breastfeeding/formula advice & worries

[Jayfer]

My DS is 7 weeks old and BF with no problems. Over the last couple of weeks my milk supply seems very low. I'm trying to express to get a supply in the freezer but sometimes I can only get half an oz out of both breasts. I've tried expressing more even if nothing comes out to stimulate the milk production but without much success.
I have health problems and my medical condition has returned after being in remission during pregnancy so I'm in huge amounts of pain and more than likely will have to go on medication which is unsuitable with BF'ing.
In the past few days my DS has been starving as well, feeding for 45mins to and 1hr at a time, emptying both boobs. I'm assuming that he's going through a growth spurt as well as being thirsty because of the heat. He's not massively keen on water.

I've got a couple of questions -
Will me being in pain effect the milk production?
How can I encourage the milk production if DS is feeding every couple of hours and expressing isn't helping?
Which types of formula have people tried and how did your babies take to them?

I'm a bit worried about it all, which probably doesn't help either!!

Thanks

no help sorry but bump
I wouldn't have thought pain would affect your suplpy but might affect your let down
Hope you can get something sorted and your health problems under control, must be very worrying

Jayfer, you're having a bad time

Pain might conceivably affect let down, temporarily. Are you in this amount of pain all the time, ie when actually feeding? It might be possible to learn techniques that overcome this - your body can 'learn' different responses. I stress I am not an expert in this, I just know of other instances where pain management allows people to cope better with everyday actions.

The feeding pattern you describe is not at all unusual in a young baby, esp when it is warm. Your baby will not be 'starving', and your breasts will not be empty - he can go back to side 1 after having what he wants from side 2, and side 2 can be offered again after side 1 has had its second 'go'

Expressing is never a guide to how much the baby obtains, and it is very common for established bf to go with a lower 'yield' with the pump.

Not saying your observations are incorrect, but they are as consistent with 'normal, good milk supply' as they are consistent with 'haven't got enough'.

Your meds - there are many, many instances on these boards where women have been told their meds rule out bf, and it turns out not to be correct. You can check yourself on a no. of trusted websites eg this one toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?LACT

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the replies. DS is more grumpy in all this heat but we r doing the best we can. Bless him.
Tiktok - thanks for the reassurance. It is difficult as my pain is worse in the evening, when I'm tired, my milk is at its poorest and DS has the accummulated wind from the day. So it can be a bit of a struggle. The meds I will have to take are very toxic (for me let alone him). They are also used to treat cancer. Not only toxic but untested on breastfeeding mums and babies so its not worth the risk.
After speaking to HV I'm going to introduce a formula feed to give me a break and hopefully the rest will help.

thinking of you, Jayfer... pain is a horrible, horrible burden to bear.

Good news is your milk will be tip-top at all times - quality and quantity are unaffected by your tiredness or your pain and especially not the time of day - all those are Big Myths.

You do sound like you need a break, and I hope the formula will help you, and of course the rest will give you a boost.