Not enough milk

[Breizhette]

I posted here a few weeks ago. I have a 24 days old DS and not enough milk. I have been taking motilium for a week now and am being monitored by a BF consultant. We have had to supplement as he was not putting any weight on and was constantly hungry. I am not bottle feeding him but using a tube and still offering the breast at least 12 times a day!
This breaks my heart as I didn't manage to BF DD exclusively either. I mixed fed until she was 13 months.
The BF consultant thinks it might be something to do with my fertility problems.
So I don't really have a question, just wanted to vent my frustration. I know I am lucky to have 2 healthy children but I so wanted to BF exclusively. My family doesn't really understand why it makes me sad. I feel like I couldn't conceive them naturally, I didn't give birth naturally (C-sections) and now I can't feed them naturally!!

Aw, breizhette I can hear the longing in your post.

It's good you have support from the bf consultant.

Other things you might try (you may be already doing them)

• breast compression
• 'switch' nursing
• expressing
• co-sleeping
• baby-wearing

The bf consultant will explain the technical terms

12 times a day is not that often - it's no more than you'd expect a baby of this age to feed. When it's a struggle, it can feel like a lot, though, I know.

Hope things get better for you.

Thanks tiktok. We co-sleep, I compress, and switch-nurse. I tried expressing but there was nothing there, and although I know it's not the point, it just destroyed me to see the miserable drops I manage to express after 20 minutes of pumping. I need to baby-wear. I feel like the cause is lost, although I don't want to give up.
It is so ironic that this should happen to me when I am such an advocate of BF!!

Try hand-expressing instead, breizhette - make sure your technique is good. Pumping and getting nothing happens with people who clearly have gallons, as well as with people who clearly have not, so it's hard to draw any conclusions.

How much supp does your baby have at the moment?

4 to 5 times 30 ml a day.

No advice, but lots of sympathy, hope it gets better for you, give yourself big up for all you have achieved thus far

I'm guessing a 3.5 kg baby?? He's clearly getting most of his nutrition from breastmilk, then, which is good news....hang on in there

are you using a supplementer to feed him?

something like [[http://www.lowmilksupply.org/abs.shtml this] might help?

or this even

i think your fab. don't worry about the "natural" thing. most women would have given up by now. keep going?

He was 4.2kg at birth. I think he's reached back his birth weight last week. Thank you all. It feels good!

I am using this very one slim. Not cheap either!!

Breizhette....in that case, the proportion of formula to breastmilk is even smaller Time to discuss reducing the supplement, now he is up to birthweight??

I had exactly the same problem.

Please don't feel like a failure if you have to mix-feed again. He'll probably get the same amount of breastmilk goodness from 13 months of mix feeding than a few months of exclusive bf.

I understand how disappointed you are, but you sound like a great mum - just do what you can regarding bf and concentrate on enjoying your first few months with your son rather than beating yourself up.

Good luck!

be good to yourself, give yourself credit, you are doing your very best.

Wow -- given al the problems you're having, only supplementing 4 to 5 times 30 ml a day is great! You deserve a huge pat on the back.

Thanks all, it's making me emotionnal.
Tiktok, last week he put on about 7grammes a day without supplement.
He reached back his birthweight last week and is now about 100g over.

Well done Breizhette. it must be very stressful. Have you checked Pixiefish's blog? She has been through similar and was helped by fab local lactation consultant called Sharon Breward (who has just won an MBE for services to b/feeding.)

Hi Breizhette,

My DD is 7 days old and we were readmitted to hospital yesterday as she had lost over a kilo from her birth weight .

We're also now mixed feeding to get her weight back up but still b/fing all the time. When I expressed in hospital I managed to get 50 mils but she is still constantly hungry.

I have no advice, am a total newbie to all of this but just wanted to say hi and I know how you feel

Breizhette; you're doing great - have a hug xxx

(If you need to let off steam come join us on the July postnatal thread)

Backgammon - very stressful for you

Thing to remember is that for a baby to be readmitted at this stage, it means someone, prob several people, have not been doing their job(s) properly. New mothers need to be given signs to look for, to check all is going well with the feeding - and those signs are always there. Ineffective feeding doesn't just happen like a bolt from the blue. Babies can appear to be feeding ok, but in fact they're not. I am a breastfeeding counsellor, and I come across mums who have been told 'he's feeding beautifully!' and the signs he is not have been missed (signs are lack of milk transfer, scanty poos) and the baby should be weighed on day 3-4, really.

Hope all goes well now.

Thanks Tiktok - desperately hoping things will improve but really feel we have no choice but to supplement til her weight improves. Will we ever be able to go back to exclusive b/f do you think?

Thankfully her birth weight was 9 pounds 11 so she is still a fairly chunky girl.

No problems Backgammon. I hope it all improves very fast for you and your DD.

You could also try the "more milk" tablets - see express yourself mums website