Advice needed - expressing when baby is poorly and not feeding well - yes or no

[popsycal]

DS3 is 11 weeks and has bronchiolitis. We spent the day at hospital yesterday and they were happy for him to come home with an inhaler as long as he was tkaking at least half of his normal feeds and having plenty oif wet nappies.

He is still feeding every 3 hours but not as much. I have boobs up to my arm pits.

I am going to have to express for comfort and may even try to spoon fed ds3 a little bit. However, should I fully express at every feed when he is done to maintain supply or will my supply be a bit more robust at 11 weeks?

I ought to know this having fed his big brother for years

tahnks

Personally what I would do is snuggle down with him in bed and offer him the breast as much as possible in order to get him to take as much milk as possible and relieve your engorgement. Don't worry about spacing out feeds or getting the housework down just get as much milk as possible into him. If you're really uncomfortable do try expressing some off but keep on trying to breast-feed as much as possible. This is just from my experience of colds and mastitis, hopefully someone more experienced will come along soon.

wish ui ciould
but with two other ds and dh at work it is unfortunately not going ot happen

Was in the same position a couple of weeks ago with my 6 week old(at the time). I expressed for them to feed through a nasogastric tube(or whatever it was called), but my milk supply plummeted quite quickly I have to say, but that could have been the stress of the whole thing.
It's back now though, and only came back once he started feeding properly again, which was only a couple of days after we got home from hospital.
I'd advise you to feed him, then express off any extra at each feed, so your body thinks baby's taking more than he actually is. Mind you, that's also time-consuming. I took the attitude that if this meant the end of b'feeding then so be it, but once things had settled again my milk's back. Not quite to what it was, but enough for him, most of the time. You'll get there.

I will express if I still feel full after he has fed. He has had several small feeds this afternoon.

I am a stubborn cow though

Thanks for sharing your experiences

Sorry Popsycal, you're right, my approach isn't very feasible with other dc. Can you get a sling that you can bf and get on with other things at the same time? Sounds like you're doing a great job with getting him to have lots of little feeds.