Not enough Milk?

Kimberly - posted on 01/19/2011

Thank you for all your suggestions! When I talked to my health visitor about my problems she didn't have any solutions for me and when my daughter would want to be fed again after just a couple hours I'd always hear, "she doesn't want to eat AGAIN does she??" from my MIL and then she's tsk tsk at me...so it was very hard/confusing for me to figure out what was best. With my next baby I'll definitely just let him/her eat whenever they want and probably still do some pumping at some point but not make it as big a deal as I did with my first. I can't wait to breastfeed again, I really miss it!

Daniela - posted on 01/18/2011

If anything pumping would have increased your supply. Some women don't respond greatly to a pump though and don't get much milk out, you might be just one of those. There are plenty of reasons why your baby might have been fussy at the breast (I had over-supply - baby would scream her head off every time she tried to nurse!). By the way, my baby was feeding even MORE OFTEN than yours did - that's a good thing! The more they nurse the more milk you produce. The worst you can do is doubt yourself and start counting the ounces. If your baby is thriving you have enough milk. Feed when and for how long baby wants to get fed and you'll be fine. Good luck!

Emily - posted on 01/18/2011

Pumps simply can never get out as much milk as a baby can. I think your only mistake was in thinking that the amount you pumped was the amount your baby was getting. That is just not true.

As I'm sure you know, breastmilk is a supply/demand process. As long as your baby is "demanding," your body will produce.

Next time, just don't expect a pump to give you much milk. Average pumping output is something like 1-2 ounces total. But some moms (myself included) get practically nothing. Yet I'm still nursing, because I know my baby is getting something out herself.

Good luck TTC!

Jennifer - posted on 01/18/2011

i think the first thing we need to do in order to be successful is to TRUST YOUR BODY. frequent nursing absolutely is not a sign that you are not producing enough. from what you described, her feeding habits sounded pretty normal to me. how much you are able to pump is not an indicator of supply, and how much she drinks from a bottle also is not an indicator of how much she needs. it is really, really easy for a baby to overeat when drinking from a bottle because they can't control the flow like they can while nursing. a lot of people say that babies cannot overeat, but bottlefed babies can...they may not overeat to the point of puking it back up, but can be overfed to some degree (i mean this with absolutely no disrespect...my son is was bottle fed breastmilk. i exclusively pump for him because i never got him to latch). her getting fussy at the breast could have been because she was building a preference for the bottle, not necessarily because you weren't making enough milk for her.



the best way to tell if you are making enough milk for your babe is to look at diaper counts. check out this link for more on how to tell if your babe is getting enough...

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/2/t022600...



trust your body! your body is able to take a couple of cells and turn it into a full fledged human being. your body can grow and nurture that little being and your body does not want to fail you once that baby is born. i think the biggest obstacle is learning to not second guess your ability to nurture your child and don't let well meaning friends and family question your ability, either. trust comes with knowledge, so research research research!

here are a couple good places to start:

http://kellymom.com/index.html

http://www.drjacknewman.com/default.asp

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/2/T020100...



you CAN!