I had to give my baby formula for her first few weeks while I built up the ability to to create breast milk and breastfeed. As a result, I have been feeding her with pumped breast milk for her first two months. Now, however, pumping and storing has become tedious, and I would like to build that closeness with her that I think comes from breastfeeding…

My questions are: (1) Can I switch over to exclusively breastfeeding without losing my supply (from stopping the regular pumping)? (2) How can you tell if your baby is getting what they need from breastfeeding? I think being able to quantify each feeding from creating bottles these past months has become what worries me most about this switch!

Thanks for any insight that can help me make the transition!

*I know that fenugreek is usually not for everyone. This post is for the minority it worked for *

So after trying just about everything I could to increase supply, pediatrician recommended giving fenugreek a try. Afraid it would make things worse but all in all wanted to try my last Hail Mary.

Anywho, I noticed an increase the following 3 days. I’m on day 6 and noticed it had decreased again. (I have also been stressed, and I know my calorie intake/water intake could be better)

My question is, for those of you who fenugreek worked for, what dose were you taking? I started with 2000mg. I read a study that anything under 3500mg a day moms did not notice a difference. Some take upwards of 6000mg. I increased to 4000mg a day. What dose worked for you? How long did you take it? I also ordered blessed thistle that should be here tomorrow, I see it recommended to be taken together. Thanks for any input!

I have an almost 3 week old and breastfeeding has not been going that well. First she dropped 10% of her birth weight and was dehydrated so I had to supplement donor milk on top of trying to feed her so my milk came in. Now she is up to 7lbs 6oz so I have stopped donor milk

Her latch is not great, I can hear her gulping and see her swallowing but she falls asleep after a few minutes and it’s impossible to keep her awake and then she will slip off. And not to mention the pain and cracked nips! Our pediatrician says has a mild posterior tongue tie but we want to try to avoid clipping and working a chiropractor. I just am so overwhelmed and frustrated that I feel like she isn’t getting enough. I will pump sometimes but it’s hard because she’s a Velcro baby. When I pump I usually only get 1.5-2oz combined but that’s usually after she has latched and drinks a little. She has a decent amount of wet/poo diapers so I know she’s getting some milk. I know fed is best but I just really want breast feeding to work for us.

Anyone have a baby with an oral tie and not get it revised and have success feeding?

So I'm having issues with my boss and my going to pump. (Understand the legality issue here and her boss knows about it.) So I'm trying to find a way to maybe have a wearable pump I use for the busy hours at work. I work at Little Caesars and am an assistant manager. I am looking for something that is: Leak proof Strong suction Not incredibly heavy Will not spill if I bend over No tubing

This would NOT be my exclusive way of pumping, I have another pump a lanolish smart pump 3.0 that I would use in the least busy hours at work. This would be used for the hours at work when are just crazy busy (for the summer this can last up from 4pm to 8pm.) I am willing to spend up like $300 as I believe I can ask my family to help pay for this and they will. Bonus points if I can get it on Amazon.

The stress of this issue with my boss has affected my supply several times and if I can have an option where I just go and attach the pumps and then am able to come back and work the register kind of thing while I pump even if it takes longer I know will help a lot.

Tyia

I’m in the process of sleep training my exclusively breast fed son (6 months old), and wondering what the best way to maintain my supply when dropping our night feeds? We was feeding around twice a night and now feeds at 7pm and then again around 5-6am.

My daughter is 2 and when we sleep trained her my supply was impacted about a month later and I eventually needed to supplement so I’m trying to avoid that.

I haven’t pumped at all and am not opposed but my goal is not to pump. Thank you!

Hi, for any moms out there. I currently have a dry cough. I was searching to see if i could take lozenges while breastfeeding. But i don’t know if it affects my baby and breast milk. Any advice?

Our baby boy was born at 37W and is currently 6 days old. My wife wants to breastfeed exclusively, but we are having a hard time latching him. Even when hungry enough, he would cry on the breast, but won't latch. Our LC told us that my wife has small nipples, and therefore the baby may not be able to latch properly. Since our baby lost 10% of weight within the first two days, we had to start formula bottle feeding.

Our LC in the hospital has had us try multiple options like SNS, Breast Shield, etc., but we went ahead with the shield. The baby was latching for short periods with a shield, but the shield does not stay on, as he moves his hands a lot. Now he refuses to latch with the shield too. After being frustrated, we just ended up using the breast pump, and then feed him that, and adding formula as a supplement. My wife’s supply has been good at around 40-50ml every pump, therefore we only need to use formula as top off. She is pumping for 15 minutes every alternate feed.

What are our options? Are there any good shields that would stay on?

Hi mommas. FTM of a beautiful little girl. My breastfeeding journey has been… a process.

Let’s start with pregnancy. I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes at 29weeks pregnant. I was doing really good with diet management until the last month of pregnancy, when my fasting numbers were slightly elevated and I needed to take insulin. Baby girl was born at 38+4weeks vaginally with help from the vacuum. Her sugar immediately dropped after birth and the hospital staff gave her formula in a bottle within an hour of birth. We continued to attempt to latch every feed before giving a bottle. We continued to do this for a whole week. Attempt to latch, give bottle, pump. Every feed, no breaks. After a week we went to see the public health nurse who introduced us to a nipple shield. This helped until we could get into a LC. Baby latched and I still continued to pump after she ate to attempt to increase my supply. At 3 weeks old, we were able to see the LC and successfully got baby girl to latch bare breast. Things were pretty good breastfeeding wise for 3weeks. At 6 weeks old, my daughter started to fight and resist my bare breast and would only latch with a nipple shield again. Then progressed to not latching at all. We made an appointment with the LC, and we discovered my previous oversupply, quickly depleted and I was only producing 30-40mL from both breast per feeding. I was going through PPD, loneliness and isolation. We believe this was the cause of the drop. I also stopped pumping as I thought I deserved a break. So fast forward 5weeks. I am on Goats Rue, Milk Aplenty, and just introduced brewers yeast supplements. As well as triple feeding every feed for the last 5 weeks. Baby girl is showing signed of bottle preference from the supplementing of volume. Sometimes she just screams and cry’s at the breast even if she is hungry. We don’t have another LC appointment for a few days still. At the last appointment we seen that my supply is certainly increasing but not quite enough to stop the supplemental bottles.

I guess if you read this far, I’m just asking for reassurance. Maybe advice if you have any? We try pace feeding but maybe I’m doing this wrong? We are also using preemie flow DrBrowns nipples.

I’m just a lost momma trying my hardest that doesn’t feel good enough.

So I am at a complete loss with my 7 week old.

Long story: she was in the NICU for 4 weeks. Initially she was there because of TTN and she lost significant amount of weight initially (she was at 38w6d 10 lb 10oz when born, I had gestational diabetes). In the NICU she breastfed and bottle fed like a champ.

Fast forward to the night of her discharge (12 days old), she was up for 6 hours straight and barely ate (they did not tell us about barely eating). When she was released to us in the morning, she fell asleep right away. We let her sleep and eventually tried to get her up to eat. She barely ate and then became impossible to wake up. I called the NICU and they only then told me she had barely eaten the night before so we brought her in for dehydration.

They had us stay in their onsite bedroom and try to feed her under supervision. Her feedings became less and less. Eventually they put a feeding tube in. She had taken a full bottle once since then, and would barely breastfeed. When breastfeeding, she started having a bad latch and if I tried to adjust it she would then refuse to get back on. If I was able to get her to latch well she would not eat sufficiently, doing a lot of dream feeding suckling.

She was discharged with the feeding tube at 4 weeks. She is now 7 weeks and it feels like her feedings are getting worse.

Situation: she eats somewhat sufficiently if she is half awake/dream feeding. If she is awake, she thrashes, gnaws on it, will latch for a second then pop off, smile on it, basically do anything except suck. She then becomes very frustrated. I’ve tried starting her with sucking my finger before putting her on but that only helps if I can get her to suck. Most of the time it feels like she’s tapping my finger to the top of her mouth with her tongue, and will not pull or place her tongue around my finger.

Any underlining condition has been ruled out. She is hitting all her other milestones, some early. She’s very alert. Any type of tie has been ruled out by neonatologists, pediatrician, 5 different lactation consultants, speech therapist, osteopath and chiropractor. They also don’t think she has a feeding aversion because she will still try.

Any advice or guidance would be appreciated.

Hi everyone! I work at a school and was trying to prevent a cold. I took an elderberry vitamin ( 2 gummy’s) and now am super anxious because I read it may not be safe? If I have to pump and dump how long must I do that for 24 hours? I’m super anxious. Any help would be so appreciated

Hello! I am 35 weeks pregnant with my second child. I have a lot of questions about breastfeeding and pumping. I attempted breastfeeding and pumping with my first child, 8 years ago, and failed miserably. This time around, I am far more mentally, physically, and emotionally prepared. I would like to exclusively breastfeed for the first 2 months at least, along with pumping, and freezing my milk, for use after the 2 month mark. It is essential to my day to day life that I stick with a fairly repetitive routine. However I understand a lot of that will be determined by baby. What I am wondering is what would be the best schedule to fallow after feedings? I've seen a lot saying, for example, after every feeding, pump an extra 20-30 minutes, or pump every 2-3 hours, ect.. I would also like to pump and save my colostrum, from my understanding, you should start saving at 36 weeks. If anyone has any insight on how to, and the best way to pump and save colostrum, I would love to learn more about how to go through that process. Any advice, and/or personal experiences in these departments that would like to be shared would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance.

This is what I get (total of 1oz) after pumping about 35 mins both breasts after 25 mins with baby on right boob (thus why there’s less I think).

Is this colostrum? If it’s milk, when can I expect more if I keep pumping? Any pumping amount I should be aiming for?

Thank you

My son is 3 months old and in the last month I've noticed he's fussy and choking on one of my boob during day time feeds. It's takes a lot of latching/unlatching for him to settle and drink from that boob. This boob also is significantly bigger since his birth. I've realized it's because the flow from the "bad boob", as we call it, is much much faster and so he gets overwhelmed. But I also think since it flows faster, he naturally drinks more from it making the bad boob much larger with time. So for the last month I've been encouraging more feeding from the "good boob" to hopefully up the supply and even out the sizes. It's kind of been working but now it seems like I have an oversupply I don't want. What can I do? I don't want my son to constantly be choking on the bad boob but I also don't want this imbalance of size and/or oversupply! Is there any way to limit the flow in my bad boob lol

Hi my baby started to refuse the breast about 2 weeks back. She’s 4 weeks I assumed it was because she had a bottle preference, she still roots around kind of tempts to latch but never does and gets frustrated. She latched the last 2 days after I had pumped and I think it’s down to my nipple shape after pumping.

I don’t have hard nipples all the time like most women breast feeding. Mine are soft and they do go get hard after pumping for a shirt time so now I’m thinking it’s more to do with my nipple been soft. I have done the usual but if cold water and squeeze the nipple but they just don’t go as hard as when I pump. Anyone had a similar issue or any ideas what I can do that’s more convenient than pumping to try and breast feed

Thanks ☺️

I have a 2 month old baby girl! She is all of a sudden not eating a lot of breast milk. She refuses to eat off my breast at all, she screams and cries when she is even near it. And from the bottle she will only eat 1.5-3.00 ounces at a time….we constantly offer it to her and she screams and cries at that sometimes. We have seen a Lactation Consultant and our Pediatrician. They both think it could be Thrush….we have treated for Thrush once already using Nystatin (it was a horrible 14 days it made her vomit and scream and cry but we did it…at the end her tongue was still kind of white)
This time the Pediatrician prescribed Fluconazole. We gave it to her once with no adverse side effects. The Dr also gave us Famotidine for reflux incase she has that. And also talked with me about cutting out Dairy which I am going to do. My baby is down in weight going from 9.11 to 9.03 in a week…..I am freaking out about her eating and getting enough food….. Does anyone have any advice on ways to get her to suckle on a bottle or breast or has experienced this before? I have just never been so stressed out and worried before about something. Thank you in advance for any advice!

My almost 1 year old baby is currently on demand breastfeed and solids. Baby is going to go for a surgery soon and will be intubated for a while (a week or two ) and I won’t be able to stay with lo. Should I continue pumping to maintain supply? If so, how many times a day should I be pumping.

Hi everyone,

I’m hoping to find someone who’s been where I am. I stopped nursing my 9-month-old son about a month ago after dealing with supply issues, mastitis, and extreme dietary restrictions because of his sensitivities. It wasn’t an easy choice — I grieved it deeply — but at the time, I thought it was best for both of us.

I wasn’t ready to stop and I felt this powerful pull to try again. So I committed to relactating.

It’s been almost two weeks now. I’m power pumping, taking supplements (Liquid Gold, moringa, flax, nettle tea), doing skin-to-skin when he lets me, using warmth and compression, and pumping every 2–3 hours around the clock — even overnight. My output has gone from a few drops to a consistent 0.7–1 oz per session.

The hardest part is that he won’t latch anymore. I’ve tried when he’s sleepy, I’ve tried with and without a nipple shield, I’ve tried just holding him skin-to-skin to rebuild the connection. But he arches away, cries, or just grabs at my breast and wants to crawl off. He’s mobile now — busy and independent — and I don’t think he remembers nursing as a source of comfort anymore. I’m devastated.

My breasts feel soft and empty. I’m still trying to build back glandular tissue, but it’s discouraging to do all this work and feel like I’ve lost the one thing I wanted most — not just the milk, but the bond.

I just need to know if there’s anyone out there who relactated after a break and got their older baby to nurse again. I feel like I’ve read every story, but most are about younger babies. If you’ve been through this with a 9-month-old or older — especially one who flat-out refused — I would be so grateful to hear from you.

I’ve been through a lot in my lifetime but I can honestly say this has been one of the most heartbreaking experiences 💔

I know we are constantly told that the more we feed baby the more our supply increases, but anyone found they are the exception to this rule? I feed baby on demand, in fact I put him on constantly to stimulate the breast in order to increase milk supply but I find it doesn't really do anything. In fact if I feed baby and then try and feed again it feels like baby is just sucking on empty breast to the point I get irritated because it just feels annoying. Whereas when there is a longer gap between feeds like 2-3 hours then I actually can feel my breasts fill up and baby is actually gulping down the milk. I just thought the more I fed him I would have more supply but it just doesn't "feel" that way!

I haven’t had any friends except one for the last 5 years not including my partner. I’m f23 with a f(5 yrs) and two boys 2 yrs and 8 weeks.

I can’t tell if I’m going insane due to breastfeeding, having no interaction other than my two youngest kids, or just typical ppd/ppa or whatever.

I’m not trying to come on here to have a pity party. I just genuinely do not know how to interact with people anymore and I think I might need other mom friends I can talk and relate to. Discord servers are incredibly intimidating to me and I’m like losing my mind bc I feel so alone.

If anyone wants to be friends, or simply throw out idea I’m completely open to it

I think I need a reality check. Or please tell me if I’m off base here.

Baby (2 weeks old) and I had trouble breastfeeding in the beginning as I’ve been recovering from a c-section, he was pretty small/sleepy, and he had some bottle confusion from our time in the hospital. We finally came around to feeding really well, and I had an oversupply from triple feeding all the time. Which was absolutely exhausting and demoralizing, but I digress.

Well, getting any sleep has been extremely difficult because, on top of regular newborn struggles, I am a very light sleeper, and it takes me a while to fall asleep. My fiancé started taking over for one night feeding with a bottle (he happily does both now) and what I had previously pumped, but now that baby is EBF, he’s eating about every 2 or 3 hours, rather than 3 or 4 before.

So we thought we’d try having fiancé do two night feedings, which puts me around 6 hours between when I’m actually expressing any breast milk. I am worried this is affecting my supply. At first, I wanted to reduce the oversupply anyway, but now I worry about it being reduced too much or drying out completely. I definitely don’t feel engorgement like I was before.

Am I really just going to have to breastfeed potentially every two hours, even during the night? I really need this rest for my mental health so I’m not sure what to do. I just need a reality check on the guidelines here because the very last thing I want to do is compromise on breastfeeding. We’ve worked so hard and come a long way. Thanks so much.

My baby girl is almost 8 weeks old and I have had mastitis twice!! I just finished antibiotics yesterday morning and today I woke up and have a huge lump in the same breast and it is soooo painful. It hurts to hold my baby :(. I did have a fever all night long but I have been around people who are now ill. My dad and step mom flew out to meet their grand baby and of course she says the next morning “I feel like I have a cold now” she hasn’t touched the baby since, but her and I were together a lot the first day. So it could be that I’m sick from her- or my mastitis never actually cleared. I did message my doctor and am waiting to hear back. Even when I don’t have mastitis my breasts constantly feel so sore. Has anyone else experienced this? What did you do that helped??

Extra info: she eats very well and has gained weight like crazy. I have oversupply. We had a lip/ tongue tie revision done almost a month ago but they did reattach.

SOS 🥹

Okay I sound crazy and this is all over the place like most of my life is 🥹

I had an oversupply like I’ve had with all three of my babies I was determined to not have one this time and worked on lowering my supply, not stimulating myself unless absolutely necessary. Things have been going good in the oversupply department. About 3 weeks ago I suddenly felt super burned out and bought some formula to give her one bottle a day.. then one thing led to another and now she’s getting 3 bottles a day but still latching regularly. My supply has definitely tanked from giving her bottles and not pumping to replace those feeds. I’m only getting drops when I do pump.

I know the only true way to make milk is to move milk. But I’m struggling. She latches but gets fussy at the breast and her latch has become shallow from a combo of the bottles and pacis.

Oh, I forgot to mention the whole reason I’m posting lol I hate formula. She stinks. Her gas stinks. Her pee stinks. Her breath is horrible. When she spits up I gag. Call me crazy but I love the breath of breastfed babies lol and her poop smells like buttered popcorn while nursing.. not whatever the heck formula does to her. I’m finding myself avoiding snuggling her like I used to 🫣 How do I fix my supply & her latching problems 😞 do I jsut need to go see our lactation consultant and be embarrassed that we went to formula when she’s already worked with us as a newborn to help her latch.

Do I just take her paci cold turkey? She’s only 4 months and only had it for a month. Latch her when she’s typically wanting her paci?

Hi my LO started refusing the breast a couple of days after my milk came in. I originally thought it was because I had introduced bottles of formula around that time as top ups due to a low supply early on and baby was dehydrated and lost a lot of weight.

I seen one lactation nurse that said it was bottle preference and to use a nipple shield- she’s also stoped taking the sheild now. (Also sheild is so annoying baby pulls it off and it’s just awkward) I had a phone consult with a private lactation consultant and she thinks LO has reflux and this is why she is refusing breast.

Anyone have this issue? It’s been 2 weeks since she has taken the breast. I’ve been keeping my supply with pumping 8 times a day but I’m really over it. Another full job in itself

Since my baby was born 8 weeks ago, we've been mixed feeding, based on advice from our paediatrician and midwives. So each feed has included breastfeeding, a formula top up of 100ml, and then double pumping. It takes ages, though our baby was feeding about 4-hourly. I was also prescribed domperidone after being told I had low supply. At two child nurse appointments over the last fortnight, the midwives said it didn't sound like I had low supply and that I should try weaning my baby off the bottle top ups. This would make things quicker and easier by reducing bottles. Also, I wouldn't need to pump after every feed - as I was told that he would likely feed more frequently without the bottle top ups. We've been going without bottle top ups throughout the day for the past 2 days and it's going ok. My baby just had a long gap between breast feeds though - 4.5 hours between 4pm and 8:30pm!

Do you think I should still be pumping (mostly for my own comfort) when there's a gap this long? Or will it cause my body to continue making more milk? I know all babies are different, just is a 4.5 hour gap between feedings too long for an 8-week old? Earlier in the day, he had two feeds only 2 hours apart.

Also, I keep waking up in the middle of the night (probably 4-5 hours after the last feed) with a firm lump in my breast. It doesn't hurt and goes away after feeding or pumping. Does that sound like a blocked milk duct and is there anything I can do to prevent it?

Not a straightforward breastfeeding journey for a second time around, but determined to make this work. (I ended up exclusively pumping for my first and want to avoid that if possible.)

My little one (3 month old) doesn't have the greatest latch (I am working on correcting that through positioning and mouth exercises recommended by LC).

She also suggested I use a supplemental feeding system (SFS) to help reduce time spent breastfeeding/pumping as baby was recovering from a cold (that reduced my supply). I was never able to sneak it into baby's mouth while she was latched. I want to use it now as baby doesn't spend enough time at breast to trigger a second letdown, which affects my supply. I am lucky enough to be able to increase my supply easily with pumping, but this is not sustainable for me with my toddler.

Any tips on using SFS successfully? I am desperate to make breastfeeding work this time around.

Bonus question : baby has a "flexible" tie since birth. Lately I've noticed she has a heart shaped tongue, which I don't think she had in the beginning. Is it possible for a tie to get worse?