Is it possible to lose your milk supply?

[Giffinio]

Hi all,

First post on here so bear with me!

I have a 20-week-old son who is exclusively breast-fed. Last Friday, he came down with a cold and refused any food for about 7 hours, then had short feed, then went another 7 hours before eating again. Since then, he's been feeding absolutely fine, if anything, he's been more demanding, but my supply doesn't seem to be meeting demand anymore, particularly at night when he's now waking for food every 2.5-3 hours from 10pm (goes to bed at 7pm, used to wake between 1-2am and 5-6am for feeds). My boobs just don't seem as full and it doesn't seem to take very long before they empty.

Is it possible that my supply is decreasing or is the increased demand at night simply a sign that he needs to be weaned? I have started introducing baby rice this week but it is v early days. Attempts tonight to give a bottle of formula to fill him up were also roundly rejected!

Am I worrying unnecessarily about the milk issue? Or do I just need to give the weaning a chance to kick in for him to be more full and thus sleep better? I guess everything seems worse when you don't get enough sleep, but it is horrible putting them to bed knowing that they haven't eaten enough and they will, without doubt, be awake several times through the night again!

Any advice gratefully received. Thanks x

Just keep at it with the feeding - your supply will increase again according to his needs. He might also be going through a growth spurt (well that's what they always told me when I went through the same thing).

Try feeding and then before you go to sleep getting him to dream feed maybe?

How does your breasts feel in the morning? Drink lots of apple juice mixed with water and stay calm - sure it will get back to normal soon.

It is normal for your boobs to feel less full at this stage, and as long as he is still having plenty of wet & dirty nappies and seems to be ok in himself i would not worry to much.

Possible growth spurt could be the cause of the frequent feeding as sibella said.

Also someone once said to me " remember it is supply and demand your milk supply is like a river not a bucket" you have some at the ready but the rest is made as you need it.

Yes to echo angelbymoonlight, breasts are not tanks, they store a small amount of foremilk then the rest is made as baby nurses. Breasts never empty they will keep producing milk. Don't fret, trust your body it will provide, let your baby lead the feeding. Weaning is unlikely to help, Babyrice has less calories than milk & intoducing formula at this point will mean your breasts have less stimulation which could affect your supply.
Hope you get a bit more sleep soon.

In my humble experience (based on breastfeeding my 3 kids)
(1) as breastfeeding progresses your breasts will feel less 'full' in general, apart from the times when the babe has had an exceptionally long gap between feeds;
(2) there are always patches when they start to feed more frequently. It might be due to a growth spurt, or might be something else. It's best to trust that your baby knows when he is hungry;
(3) please don't base your decision to wean on your perception of how much milk you have. I introduced 'top ups' of formula to ds1 and then eventually found he was drinking a whole bottle after the evening breastfeed, so I thought 'what's the point in carrying on' and stopped. I really wish I hadn't done this, but at the time i didn't understand as much about breastfeeding as I do now.

www.kellymom.com is a good website about breastfeeding and the articles are based on research and evidence, not just someone's opinion. The pages about breasts feeling full are particularly interesting.

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your replies. Everything seems so much better in the morning, even though we didn't have the best night again! On the positive front, the feeds have been a lot better, he is feeding for longer and the milk supply seems to be a lot better so fingers crossed the nights improve. If I can try and get as much mlk into him before bedtime, hopefully he'll go a bt longer before waking up! Also going to carry on trying to express. Thanks again everyone.

Have you thought that this might be a sleeping issue and not a feeding issue, so that he might be waking because of a stage he's going through/other developmental things...the list could be a long one....that is nothing whatsoever to do with the amount of milk or nutrition?

In my experience it's at about this stage that previously wonderfully sleeping babies start to become not so wonderfully sleeping babies. DS was never a great sleeper, in apparent contrast to every other baby until about this time, when they all joined us!

Maybe NOT what you want to hear, but people tend to make a link between BF and just about everything (negative!) to do with babies, when it might not be there, IYSWIM...so I would hold off on the weaning too. kellymom has some interesting stuff on sleep and night waking/feeds too.

I'm in the same boat as you (see thread here) and logrrl's comment is interesting, I've been wondering if it's really a sleep thing rather than a hunger thing. In which case though, still, what the hell do I do about it??

I agree with logrrl in that it is probably more of a sleep issue than food. I made the exact same mistakes with DD2, I thought at 5/5 months she was starving and started to wean her on to formula. It wasn't my milk at all, she was just growing up and getting more aware of the fact that if she shouted, we jumped! Believe me, having fed 3 hungry babies, switching on to formula makes no difference AT ALL!

You may have to sleep train him a little bit though...

I did it with all mine and I find it was worth a bit of crying as they all slept through wonderfully. Can be controversial on MN but if done properly, it can save your sanity.