Naomi Rivkis wrote:

(Hi, Naomi, nice to see you over here!*)


I know she's not getting enough from me; we've had to supplement with
formula almost from the beginning.

OK. That's pretty much the REASON you've had supply problems. The first
weeks are critical in establishing supply, and every ounce of formula is an
ounce of milk that your breasts are being told not to make.

She would drain me and then howl
for more.

Breasts don't empty. Ever. In fact, most of the milk taken during a nursing
session is made on the fly, not stored up beforehand.

Here's my suggestion: offer the breast a LOT. Spend a weekend doing just
about nothing but nursing. Decrease the amount of formula you offer by an
ounce per day. Keep an eye on diaper output while you do this, to make sure
she's still getting enough, but with that cautious rate of decreasing
formula, your breasts shouldn't have a problem picking up the slack.

Just for convenience, I'm going to answer two of your posts he

I do think she's honestly
hungry as much of the time as she acts like, because it isn't just
that she keeps swallowing -- it's that she cries when it's taken away
from her,

By "it," do you mean the breast or the bottle?

and that she latches on enthusiastically to a breast or a
finger or a pacifier or something else that doesn't have milk in it
(after she'd finished whatever I have in my breasts at the time) and
then after a minute of ro of vigorous sucking spits it out with an
outraged howl and looks around for something else.

It sounds like she's not done sucking or is still hungry. Put her back to
the breast. As I stated above, your breasts aren't empty; they aren't
flesh-covered bottles, they don't work that way.

--
tristyn (*former SRM moderator)
www.tristyn.net