Pregnant and bf - supply issues

[Hadeda]

I wonder if anyone has advice/help for me?

I'm 13 weeks pregnant with no 2 and DD is 11 months old (will be a year in 2 weeks). I'm still bf her but I've started to feel like my supply is very, very low. She only feeds morning and evening now - at her instigation - but those feeds now last less than 10 minutes per breast. Previously she'd keep on for hours if she could.

Given how young she is, I don't want to wean her yet but I was wondering about giving her some cows milk as well as bf once she gets to a year. She doesn't seem bothered - she feeds happily enough and doesn't seem hungry afterwards. Although she has been quite ill recently (a series of colds, followed by the norovirus) so it could be that she just doesn't have much of an appetite at the moment. When she's well, she eats lots of solids, loves her food.

I've got a copy of Adventures in Tandem Nursing which is really helpful. However, it envisages the older child being quite a bit older - i.e. a toddler and able to speak - so they could tell you if the milk wasn't enough or tasted funny (as I believe it can when you're pregnant).

What do people think?
Should we just continue to go with the flow? (or not flow!) Am I perhaps attributing too much to me being pregnant and she's just cutting down by herself as babies do when they get older and eat more solid food?
Any thoughts/reassurance will be gratefully received!

there is nothing wrong with offering a bit of cows milk too, if you want to.

ds2 is 14 months, and I am 4 months pregnant and we're having similar issues. he is dairy-free so can't have cow's milk, but he does enjoy a bottle of oat milk once or twice a day.

my supply has def dipped, but there is still some there because he has milk in his mouth when he comes off.

apparently though a lot of babies go through a phase when they're around a year of cutting down a lot on milk, that's why it's often cited as an easy-ish time to wean if you want to.

Thank you - sorry to take a while to reply, got into the mad evening rush.

I think I'm having difficulties with this because she's so young. If she was say 16 or 18 months old, I think I'd find the idea of her weaning easier.

Do you find your DS is still keen to feed? DD will feed if I offer but if I don't (she went to sleep without a feed one night - my office Christmas party and discovered the night before that I didn't have any EBM after all) she doesn't seem to miss it. I think maybe I'm nervous about her weaning herself because I'm pregnant and there's not enough milk, rather than because she's old enough.

Hello & congratulations

The only recommendation in relation to milk after the age of 12 months is in relation to ensuring toddlers have sufficient calcium intake. However, the requirement is actually fairly low. The Food Standards Agency say that children between the ages of one and three need to consume an average of 350mg of calcium a day. If it was just coming from whole cow's milk then about 3/5 pint a day is needed. But yogurt, cheese etc count too, as well as non-dairy sources like sesame and of course breast milk . This has a list of calcium contents:
www.nnuh.nhs.uk/docs%5Cleaflets%5C197.pdf

Calcium from human milk is absorbed over twice as well as calcium from cow's milk, so is like drinking double the amount .

You could easily go on bf as you are, but also ensure that her diet has sufficient calcium to cover her requirement just in case. Most people find they can reach the above amount easily without giving any milk to drink by offering milk on porridge/cereal, a portion of hard cheese and some natural yogurt.

Lots of toddlers in their second year actually cut back on solids a bit, as their growth is slower then in the first year.

PS Thisisyesterday -I've not come across oat milk before. What level of calcium does it have in it? Generally natural sources are better than fortified foods (eg orange juice with calcium), as they're better absorbed. Fish with the small bones in and mashed up, and sesame are both good sources, as well as lots of veg.

I am 9 weeks PG and BF my 14 month old DS only once a day now. I noticed that he was feeding for less time (about 5 mins) a few months ago (before I was PG) and he seemed happy with that. He would feed for longer at the waking feed but that's cos he has it in my bed while we all snooze I think they just naturally have less with the older they get and the more solids they have.

Since I found out I am PG I have gradually dropped the bedtime feed which has actually been fine. I think my milk has gone right down cos I went for 2 days without BFing as DS woke up after I was ready for work so didn't have his morning feed, and my boobs felt fine. DS has lots of yoghurt, cheese plus cows milk in his porridge so I'm not worried about his calcium intake.

How do you feel about weaning? Are you ready or do you want to tandem feed? I decided tandem feeding wasn't for me as I didn't want DS to feel 'put out' by the new baby having his spot so to speak, plus I think tandem feeding would be pretty hard work!

Not sure but i was told by old MW that breastmilk production drops and the taste changes in order to put older child off feeding so mum isn't supporting two little ones.. not sure how true this is though

Thank you all! My DD does eat a lot of calcium (milk in cereal, yoghurt etc) so she's probably ok there.
I think I'm going to carry on as we are. If she doesn't want to feed then obviously I won't (can't!) make her, but I don't want to wean her just yet as I do feel she's quite young.

About tandem feeding - I really haven't decided what we'll do. The new baby has come along rather suddenly so I hadn't done much thinking about it. That's one of the reasons I bought Adventures in Tandem Feeding.
I think if DD is feeding once or twice a day (as she is now) then I'll probably carry on feeding her as well as feeding the little one. I don't think I could feed them at the same time - I have pretty small boobs and can't see the positions in the photos in the book working for us. But it's 6 months away so we have time to think about it.

Thanks all for the reassurance about DD's nutritional requirements. I think it's just a bit of a shock when they cut back to really short feeds after the hours and hours spent in the early days!