My 7 week old boy has been BF in the day and formula fed at night. I started giving formula because I felt that come the evening, I had nothing to offer him and the poor child was just starving hungry. I've decided to try and up my milk supply with the objective of either cutting back the formula feeds or cutting out totally. I'd welcome advice on how to do this.
Yesterday I phoned la leche league and spoke to a lovely lady who advised me to basically go 'cold turkey' and just BF whenever my boy needs feeding, even when it feels like he's getting nothing. She was confident my milk would quickly increase, and was really non-judgemental and helpful. I feel like this is a bit drastic and unfair on my boy - why should he be grumpy and hungry because I've changed my mind about how to feed him? So last night, my lovely husband did the night feeds with formula and I got up and pumped 15 mins at the same time, so my boy got fed as usual but my boobs got extra stimulation. I got about a fl oz out of each boob at each pumping.
Today I've fed, fed and fed. At about 3pm, he started getting hungry even after feeding on both boobs twice, so we gave him the breast milk I'd expressed in the night. I feel like my boobs have had the extra stimulation they need. Also I've started taking fenugreek capsules to see if that helps.
At present, my boy gets formula at roughly 7pm, 10pm, 2am and 5am. I'd like to drop the 7pm formula feed tonight if I can, and then in the next week or so, I'd like to drop the 10pm formula feed so he only gets formula during the night itself. If I manage to do that, I'll decide what to do about the night feeds. I can't ask the husband to do both night feeds on a 'school night' and don't really know what to do during the week as regards night feeds.
I'll try and keep updating this thread to let you know how I get on. Any advice would be more than welcome.