I have a 4week old and am attempting to breastfeed, and am at my wits end. I EBF for the first week and 1/2 roughly, and baby was losing too much weight and feeding constantly, never seeming satisfied. So, I started combi feeding, partially also to give myself a break as I felt really down and overwhelmed by it.
I've assumed I have a really low milk supply, so have been trying to higher it by pumping and breastfeeding, always needing to offer her a bottle after BF, as she's still starving. I am trying to research fast and slow flows, and cannot figure out what is going on. There's no information on how to know you have a slow milk flow out there, so I'm unsure.
I latch baby and she suckles and starts swallowing quite quickly, but then slows down. She also pants a lot while feeding and falls asleep, but I have found when leaning back she doesn't pant as much (no her nose isn't covered). After the initial let down she does a lot of sucks before swallowing, and after about 10-15mins she usually pops off the breast, and I was switching her to the other side. However, I have trialled putting her back on the same breast incase I have a fast letdown and she isn't getting the hindmilk, but she eventually just gets frustrated and pops off more and more, and starts screaming, then has some formula.
Today I've fed for about 2hrs with maybe a 5min break halfway, trying to see if she will be satisfied, and ended up in tears feeding her a bottle. I feel so deflated. Please if anyone has advice, I'd greatly appreciate it, as I'm so close to giving up on BF but really really don't want to.