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Hey, my baby wasn’t getting enough from me as he had a lip tie, so my supply started out low. I was quite upset that I couldn’t breastfeed and if I knew then what I know now, there would have been a few things I’d have done differently, to help me breastfeed! Firstly, power pump (pump 10 mins, stop 10 mins for an hour, three times a day), this will help get your supply up. Once your supply dwindles in the beginning it’s very hard to get it back up, so when baby is being fed formula, pump so that your body knows when to produce milk. But don’t over pump - it can ruin your milk ducts! BF baby every hour/hour and a half so that they don’t have the chance to get hungry/frustrated at the boob, this will encourage them to feed and help get your supply up too. Find a pump that isn’t bulky. I got the momcozy after watching so many good reviews but it was impossible to hold the baby whilst pumping, which meant I couldn’t pump often at all. And finally…
When bottle feeding use the slowest teat size so they don’t get used to fast flowing milk - otherwise they’ll start to refuse the boob as it’s harder to get milk from the boob than the bottle and this is what happened in my case! Hope this helps and congrats on your new baby!
@GMF I was only nursing as my doctor made it seem like the worse thing to do was pump before 3 weeks old. Now that my baby’s doctor is involved I have to figure a way to 1 produce more at feedings and increase my freezer supply for future bottles when I return to work. I don’t want her on formula at all or at least only at bedtime if possible
@Parris Thank you! I started the 30-15 power pump yesterday I think I like this power pump better.
I honestly haven’t used formula. I have eaten the Boobie lactation bars. You can get them on Amazon, they are soooo good and I have been producing a lot more breast milk after eating them. I got my Elvie Brest pump free through insurance. You can get your first breast pump free through your insurance.
Wet diaper output is one of the main signs baby is getting enough breast milk. are you nursing as well as pumping? How many times per day are you removing milk? It’s actually only about 5% of women who truly have low supply, so while it’s possible, there are probably ways to troubleshoot if it’s important to you to exclusively breastfeed. If you want to combo feed that’s great too - however, if that’s not your goal you don’t necessarily want to start relying on formula as that can affect your supply.