Please come and convince me my milk hasn't gone

[whittywan]

DS is 6 months, ebf since birth until Tuesday. We have started experimenting with some purees and blw also but he hasn't really consumed anything much. I am still offering the breast really frequently and he takes it but feeds REALLY quickly.

Thing is, until now I gave had major problems with leaking and although I haven't tried for many weeks I used to be able to express 4-5oz from one breast in one go and no. Am struggling to get 3oz in total. Also my boobs feel really, really soft.

I think DS is still peeing as often as before but poos seem smaller (used to have at least one massive poo and one smaller one each day)

I know I'm probably being paranoid but really need some reassurance

Breasts becoming softer around 6 months is totally normal.

How many times a day does he feed and for how long?

He's never been that regular in the number of feeds he takes a day but at least 5 times between 5am and 8pm and then a dream feed and probably 2
more during the night. We co- sleep as the day feeds tend to be really short due to his extreme distractibility (ever since about 16 weeks) and I'd rather he makes his calories up at night than not get them at all

Oh - his feeds have always been short but now they are probably 5 mins if I'm lucky during the day

Sounds fine to me.I think dd took a bit longer-maybe 10 minutes? I don't remember very well. If his weight is fine, he looks happy etc I wouldn't worry at all. 7 feeds a day is about right. It's very unlikely that after 6 months of successful feeding your supply would diminish.
When he'll start eating a bit more, you should also offer him water with meals.

Also, are they longer during the night? It could be there's too many interesting things around for him to check out during a day.

Sounds like your baby has just got very efficient with his feeding and your body knows exactly what he needs so it's making just enough.

My DD is about to hit 6 months and I've stopped leaking and boobs are softer too. She's still sleeping and dirtying nappies as normal so I'm not worried.

Had to mix feed DS from about 4 1/2 months and gave up BF at 6 months so never got to this stage with him. Sleeping without a bra and pads on is a revelation! I only leak a few drops from the other boob now when my let down starts.

If you expressed daily at the same time, you'd probably find you'd get more out?

All this - every aspect of it - is NORMAL, whittywan

It's what is expected of babies and of breasts and of breastfeeding.

The lesser performance when expressing is very normal, too - does not indicate your baby is getting anything other than what he needs

Winny - yes, I think they are longer at night. But I do doze through them.

Al - thanks for the suggestion re expressing. Thing is, I don't really need/want to express regularly and only want to when necessary. But I suppose I'll either have to start expressing regularly or just not...

Look, if tiktok says it's fine, it is fine!
She the bf expert on MN!

tiktok is the Oracle

Thanks for the reassurance all. Will just have to carry on trusting

Tiktok as usual speaks sense.

The thing is, a) milk doesn't just dry up. and b) if it did, somehow, your baby would let you know - trust me!

Hover over my name - I needed the same reassurance a while ago and added it as my status

Al LOL

Go into 'My Mumsnet' and 'Registration Details', there's a box to add a status underneath your user ID. I'll let you share

Thanks

Perfect - now you just need to remember it