Milk supply dwindling for toddler

Hi everyone,

My son is almost 15 months old and I *think* my milk supply is on the wane,
though I am not sure. Supply has never been a problem with us; DS was one
of those giant Michelin babies who was off the charts for several months,
and didn't even eat food until 11 months.

Nothing about his nursing routine is set in stone. Here's a rough schedule:

1. a long early-morning nursing
2. a quick post-breakfast suck
3. a longer mid-mrning nap nursing
4. another five-minute suck before or after lunch.
5. either a bunch of quick snacks or a long afternoon nap nursing.
6. 10 or 15 minutes of nursing down to sleep
7. 1-5 short nursings when he rouses before or I crawl into bed. Some
nights he sleeps through for several hours.

For the long nursings, he may get up to half a dozen letdowns.

For the past couple of mornings, for nursing #1, he has acted frustrated, as
if nothing is coming. He seems to be wetting less, too, although he shows
no signs of dehydration. He always has a sippy cup with water available,
but aside from drinking an ounce or two out of it all day, he's mainly
interested in tossing it down the stairs.

Thought I'd try pumping yesterday but gave up after 10 minutes without a
letdown and with only 40 mL. in the collection jar.

What sort of endocrine events can cut supply?

I have mild PCOS and am overweight. I have ovulated twice since he turned a
year old, and am now in mid-luteal phase. The first cycle and period did
not seem to affect supply at all.

Could estrogen from body fat and estrogen from ovarian activity suppress
milk despite plenty of nursing?

Thanks for any ideas.

Beth

Beth wrote:

Thought I'd try pumping yesterday but gave up after 10 minutes without a
letdown and with only 40 mL. in the collection jar.

Responding just to this, as I have no clue about the rest. You've just
described a completely normal first 10 minutes of pumping for me, and I've got a
good double pump and WOH full-time. So don't take it as indicative of supply
issues.

Phoebe

"Beth" wrote in message
...
Hi everyone,

My son is almost 15 months old and I *think* my milk supply is on the
wane,
though I am not sure. Supply has never been a problem with us; DS was one
of those giant Michelin babies who was off the charts for several months,
and didn't even eat food until 11 months.

Nothing about his nursing routine is set in stone. Here's a rough
schedule:

1. a long early-morning nursing
2. a quick post-breakfast suck
3. a longer mid-mrning nap nursing
4. another five-minute suck before or after lunch.
5. either a bunch of quick snacks or a long afternoon nap nursing.
6. 10 or 15 minutes of nursing down to sleep
7. 1-5 short nursings when he rouses before or I crawl into bed. Some
nights he sleeps through for several hours.

For the long nursings, he may get up to half a dozen letdowns.

For the past couple of mornings, for nursing #1, he has acted frustrated,
as
if nothing is coming. He seems to be wetting less, too, although he shows
no signs of dehydration. He always has a sippy cup with water available,
but aside from drinking an ounce or two out of it all day, he's mainly
interested in tossing it down the stairs.

Thought I'd try pumping yesterday but gave up after 10 minutes without a
letdown and with only 40 mL. in the collection jar.

What sort of endocrine events can cut supply?

I have mild PCOS and am overweight. I have ovulated twice since he turned
a
year old, and am now in mid-luteal phase. The first cycle and period did
not seem to affect supply at all.

Could estrogen from body fat and estrogen from ovarian activity suppress
milk despite plenty of nursing?


at about 16 mths, DS was acting really fussy as well everytime he fed. he
breastfeeds at least 4 times a day. he was also an extremely hard nightmare
to put to sleep (we bf to sleep) and he was waking alot at night (he usually
slept through most nights) and the whole thing was stressing me out
terribly. at first i thought it was the lead up to AF as he is usually a
little fussy at that time, as that's when it started but then it continued
on for a quite a few weeks after that.

i assumed my supply was way down so i had heaps of oat meal, RRL & fennel
tea. i didn't notice any change in my breasts & there was only a little
change in DS. i don't pump so i couldn't tell what was happening.

i tried going through all these different bedtimes, awake times, nap times
etc in case that was it & none of that helped. i had some stress going on at
the time but i do not think that was a factor.

it got even worse and hit a huge peak just before my next AF when DS was 17
mths and then all just went back to normal after AF.

in hindsight i can see that DS went through a developmental change - he got
a huge increase in words (60+ at 17 mths), so now i am wondering if that had
anything to do with it & it wasn't my supply.

sorry, no real answers for you here, but i understand what you are going
through.
--
elizabeth (in australia)
DS - born 20-aug-02

Beth wrote:

I have mild PCOS and am overweight. I have ovulated twice since he
turned a year old, and am now in mid-luteal phase. The first cycle
and period did not seem to affect supply at all.

I don't know the biology by my supply dipped each month before my period.
It was a PITA. My babies/toddlers acted like you describe and nursing was
very irritating/annoying. It always went back to normal though.

--
Nikki
Mama to Hunter (4) and Luke (2)

"Phoebe & Allyson" wrote in message
...
Beth wrote:

Thought I'd try pumping yesterday but gave up after 10 minutes without a
letdown and with only 40 mL. in the collection jar.

Responding just to this, as I have no clue about the rest. You've just
described a completely normal first 10 minutes of pumping for me, and I've
got a
good double pump and WOH full-time. So don't take it as indicative of
supply
issues.

Thanks! This is a bit of a change for me. With an Avent Isis, I used to be
able to get 4-9 oz. within 20 minutes. The letdowns would usually happen
within a minute.

I haven't pumped much at all since June, though, an back then, DS was 6
months old and my breasts still leaked all the time.

Beth

"elizabeth emerald" wrote in message
...
in hindsight i can see that DS went through a developmental change - he
got
a huge increase in words (60+ at 17 mths), so now i am wondering if that
had
anything to do with it & it wasn't my supply.

sorry, no real answers for you here, but i understand what you are going
through.

Thanks, Elizabeth. I'm hoping that this is just a developmental blip. DS
is on the verge of walking and his language is also increasing.

I think oatmeal is coming out of my ears right now. With fennel seeds in it
.. . . :-)

Beth

"Nikki" wrote in message
...
I don't know the biology by my supply dipped each month before my period.
It was a PITA. My babies/toddlers acted like you describe and nursing was
very irritating/annoying. It always went back to normal though.


Good!

I think I'm 7 days after ovulation right now. Maybe that's a contributing
factor. I'll gladly put up with this annoyance as long as my milk comes
back!

Thank you.

Beth