a baby sock and watch tv whilst they are doing it.

Having said all of that though, baby will be getting the nutrition they need from the formula.

Any and all is beneficial OP. So keep going!

Yes for reasons of immunity?

If you pump more your supply should increase, if that is your hope. Do it more often whilst feeding your baby from a bottle/cuddling.

Yes! Keep going and it'll improve. Take care of yourself, keep hydrated and try not to stress.

Skin to skin will help, holding baby as much as possible, looking at pictures of baby when expressing, massage breasts while expressing. As babies get older they twiddle the other nipple while feeding which stimulates milk increase.

Try to eat and rest as much as possible.

You're doing amazing and any milk you can offer will be wonderful for baby xx

Have a look at the Facebook group Exclusively Pumping UK Mums, they give loads of great advice!

I'm sure it is, breastmilk is amazing, keep going if you can!

You mentioned you was pumping more OP. How old is LO? Are you trying to regain supply again?

If so I know someone who had to stop suddenly after 8 weeks (due to severe illness). She had help from family looking after baby and spent whole days pumping on and off (not constantly 😂) and managed to get her supply back. This was about 12/13 weeks after baby was born.

It was hard work but she done it within a few weeks.

I was in what sounds a similar situation. Tiny amounts of milk. No amount of skin to skin/pumping etc improved supply . Looking back I'd say if you want to then do it, don't think too much about value of the expressed milk. And if you dont then don't. I got in a downward spiral where I was just frantically trying to improve supply all the time what with pumping and wotnot and basically used up nearly all my maternity leave focused on this one project when I could have spent much better time with baby and family.

Thanks everyone. I don't breastfeed. Was exclusively pumping successfully for nearly two months but then baby had feeding issues, I was sleep deprived and also started getting mastitis so decided to stop expressing completely and felt so relieved. DS exclusively on formula since but now I'm in a better place mentally and physically I'd like to see if I can give him breast milk again. But I'm only make a tiny amount currently. I'm going to see if my supply increases but if it doesn't then it's no big deal as baby is happy and thriving on formula.

You're doing awesome.

If you feel up to it then definitely keep doing what you're doing. Of course, if it becomes a stressful situation for you again then it's no worries if you stop as LO is doing so well!

I pumped for a few weeks when my son was born early. My supply dried up to almost nothing. It's beneficial to baby I'm sure but it wasn't to my physical and mental health so I and to give up. I'm glad I did.

Can I ask how you stopped? Was it cold turkey? I'm currently 5 months in BF and want to start thinking of how to stop. I've tried to replace a feed with formula at different times if the day and can't seem to get the hang of that (so about 4 weeks wasted trying that) I had a blocked duct before and it was so sore which I'd adding to the fear. Really unsure the best way to go about it now 😞

I went cold turkey. I also had blocked ducts and they were so painful. I managed to massage the lumps out in the shower and slightly hand expressed while in there if I was uncomfortable but it passed within a day or so. I didn't hand express much though as didn't want to keep the supply going.

I was much happier once I stopped pumping.

I did it gradually over a few days I think. So I was only pumping just to relieve the full feeling so I was comfortable but that was it. And going longer stretches in between pumps. I was already about 50/50 formula to breastmilk so didn't have a full supply anyway.

Have been wondering this myself - found online that breastfeeding or mixed feeding in the first two months "reduced the risk of SIDS by half" - which you have already done! I believe the amount of antibodies in breastmilk becomes more concentrated the less you have, but to my knowledge there is no research on amounts smaller than 50ml (may have seen this on Kelly Mom?). I don't see why this shouldn't hold true for smaller amounts though0? Lastly, I think the live cultures in breastmilk might act like a shot of yakult - just my surmising though. As yakults etc cone in tiny amount (relative to an adult), and the company would have you believe that's worthwhile. Basically, there's not enough research to say for certain either way, but there's no reason to think it doesn't have any benefits.

On a side note (and I might get flamed for this), a lot of the supposed benefits of breastmilk, come from poor studies which basically didn't control for a lot of other variables. So once you factored in socio-economic factors, breastmilk WASN'T shown to make any difference for example to adult IQ scores. There is however evidence it reduces infections whilst breastfeeding. But it really isn't the be all and end all. If you don't want to continue, give yourself permission to stop.

On a side note (and I might get flamed for this), a lot of the supposed benefits of breastmilk, come from poor studies which basically didn't control for a lot of other variables. So once you factored in socio-economic factors, breastmilk WASN'T shown to make any difference for example to adult IQ scores. There is however evidence it reduces infections whilst breastfeeding. But it really isn't the be all and end all. If you don't want to continue, give yourself permission to stop.

Can you posts the links to this please??

I saw this on another thread. The benefits are there OP but it's obviously up to you.

https://lactationnetwork.com/blog/the-benefits-of-breastfeeding-a-timeline-for-the-ages/

@SiouxsieSiouxStiletto I read a book called Cribsheet about the data on all sorts of "hot topics" in parenting, looking at the data in the studies. Very interesting and informative (to me at least!). But here is a link explaining it, by the same author
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jun/20/is-breast-really-best-i-looked-at-all-the-data-to-find-out

Not quite as detailed an explanation as the book from what I recall, but outlines the main point, with some references.