Low supply due to slow build up of milk

On Apr 22, 1:03 am, "Me Myself and I"
wrote:
If you are not BF at all at the moment then you should be aiming to pump
every 3 hours. Make sure you drink PLENTY of water every hour (what I did
was drink a glass of water after every tip to the bathroom). Aim to pump
the same amount at each sitting and just stay put till you do. You might
end up waiting a couple of minutes then pumping what comes in, rinse and
repeat but it will help. I aimed to be pumping 100ml (around 4oz) off each
breast at each pumping. It might initially have taken me 1/2 hour to get
that amount but I always made sure I got my decided amount each time.
Sometimes I would get 10ml of a breast then switch then switch back etc till
I got the required amount.

I think his is very unrealistic. I have been BF 9+ months, pumping 6+
months as well as the initial 3 weeks, and have *never* gotten 100 mls
per breast except on very rare occassions. Maybe 2x max. However
except when I took cold meds, I've never had a supply problem. I can
sit and pump for hours, or for 20 mins and get the same amount.

Not everyone responds to a pump the same way, and IMO it's very wrong
to tell a woman that she should be able to pump that amount! Best way
to freak out someone and convince them they 'don't have enough milk.'

If you are not BF at all at the moment then you should be aiming to pump
every 3 hours. Make sure you drink PLENTY of water every hour (what I
did
was drink a glass of water after every tip to the bathroom). Aim to pump
the same amount at each sitting and just stay put till you do. You might
end up waiting a couple of minutes then pumping what comes in, rinse and
repeat but it will help. I aimed to be pumping 100ml (around 4oz) off
each
breast at each pumping. It might initially have taken me 1/2 hour to get
that amount but I always made sure I got my decided amount each time.
Sometimes I would get 10ml of a breast then switch then switch back etc
till
I got the required amount.

I think his is very unrealistic. I have been BF 9+ months, pumping 6+
months as well as the initial 3 weeks, and have *never* gotten 100 mls
per breast except on very rare occassions. Maybe 2x max.

I agree, 4oz of each breast, is 8oz total, if you are doing that 3hrly,
that's 8 times a day, that's a full 64oz, which is likely enough to feed
twins. The amount each baby eats does vary, but most average consumptions
seem to come somewhere between 25 and 30oz, so 4oz between breasts would be
adequate, making a 32oz total, but even that may not be realistic. It's also
a potential way to end up with sore breasts, it is worth carrying on for
some time to see if you can get a 2nd let down, but if it's not happening,
5mins is enough to be sending the message to your breasts that more milk is
required, then get on with the rest of life, spending hours with a pump,
barely producing a drop, would be likely to make you stressed out, lacking
rest and substanence, lacking contact time with the baby and possibly result
in a supply dip as a consequence.

Just to reiterate, with the weight details given here, I really don't think
this mum has any supply issues!

Anne

In article .com,
says...
I am having a problem with supply. My son was born 3 weeks early and
is now 8 weeks old. I have been having problems breastfeeding from the
beginning. Know problems are high palette and weak sucking. The
hospital grade pump is stronger than he is. I have been on Fenegreek
and Blessed Thistle and still no success. I have gotten my supply "up"
some by pumping. My problem is that I can pump every hour and get an
ounce or less off each breast or I can pump every 4 hours and get 2 to
2 1/2 ounces per breast. I have gone to pump and then feed milk with
the bottle until I can get my supply up. I know my breast can carry
more that just a couple of ounces. If I go 8 to 10 hours then I get
engorged and can pull 3 to 4 ounces off each breast. I have tried
pumping every hour and can not get my breast to produce milk quicker.
If I empty the breast, it can take up to six hours before I can "feel"
like I have milk. If I do not "feel" like I have milk it seems that I
can not even get an ounce after 20 minutes of pumping. I was wondering
why it takes so long after being emptied to have enough milk for a
good 4 ounce feeding. Any advice on helping the milk to come on
quicker would me greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Monica


You don't say anything about whether you are feeding the baby with a
bottle or not. If you are, then you should wean him off the bottle as
soon as you can and have him nurse exclusively. A baby's suck is much
more effective in building your supply than a pump.

Larry

I gave an indicator of what *I* pumped per side per 3 hours when my baby was
in the NICU. The amounts were that given to me by NICU staff. 25ml each
side every 3 hours for the first week, 50ml each side for the second week,
then 100ml each side from then on till I was fully BF'ing. I didn't say she
HAD to pump that amount, merely that you should aim to get the same amount
at each sitting. I then stated if she was pumping as well as feeding and
was pumping afterwards to increase supply she might want to pump 1 oz each
side. My entire point was to be consistent.

Now if you wouldn't mind climbing down off my back.


--
Pip

My girls :
DD1 Jasmine - 5 weeks early - March 02 - 4lb 12oz
Still as small as a peanut but as smart as a whip!

DD2 Abby - 8 weeks early - Feb 05 - 3lb 14oz
I'm two and what a Demon I can be!!

"Yes you can drive me insane just by talking to me!"

"cjra" wrote in message
ups.com...
On Apr 22, 1:03 am, "Me Myself and I"
wrote:
If you are not BF at all at the moment then you should be aiming to pump
every 3 hours. Make sure you drink PLENTY of water every hour (what I
did
was drink a glass of water after every tip to the bathroom). Aim to pump
the same amount at each sitting and just stay put till you do. You might
end up waiting a couple of minutes then pumping what comes in, rinse and
repeat but it will help. I aimed to be pumping 100ml (around 4oz) off
each
breast at each pumping. It might initially have taken me 1/2 hour to get
that amount but I always made sure I got my decided amount each time.
Sometimes I would get 10ml of a breast then switch then switch back etc
till
I got the required amount.

I think his is very unrealistic. I have been BF 9+ months, pumping 6+
months as well as the initial 3 weeks, and have *never* gotten 100 mls
per breast except on very rare occassions. Maybe 2x max. However
except when I took cold meds, I've never had a supply problem. I can
sit and pump for hours, or for 20 mins and get the same amount.

Not everyone responds to a pump the same way, and IMO it's very wrong
to tell a woman that she should be able to pump that amount! Best way
to freak out someone and convince them they 'don't have enough milk.'

My entire point was to be consistent.

I've never seen any evidence for this to be helpful, supply should naturally
vary during the day due to when the peaks of various hormones occur, that
amount could actually be far too little at about 6am, I know with my 2nd, I
could pump 6-8oz of each breast after feeding the baby, I realise that is a
little extreme, but I'd expect most people to have some kind of peak at some
point in the morning and what you want to do is empty the breasts/stimulate
them until they stop producing, which hopefully for one session of the day
is more than this (though not neessarily, given the guideline you were given
produces about twice as much milk as you are likely to need), but then at
midnight for pumping to be a struggle, staying awake and getting a trickle
to eventually make the amount up isn't likely to be helpful, it's probably
better to quit whilst you are ahead and get some sleep. Consistency in times
of pumping on the other hand does seem to be important, your body learns
when it is expected to produce milk, pump early and you likely won't get as
much, pump late and your boobs will be full, possibly resulting in a
temporary increase in amount produced, but also sending your body a signal
to produce less milk.

Anne

On Apr 23, 4:51 pm, "Me Myself and I"
wrote:
I gave an indicator of what *I* pumped per side per 3 hours when my baby was
in the NICU. The amounts were that given to me by NICU staff. 25ml each
side every 3 hours for the first week, 50ml each side for the second week,
then 100ml each side from then on till I was fully BF'ing. I didn't say she
HAD to pump that amount, merely that you should aim to get the same amount
at each sitting.

Your text certainly made it sound like this was 'normal' and entirely
reasonable. I have seen far too many women freak out about 'not
getting enough milk' because they can't pump 3+ozs per side every 3
hours because they heard somewhere that was normal. They are convinced
they have low supply and have to stop nursing. This is especially a
problem for new moms with babies in NICU. I think it's important to
remind women it's OK if they don't get an over supply, it's perfectly
normal to get no more than 2 ozs per breast in a time. Spending all
day attached to a pump to try to get one mre drop is a sure way to get
an already overwhelmed woman to quit BF altogether.

It's great you could pump so much, but that's really not the norm. I
never pumped nearly that much for the 3 weeks DD was in NICU and the
nurses said I had way more than all but one other mom there.

I then stated if she was pumping as well as feeding and
was pumping afterwards to increase supply she might want to pump 1 oz each
side. My entire point was to be consistent.

It's not typical to have the same amount with each pumping session.
Supply varies throughout a 24 hr cycle, whether with nursing or with
pumping. So getting 30 mls in the evening but 100 mls in the morning
is perfectly normal and not a sign of a supply problem.

On Apr 22, 6:02�pm, Irrational Number wrote:
Anne Rogers wrote:
That's the problem with us being about two
generations away from when humans all
breastfed. *We don't know what "natural" is
when it comes to breastfeeding. *Baby is
supposed to feed a lot in the beginning!

I'm not sure that's entirely true, both my husband and I come from families
where no generation was formula fed, yet we didn't expect that, at least not
beyond the first couple of weeks. All babies are different, my 2nd did not
feed anywhere near all the time, had she been 1st, I'd have been even more
surprised at my 1st feeding constantly. Many of my friends have sucessfully
breastfed and their babies have not fed all the time.

I suppose "all the time" is an exaggeration.
However, it is true that all of my friends
(and I) expected that babies would feed
once every 3-4 hours (which is a formula-fed
"schedule"), and I don't find that true of
breastfed babies at all!

-- Anita --

Actually I hear about quite a few formula-fed babies who do the same
thing -- taking a few ounces, falling asleep, waking up very shortly
thereafter and wanting more, etc. It always pleases me to hear these
stories, actually, though it isn't very nice to say so when the
parents are struggling to get any sleep or get time to tie their shoes
or take a shower! While it may be more common for formula-fed babies
to go longer between feedings, obviously some babies act like this
regardless of whether they're getting BM or formula.

--Helen

Actually I hear about quite a few formula-fed babies who do the same
thing -- taking a few ounces, falling asleep, waking up very shortly
thereafter and wanting more, etc. It always pleases me to hear these
stories, actually, though it isn't very nice to say so when the
parents are struggling to get any sleep or get time to tie their shoes
or take a shower! While it may be more common for formula-fed babies
to go longer between feedings, obviously some babies act like this
regardless of whether they're getting BM or formula.

babies are babies! I wonder if, because formula fed babies are often over
fed, that even when they do exhibit this behaviour, there is less concern
about forcing them to last the distance?

Anne