Pumping very little

[Bendy123]

Baby was born st 37 weeks via induction due to lack of growth.

He struggled to breast feed (since found he is 90% tongue tied)

We fed him formula and i breast pump so that he gets some breast milk also

I'm literally getting 10 ml out per day!
It's hard to get the pumping in as he is tongue tied he struggles to feed from bottle so feeds every 2 hrs (hr to feed, 10 min to burp, quick nappy change and clothes on settle down for bed and nap then we go again!)

Hubby is great in evening but working during day so struggling to find time to pump

HV advises to sleep when baby sleeps
My response - he feeds every 2 hrs for an hr

HV advises to pump more
My response - he feeds every 2 hrs for an hr

Anyone else struggle too?

Hoping once he has tongue tie sorted he will feed better and give me time to pump more

I wasn't very successful at expressing but did after a few weeks produced enough milk to feed without top ups. The hospital pump was much better than the one I bought. Skin to skin did help supply and did eating and drinking and sleeping. My DS had weight loss but was not tongue tied.

Have you looked up La Leche League advice online?

www.laleche.org.uk/expressing-your-milk/

Have you got a single or double pump? If single, then you can buy a suction cup thing to catch the let-down on side you aren't pumping.

I also struggle to get
Much milk from pumping.. yet have plenty when baby actually feeds!
When will the tongue tie be sorted? Then you can keep putting him to your breast (he will feed constantly at first) and hopefully really get your milk supply going. In the meantime, just pump as much as you can. It will get easier, you’re in the horrible phase xx

Hi OP. I would get a haakaa pump from amazon (around £16). It's a suction one, so it holds itself on the breast. You can put it on the other boob while you're feeding your baby, and you don't even need to pump it: the milk is stimulated by the suction. As you're already feeding on the other side, the milk should also flow more easily.

I'm sorry: misread the post. Still worth a try. Also remember that giving your baby a tiny amount of breastmilk per day is still valuable.

Try la leche helpline: 0345 120 2918
NHS Advice can be patchy at best.

Useful websites: la leche league and kellymom

I'll take a look
Ta

Nothing comes out the other side when I pump

Is it supposed to???

He had his tongue sorted 7 days ago
Feeding is a bit better in the bottles now but he won't even contemplate the boob! Screams every time we try when he is hungry or if I know he is due a feed webtry but he won't have any of it.

I keep trying though and having skin to skin with him in a calm setting when he is not hungry placing him near breast in hope he might try it.

But as long as he is getting some breast milk even if I do pump very little some is better than none

I never was able to pump more than an oz at a time yet my two babies have thrived drinking from source. Don’t fret that there’s not enough there just because you can’t pump.

That being said, the hakka pump was the best I tried. You attach to the other side and it collects milk while baby nurses. I never leaked when nursing but this mimics the baby sucking and I usually got an ounce without effort then they still fed on that side afterward. But they have managed to kick it off which was devastating so I did try to wear a pumping bra or hold it as well though technically you shouldn’t need to

Hi OP, my little one is now 5 months old and unfortunately never latched (forceps delivery but wasn't tongue tied) so I pump exclusively and only use formula when he's going through a growth spurt and my supply can't keep up. It is a lot of hard work, especially in those first 8 weeks or so when you're establishing and building a supply. (Especially when your little one came a bit earlier than expected too). You're doing so well to keep pumping OP, it's not an easy choice at all and takes so much time and energy to persevere with.

Couple of things I found helpful (and I've bought a lotttttt of pumping associated bits on our feeding journey so far!)...

Personally I didn't find the suction cups got much from the side I wasn't pumping. (And there isn't automatically supposed to be milk coming out of the side that you're not expressing on).

I fought with the decision to buy a double pump for a long time, partly due to cost and also as in my mind that was resigning myself to pumping and not breastfeeding. However at Christmas I realised I was spending double the time pumping than I needed to and wanted to spend more time with the family, so I bit the bullet and bought the Medela Maxi Swing and the handsfree pumping bra. Best money I ever spent as I was then able to do things whilst pumping, plus it has batteries if you want to not be plugged into a wall. (Got mine brand and sealed new on eBay for £100 less than buying from a shop). I look back on those early days when I was holding a single pump up for 30 mins at a time and then swapping and I cringe- I can now get a full 150ml feed in less than 20 mins which saves me so much time.

I had a hospital grade pump, and a yellow one that I could clip to my belt, I cut holes in a bra and popped the funnel bits through the holes so that they would stay on and I still had my hands free to do other things. You might be able to do one side while feeding baby? Just don't get so used to it that you answer the door with it going!

I found that starting myself off by hand expressing made a massive difference to how much I produced.

I didn't want to read and run. My DD was TT and it was super difficult all round so my heart goes out to you.

To get my DD back on the breast we used nipple shields as her latch was always shallow.

I don't have much practical advice I just wanted to say that you're not alone

OP this sounds a lot like my situation.

I know lots of people who managed to up their supply and pump enough bm that they didn't need to supplement. I also know lots who didn't and ended up mix or ff. I kept offering breast to dd until she was 5mo when I stopped and just used formula. I was lucky to have tons of bf support but nothing worked (we both had health issues and she had tt too).

Some things which helped me:

• HV told me you only need to sterilise breast milk pump equipment once every 24hrs. Between feeds keep it in a clean sandwich bag in fridge. Huge timesaver!
• you are doing your absolute best. Your baby will be just fine with formula if needs be. Only keep going with pumping for as long as you feel sane and able to. Babies need healthy happy parents more than breast milk if formula is available.

My dd is 2.5 now and I'm pregnant. I'll try and feed the next one but I'm not going to exhaust myself over it this time.

Similar to espoleta my DS would not latch at all to begin with (we had to give him formula from a cup in hospital as he was getting dehydrated) and nipple shields solved the problem. It was like he couldn’t get a proper grip without them, even though my nipples are a perfectly normal shape. Once he got the hang of it with the shields we were able to feed without them, took about 3 weeks I think.
By the way I was really disappointed with the Hakkaa, didn’t work for me at all, just kept falling off. But like others I found cutting holes in an old bra was a game-changer.