Milk supply dwindling

[Zari]

Over the past couple of weeks, I found that my supply has been dwindling. I usually express by hand twice during the day whilst I'm at work and two to three times when I'm at home. I tried increasing to every two hours but, nothing seems to be happening. I read somewhere that pumping every two hours should increase supply in about two to three days but alas no results as yet. Will hand expressing give the same results as using a pump? My pump began to be very painfull so I stopped using it. I realised that I would get more milk when I used my hand than with the pump. I even bought some fenugreek just in case but I haven't taken it as yet. My bay is 6 months and I would like to keep breast feeding/giving her breast milk for as long as possible. Any help?

[whitnessforhim]

My first question is how much is baby drinking while you are away? Be careful that she is not being overfed.

How much are you expressing in a day? Some women do great hand expressing. I've never been able to do that so I pump. You might also check the pump you were using and make sure the suction wasn't set to strong for you. It takes some time getting use to pumping. It's not that funnest thing to do.

I'd have a better idea how to answer your questions once you can answer the questions I asked. Hang in there momma!

[Zari]

She used to drink 18 ozs of breastmilk whilst I'm away but now I only manage to leave 12 ozs. I have to supplement with formula for the remainder. I don't get to feed her before I leave home on mornings, so that includes a time period of say between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m.

What I express the day before I would leave for the following day, so I used to be expressing 18 ozs, which I still don't think was enough because sometimes she would also get 1 bottle of formula. Now I only express about 14 or 15 ozs. My ideal is to give her breastmilk exclusively.

[whitnessforhim]

I'm guessing you are away from baby for the normal work day, around 8hrs. If so I would say that 18oz is overfeeding and not necessary. Honestly, I don't think you need the formula at all. My DD never took more than 15oz for the 8hrs I was away. Her normal was around 10-12oz in that time period. However, I was very cautious about overfeeding because it is so easy to do when you are bottle feeding little ones. And its a ugly cycle, you overfeed and mom feels like she's not producing enough for her baby. See bottles are so much easier to drink from then the breast. Even if the baby is not sucking milk will still drip out. So often times what happens is since babies have this natural need to suck they'll just keep drinking from the bottle. This isn't how the breast works. They have to actively be sucking to get milk from the breast and because of this they can comfort nurse and stay on the breast for a long time without over eating. I made sure to use a Breastfeeding friendly bottle. I used BreastFlow by First Years because it was the closest thing to the breast. Babies have to clap down and suck to get any milk out of these bottles. I also used the slowest flow nipple. Usually babies will make up for anything they missed during the day at night when they can actually nurse.

Here's two links to read. The first is how to bottle feed the breastfed baby and the second is a calculator. This will help you calculate how much baby will need while you are away. On average babies drink around 25oz of breastmilk a day. If she's drinking 18oz at the sitters that only leaves 7oz left for her to get from you. I think she's being overfed and your supply is perfectly fine!!!

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkcalc.html
http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/bottle-feeding.html

[Zari]

Thanks a lot for your help.

[sarah_2186]

I also wanted to add that I thought my supply dropped also when my baby turned 6 months but in reality the sitter was also over feeding. I think the body probably does not produce as much milk as it use to but thats because most babies start solids at that age. And when babies start solids they don't need as much milk as they use to. Eventually I had to tell the sitter that I would only leave 4 baggies of milk 4oz each and that should be enough. And it was baby is doing just fine

[whitnessforhim]

I also wanted to add that I thought my supply dropped also when my baby turned 6 months but in reality the sitter was also over feeding. I think the body probably does not produce as much milk as it use to but thats because most babies start solids at that age. And when babies start solids they don't need as much milk as they use to. Eventually I had to tell the sitter that I would only leave 4 baggies of milk 4oz each and that should be enough. And it was baby is doing just fine


I just wanted to clarify that solids at this age should only be introduced experimentally. Breastmilk has more calories/fat/nutrition than any solid you could offer. It even contains more fat than whole cows milk. That is why a baby can live off of breastmilk alone for the first year of life and beyond. So I would never look at it as solids are going to replace the breastmilk but rather that the issue here really is just overfeeding. And know that whatever baby isn't getting at the sitters she definitely has time to make it up when she's home with mommy.

Also remember that intake does not increase with age. You may see some small increases after a week or so of birth but most babies will ALWAYS take in about the same about throughout their infancy. The amount really only decreases. This is the beauty of breastmilk...it changes content to specifically cater to babies caloric and nutritional needs at each stage of their life.