Not enough milk - Top up bottles

N

ninahudd

Registered User
My baby is 1 month old and i have been exclusively breat feeding. She has been putting on weight and all was going well. But now she has started feeding non stop all the time and i feel i am not producing enough milk to satisfy her. Does anyone have any idea what is going on, what i should do etc.

I've heard about people giving top up bottles of formula feed. I'm not sure i like the idea but it may just have to be. What are the best formula brands i can get in hk?
 
in order for you to produce more milk, she needs to suck more... give it a few days and your supply will increase to meet the demand... however, if you "top up" then she will not suck any more on the breast adn your supply will decrease accordingly...

if you want to continue breastfeeding, then DON"T top up.. you, yourself, said that the baby was increasing in weight, so stop worrying! so long as she is happy, and increasing in weight, then you have nothing to worry about!
 
stress head

Thanks for the advice. Think i may be stressing slightly. My husband has been doing some of the night feeds on expressed bottles and i read that you shouldn't miss feeds before 6 weeks old or you will lose your milk supply. I may have dimisnished it but hope to get the supply back up again now. She has just finally gone to sleep on a satisfied tummy. Phew!!!
 
agree with carang. it sounds like a growth spurt. it is normal for the bfeeding mom to feel that she is not producing enough milk thru a growth spurt. but you do. the more she sucks, the more you produce. a mother's body is made for feeding her babies thru growth spurts. so don't worry, especially that everything's been going fine. just nurse her on demand, your supply should be up in a day or 2. plus, if you want to try, mother's milk tea also helps increase supply. and drinks lots of water. =)
 
If you want to pump, that's fine but I wouldn't recommend skipping a feed so soon i.e giving a bottle of expressed milk. You can save anything you pump in the freezer and the extra stimulation may help to boost your supply. In the meantime, let your baby suck, suck, suck! At that stage, I was feeding hourly!
 
Agree - this is normal. DON'T top up with formula! As long as she is gaining weight and seems happy/healthy then she will be fine. This 'not enough milk' thing is very common here, and it's the reason most people give for not continuing breastfeeding. People here like kids to be FAT (not just a bit chubby, mind, but FAT) - so they stuff them withformula.
You just keep on breastfeeding, and try not to worry too much about the quantity of milk.
 
As many people have already mentioned it sounds like you baby is having a growth spurt.

This is one of the behaviours babies have that worry new mothers.

Other behaviours which are very common are what I call the ?Chocolate cake syndrome? and the ?Chinese banquet syndrome?.

Chocolate cake syndrome

Imagine that my husband and I are eating dinner. I tell him that we have a chocolate cake for dessert. However, when he finishes his main course he tell me that he is full and doesn?t want any cake. At this point I suggest watching TV! When the first adverts come on he says, ?You know maybe I?ll have a piece of that cake after all.?

This behaviour is very common in babies (as well as husbands). The ?chocolate cake? feed is usually just 5 to 10 minutes but sometimes the baby doesn?t just want one slice of cake but the whole thing and you end up feeding for another hour.

This doesn?t mean that you don?t have enough milk. Just like I had enough food for my husband (after all I had a whole cake when he said he was full) you also have enough milk. It was the baby who changed his mind.

This analogy is actually very good. Just as chocolate cake is a high fat snack after your meal, any milk that the baby takes after a feed will be higher in fat than the original feed ? just like a piece of chocolate cake!

Chinese banquet syndrome

Rather than having big feeds with big gaps some babies like to have lots of small feeds. Mothers often worry about this because they seem to be spending all the time feeding because they aren?t able to do anything during the breaks.

I like to think of this as a Chinese banquet. At banquets each dish you are given is quite small but you are given lots and lots of them and at the end of the evening you are fuller than if you?d had a meal at home.

Some babies like to eat like this, often wanting to be at, or near, the breast for two to three hours or more. It is so common it has a name, cluster feeding. But it is a behaviour that I know many new mothers worry about. But it doesn?t mean you don?t have enough milk ? rather that your baby wants to feed this way. When the baby eventually stops and goes to sleep he usually sleeps for quite along time, maybe even four or five hours.

There is a nice information sheet called Cluster Feeding and Fussy Evenings, http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/fussy-evening.html

Our society believes that babies should have large feeds and large gaps between those feeds. This seems to work well for bottle fed babies (where the caregiver decides how much milk the baby drinks at each meal) but it doesn?t work well for all breastfed babies.

Best wishes,
SARAH
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top