breastmilk drying up so advice on formula please??

[Nikki87]

Hey, my DS is currently 12days old, was feeding him expressed milk as he didn't latch on from the start due to a few reasons, however at day 10 i noticed that i wasn't expressing as much, so gave a formula feed as was a little worried he wasn't getting enough. im using the HIPP organic stuff and he seems to be ok with.
now the issue i have is my milk is drying up ALOT, i'm only getting a couple of ounces at each expressing, if that!! i want to know should i 'wean' him off BM and give him what i can express, or just completely stop and start with formula feeds.
also my boobs are killing, even if they aren't producing as much as they should, does anyone have any suggestion to stop the pain??
please please someone help me. mw isn't coming until next Monday as she's off on holiday, so need advice to last me till then and i'll double check with her when i see her
TYIA

Doesn't sound to me as if your milk is drying up! How often are you expressing? At 2 weeks old baby won't need much more than a couple of ounces at each feed anyway.

Can't give any advice re formula feeding, sorry.

do you want to keep on with breastmilk? two weeks is early days and you could get some help with latching.

whatever you do it would be a good idea to talk to a bf counsellor so that you can be prepared for the mechanics of stopping etc.

expressing is not an accurate way to measure how much your breasts are making

and any formula you give, and your breasts miss stimultion at this early stage, can mean your milk supply drops

if you wish to continue breast feedign, put your baby to the breast as often as he is hungry and wants to feed

if you are giving a bottle, stimualte your breasts by expressing

in the meantime i would phone one of the free helplines, such as NCT , or LLL or ABM and get some more advice

if you do want to stop, then you need to not stimulate your breasts and your breasts might engorge then go down again.

formula at 10 days can be counerproductive to establishing breastfeeding

it is a fine balance

if you are topping up, you need to breastfeed first

If you were looking for advice on finding a formula that's closest as possible to breastmilk this article is good :-D

www.newscientist.com/article/mg19926641.700-making-formula-milk-more-like-mums.html?fu ll=true

thanks for all the advice, he's drinking 3 1/2 oz every 3 hours or so, so I'm expressing just enough, whereas at 1st I had milk leftover, hence why I say I thought I was 'drying up'. Unfortunately, it isn't possible for me to actually breastfeed, I was in hospital for 4days with many different MW's trying to find ways, but it just didn't work for me. Am going to try and keep expressing as much as possible, which I do as soon as DS has fallen asleep after his previous feed, hopefully my milk will start to increase over the next couple of days, but we shall see...

I hope you find a solution, Nikki. Your son will be fine whatever you do. Congratulations on him.

I don't want to harp on the breastfeeding, but if it's a latch problem it might actually sort itself out with time anyway; sometimes their little mouths can't latch brilliantly at first but a few weeks can make all the difference. If you don't want to try again that's obviously understandable, but breastfeeding is so much easier than exclusive expressing, so it just might be worth a shot.

It sound as if he is getting about enough at 3 1/2 every 3 hours. Above all dont put too much pressure on yourself Nikki. Its so easy to be confused and hard on yourself in the first few weeks and tortoise is right, your son will be fine whatever you do.x

Hi Nikki,

Sounds like you had a tough time in hospital. But if you want to BF (and that is a big if - you need to make this decision, no-one else - and either way, people on here will support you), then you should know that it is possible. Most midwives have had no specific training in BF, so sadly it's not that surprising that they couldn't help you.

Definitely reiterate what others have said about finding a BF counsellor to talk to. These people have had years of training and experience in finding solutions to BF problems, and are many many times more skilled than your average midwife. They have all sorts of tricks up their sleeves that your midwives won't have heard about. And you shouldn't worry that they will pressurise you into doing something you don't want to do - they're not loony evangelists, they're trained to support mums in the choices they have made.

Good luck!

Hello

Sorry this is a bit long but wanted to share my experience. I started expressing and bottle feeding (initally mixed with bf) at 7 weeks due to thrush, my baby eventually refused to bf and I have expressed and bottlefed ever since. She is 6 months next week so it is possible to keep your supply up - although I imagine it would be a lot harder to establish a supply so early on with the demands of a new baby! At first I was always worried about my supply and we did give formula on a few occasions in the early days as I was worried I would run out (although i never did). I found hiring a double pump from the hospital really helped increase my supply, and I have since bought a Medela Freestyle which is brilliant. I don't need to use formula anymore, although my supply changes from day to day (anywhere between 30 ounces and 40 ounces a day) and some weeks I worry it is drying up only to find I have loads again the next week.

As others have said, do what is right for you and don't beat yourself up about the course you choose, your baby will be fine whether you feed expressed milk or formula.

Hope that helps.