Exclusively expressing

[chocoholic16]

Hi, just after some advice from some of the more experienced mumsnetters. For various reasons I have been exclusively expressing breast milk and feeding my dd from a bottle since she was 4 weeks (she's now 16 weeks), she refuses to feed off me at all but that's a whole other thread! The midwife told me that to keep up my milk supply I have to express every 3 hours but I am finding that she doesn't want it that frequently anymore and each feed is a struggle. I am therefore considering dropping my expressing to every 4 hours, has anyone got any advice/experience on this and can reassure me that my milk won't dry up?

Also does anyone know whether any health benefits are lost by feeding this way?

Thanks for any help

You can freeze your milk and also store it in the fridge.

I only managed to express for 3 weeks and my milk dried up because I wasn't given any advice about expressing. If I had known I needed to express every 3 hours I could have. Instead I used to express in the morning and afternoon and store it in the fridge. My milk soon dried up.

If your milk supply is still strong then perhaps try every 4 hours, as it is not much different, but if you notice a change in the supply then go back to every 3 hours and store it or freeze it. The good thing about freezing it is that if your supply does eventually dry up, you can use the frozen supply.

I can't imagine why any health benefits would be lost.

you do need to contine to pump very frequently. after about 4 months your prolactin levels drop naturally (i think!) and so I definitely would continue to pump every 3 hours for the time being at least

i mean, you can try dropping to 4 hours and see how it goes, but if it does drop it may be hard to get it up again

I do know someone who exclusively pumped for her little girl who had a cleft palate and despite very frequent expressing she did end up having to take domperidone to keep her supply up enough. bear in mind too that if you were feeding directly your baby would be able to stimulate more milk during a growth spurt etc... you will need to do this with the pump, which will be harder, so it might be best to just keep doing it frequently and either freeze or donate any surplus?

have you had any advice on getting her back to the breast at all?

Thanks Irons, I have a freezer full of milk as I express as much as I can get out (roughly 160 - 200 mls 6 times a day) and she only drinks 120 - 150 at a feed. But someone said that frozen milk and milk that has been stored in the fridge has less nutrients in it as the vitamins etc decrease rapidly once stored therefore I am trying to feed fresh milk as much as I can.

I think I might try every 4 hours and keep an eye on my daily output, seems a sensible plan, thanks

Hi thisisyesterday,

The breast feeding support where I live is abismal and it's ended up at the point where she screams if I even lie her down as if to put her on the breast. I'm hoping I'll have enough milk for a growth spurt as I am pumping a lot more that she is drinking at the moment (an excess of around 300 ml a day). I didn't know about the prolactin levels, guess I'll keep it every 3 hours a while longer then at least.

I'm off to London on 22nd June for 2 days, will I need to pump every 3 hours then too or will it not affect my milk supply just to pump a couple of times for those 2 days?

I exclusively expressed until 6.5 months then mixed fed until a year. Everything was fine (and with a lovely big freezer stash) when I was expressing every 3 hours but things dropped (and FAST!) when I changed it to every 4 hours.

Also what happens when I start weaning her at 6 months?? If I drop the expessing to 3 times a day (morning, afternoon and evening) will my milk be ok? What did you do Sacha?

that's a real shame choc.
i think if you want to continue to breastmilk feed then getting her back on the breast would be the best thing for both of you.

have you seen the kellymom.com site? there is a great section on there about babies that won't nurse
might also be worth ringing La Leche League... they give fab advice IME! you can find your most local group here

I would continue to express every 3 hours whiole you're away if you can too.
I think you're doing fabulously, I really do. I expressed for ds1 who was also a breast refuser and I felt terribly guilty when I stopped, but it's a very intense thing to do, especially long term. I only managed a couple of months
I wished I'd found better help at getting hm back on the boob

also some good info here

My DS didn't wean until 6.5 months, which was when it just became so hard to try to keep up with demands so I started him in some formula then. At that point I was expressing 5 times a day but not overnight. Even with 5 times a day it wasn't enough though probably would have been if I'd done a middle of the night pump as that's the best time to do it to keep your supply up.

Thanks thisisyesterday, sometimes I feel like throwing my pump out of the window! I really don't want to stop before a minimum of 6 months. I have a leaflet from La Leche for getting adopted babies to latch on and I tried soem of the ideas but she just won't feed from me at all, it's all my fault, she fed from me fine in the beginning and we got through bleeding nipples, mastitis and lots of tears and just as things were getting better she started to go right off feeding and would take very little milk. My midwife had the great idea of expressing and kind of force feeding milk through a bottle so at least we knew she was taking some and after a few days of this she wouldn't feed off me at all Hindsight is a great thing eh!

That is not your fault at all, don't beat yourself up! You are doing a wonderful job. I am in awe of anyone who manages to express for any length of time!

I think that the best thing to do is keep expressing every 3-4 hours at the moment. If you want to spread the timing out then you need to do it slowly, not just suddenly drop to expressing 3 times a day, because to keep your supply up you need to keep emptying the milk from the breast. If your breasts get full it sends the message "Less milk please" so suddenly dropping off can have a bad effect on supply, but if you do it slowly you should find that your supply adjusts to the new lower "demand" you are creating. Hope that makes sense

Have you tried a supplemental nursing system at all? Also, whereabouts are you roughly? Some areas have breastfeeding support which is not very well advertised, but someone on here might know of a group etc you could attend. I didn't find out about my local one until DS was nearly 6 months old, despite looking earlier.