Breastfeeding troubles

How often are you pumping lovely?

Are the flanges on your pump the correct size for your nipples? Fellow B cup with large nipples and I needed a much larger flange than what came with my pump.

Formula instead of the breast will lower your supply if you’re not pumping each of those feeds baby is having.

I’d highly recommend working alongside a lactation consultant asap if you’d like to get back to breastfeeding. The NHS often just say ‘give formula’ when actually there’s a much bigger picture which a lactation consultant can help you work out x

It is normal that pumping is less efficient than baby drinking!

The hormone that makes you produce more milk is strong at night. So if you don’t feed at night. It will be hard to catch up.
You thought it is distress but it was most likely cluster feeding. Baby wants to be in you and on the boob constantly . This is normal to get your milk supply going and will happen. Also after two weeks etc

Hi lovely I second reaching out to a lactation consultant for some real advice on breastfeeding. Unfortunately there’s a lot of misinformation out there and the health visitor may be right in saying he’s dropped weight but it’s entirely normal for babies to lose up to 10% of their birth weight whilst they establish feeding.
If you want to carry on breastfeeding (and it sounds like you do?) you need to get baby on the boob all day long, practice lots of skin to skin cuddles and baby will fuss when he wants to feed from you. Breastfeeding is really intense the first few weeks, it can feel like some days you never stop feeding them but this is driving up your milk supply so they can grow bigger when they need to have more milk. Any feeds you are substituting for formula you still need to pump to keep up your supply, so a lot of people skip pumping in the early weeks because it’s just as much work (if not more) to pump than to feed direct from the breast.

I had this! My baby boy dropped 'too much' weight in the first week and then wasn't gaining enough weight. Turns out he had severe tongue tie which we got diagnosed and fixed at 3 weeks. His milk transfer and therefore my supply hugely increased after that! I was full-on despairing, pumping, triple feeding etc. and it was so hard physically and mentally but I was determined to breast feeding. If that's what you truly want to do, then see a lactation specialist, check for tongue tie and trust that your baby will learn how to transfer more efficiently! 5 months later and I barely think about those stressful weeks...baby just latches on, does his thing. He's small (12th centile) but tracking along his curve just fine 😊
Hang in there!!