Expressing to give top up

8 replies

hairymcleary · 02/03/2009 05:29

DS2 is 4 weeks now, and has just today regained his birthweight (he started at 6lb 7oz/ 2950kg and is today 3kg). He has been a v slow gainer and I have been trying v hard to get my latch right to ensure he gets max amount of milk at each feed. Think I may have a bit of a low supply, as have had a stressful few weeks- in and out of hosp for first two weeks etc. Midwife suggested expressing some milk and giving it to him as a top up. I'm just wondering when I would give him this top up? At the end of a feed, or as a separate feed all together? Any suggestions would be great- thanks!

OP posts:

RoseOfTheOrient · 02/03/2009 05:41

OK, might be missing something, but why can't you just put him to the breast more?
Expressing is notoriously stressful, as you never get much out (unless you have a professional hospital-style double pump)and you will be wasting precious time when you could be feeding your baby from the source.
You need to feed him more to get your supply up. Drink lots of water, and eat properly too.
Best advice would be to take him to bed for 24 hours, do skin-to-skin and feed him day and night (night feeds are especially good for bringing supply up, and the milk-producing hormone is more active at night)
Good luck! and well done for regaining birthweight

foxytocin · 02/03/2009 05:58

go to www.drjacknewman.com and read about breast compressions. watch the video of it too. probably more efficient than expressing then topups.

seeker · 02/03/2009 06:57

I agree with Rose - I found expressing incredibly difficult and stressful (some people seem to be able to do it better than others). I would just spend a lot of time cuddling your baby, letting him feed whenever he wants to. If he's gaining, even if it's slow, that shows you've producing plenty of milk.

If you can (no other children to see to o anything) go to bed with the tv remote control, the telephone, some books, lots of drinks and snacks - oh, and the baby. Doze and feed and gaze at him all day (the gazing is important). I can practically guarantee your supply will increase, you'll be more rested and you will realize again how completely beautiful and unique your baby is. Good luck.

swanriver · 02/03/2009 11:50

Babymoon worked for me too, and cancelling all other preoccupations. Expressing did not help, (although when my supply increased I was better at expressing ifswim)
I think hv's just want to KNOW that something is going into them that's why they suggest top-ups. I may be wrong.

AbricotsSecs · 02/03/2009 11:56

This reply has been deleted

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HeadFairy · 02/03/2009 12:08

I think everyone's experiences of expressing vary. I did it pretty successfully, but as Rose said I did hire a double pump from medela which was hospital grade. The bfc from the hospital recommended I try it, I used to feed ds until he was full and then express for half an hour while he sat in his bouncy chair and watched me.

I only did it after his morning feeds, eventually when I got in to the swing of things I managed to get about 6oz per expressing. The key for me was totally relaxing about it. Depending on ds I'd try and watch something funny on tv/dvd, episodes of Father Ted were brill! My most successful expressing was done when I was booking a flight online at the same time, I managed to get about 10oz without even realising!

I used to get together about 6 or 7oz (freeze any leftovers) and give it to ds after his 6pm feed. I think my milk supply was pretty poor in the evenings so I used the ebm to top up his bedtime feed, I'd then do a dream feed at about 11pm, and then a feed at about 4am. He was doing this from about 8-10 weeks, before that I was feeding almost continuously, he was a very slow feeder and a slow weight gainer. I was expressing from four weeks. It worked really well for me, ds was sleeping through from 8 weeks ish, doing 7-7 from 7 months, and he's now the tallest in his ante natal group when before he was the smallest.

zeeka · 03/03/2009 00:06

I expressed immediately after feeding both of my twins, and then gave them the milk (by syringe) after their next feed. I only did this for a month or something. It was knackering, don't know if it did any good, but kept the hospital midwives off my back RE topping up with formula! If I ever went through a similar experience I would probably sleep instead of expressing!

cory · 03/03/2009 08:07

I had to do expression top-ups because my baby wasn't strong enough to suckle for more than a limited time. Putting the baby to the breast more is no good if same baby falls asleep from exhaustion, which was happening to us. She was constantly at my breast, I was lactating enough to fill a dairy and she was still undernourished.

If the OP is in this position expressing may well be the best way. Having enough milk is only helpful if you can actually get it into the baby.

I gave expressed milk at the end of the feed when she had breastfed and become too tired to do any more.

Definitely hire a pump. The handheld ones are no good.

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