Has anyone increased breast milk supply successfully at 11 weeks?

[LivelyPombear]

Has anyone successfully increased their supply at 11 weeks?

My baby was born 6 weeks early, and since being home has been combo fed. 4 bottles of formula 6 hourly and the rest breastfeeding on demand. I removed one bottle and she is still gaining well on her percentile with lots of wet nappies.

The formula she is on, nutriprem2, doesn’t really agree with her and so i’ve decided to ditch formula completely and just breastfeed. I’m trying this for two weeks and will top up with expressed milk.

Im just worried the jump will be too much and i’ll never have enough milk. Or will my body adapt to her needs?

Oh OP this is so tough for you. I went through similar with my son with an undersupply. It's so emotionally and physically tough.

Have you spoken to a lactation consultant? Where I live they have free NHS drop in clinics once a week for breastfeeding mums that you can go along to and speak to a specialist - that would be my starting point.

They showed me some good techniques and also gave me good advice about pumping and positioning that made it all more manageable. The woman I saw was also really supportive emotionally and respectful of what realistically worked for me in terms of pumping etc.

Are you doing any kind of pumping at the moment? The best pump I found was the Spectra - I was on a routine where I had to pump, breastfeed and formula feed every 3 hours day and night. From what I learned, that is what you have to do if you want to increase supply. It's possible, but hard.

I never managed to get my supply up because ultimately that pumping regime wasn't manageable for me. We eventually went to full formula feeding, but it did help me to breastfeed for a little bit longer than I would have - and every drop is so good for the baby.

It was so emotionally tough - I saw myself as someone who would exclusively breastfeed for at least a year, so that was hard to come to terms with. Make sure you are looking after your emotional health as well because it's really not easy.

If you do eventually need to go back to formula, try a goat milk one. Kendamil or Nannycare. This sorted out all kinds of issues for my boy who also struggled with Aptamil, SMA etc. He doesn't have a dairy allergy or anything but the goat milk is more similar to breast milk and gentler on their tummies.

I would drop 2oz of formula a day and you will need to let her nurse for comfort as well as to eat to build up your supply quickly. Supply will increase but it cannot increase so much overnight. It increases anyway from 0-6 months so it can be done.

I had to go into hospital for surgery so used a tummy medication which definitely helped. That was 16 years go - a domaparine product

Thank you for this. I stopped pumping as much which I think has led to a lower supply. When I dropped one bottle of formula it took three days for my baby to not need a top up so i’m confident (or at least trying to be!) that my supply will catch up. I’ve started to pump again at 6am and i think once that’s routine i’ll add another pump in at bedtime. I use the spectra and momcozy m9, both give me a similar output. Although i do miss the medula pump from when she was in nicu!

Ive been to a few drop ins to help with latch, she’s so small I think it’s more a issue with her size so i hope the latch continues to improve. I know she has a tongue tie too so i’ve chased up the referral which was apparently done…

On formula, i was thinking of a goat version. Probably kendamil as it’s slightly cheaper. Which one did you end up using?

Oh yes, we had tongue tie too. 100% get that sorted asap and chase up the referral. It did help with latch for us and it's a minor procedure.

With pumping, I would try to up it if you can. They literally had me doing it 8x a day (every 3 hours) for 30 minutes at a time, and also 'power pumping' a couple of times a day, where I would do it for 60 minutes. It was intense (and realistically I did more like 6x a day because it was just too much). It did increase my supply a bit, but I just couldn't keep up with it. My supply was really low though. It sounds like yours is a bit better but still, the more you pump the more it will increase.

How much are you getting when you pump if you don't mind sharing?

For formula, we did end up going with the Nannycare because it just had such rave reviews. I had a friend whose baby had similar issues to mine who had great success with it. It worked for us. My son is 9 months old now and we are keeping him on it until he's a year. He thrives on it and have had no issues, he's been 100% formula fed since 4.5 months and honestly he's doing great. Every big brand cow milk formula we tried gave him silent reflux and pain.

We never tried the Kendamil - I did a lot of research between the two and the Nannycare is better quality, so we just went for it. It's expensive though. If it's too much, the Kendamil will also be absolutely fine, and is definitely worth trying. Goat milk protein is just so much gentler on their little tummies.

Your body may well be able to do this - I did similar when dc1 was 4mo (although she wasn't premature, I'm so sorry for what you've been through).

Commit to stay mostly at home for about a week. Spend all your time semi topless and latch baby on constantly like every several minutes. Swap breasts very frequently- this is the most important bit. LRLRLR like under 5min per side. Do not wear a bra. Don't express, just latch on. This is the traditional way to increase supply and it really worked for me.

It can be done but you will need to set aside a good few days and do nothing much else apart from breastfeed. Get as much rest as you can and eat and drink plenty.
Top up with expressed/formula only if the baby seems genuinely hungry after feeding, always offer breast first.
I wouldn’t bother with expressing unless baby won’t feed, babies are better and stimulating milk production than a pump

Thank you, this is reassuring. My biggest worry was it’s not physically possible and i’ll be wasting my time! To note i’m not against formula, it just doesn’t agree with her and i want to try end before looking at other formulas. I have lots of frozen milk for top ups and express (normally get 120ml in the morning) but will move to goat formula as and when needed.

I read through lots of old threads with advice but the OP never reported back on what worked and what didnt. I’ll report back on how it all goes to hopefully help someone in the future

As others said, I'd plan to stay home for a few days and focus on having baby on the boob as much as possible. I wouldn't worry about pumping, it's also not indicative of supply. Every time I pumped I barely got anything but mine was EBF and has grown fine.

I loved my knock off mom cozy wearable. Have you been on the exclusivelypumping sub reddit? They're great for advise on boosting supply. Lots and lots of water, porridge and power pump sessions
One pump sesh in the middle of the night Or early morning
Making sure you check your flange size every so often as your nipples can change

Or you could try pumping and just putting baby to breast constantly or pumping after a feed.

Re formula I know the kendamil goat gets a great write up