supply after 6 months

[newkidontheblock]

How quickly can your milk supply drop past 6 months if baby is not nursing well? Does anyone have any experience with this? Would it follow the same rules as the first few months or..?

DD is 7 months old and I am going bonkers! She was nursing 5- 6 times a day plus a dream feed. Then I think the 6 month growth spurt hit and she got very fussy at the bedtime feed and started draining the DF bottle and sometimes waking for another bottle. On those days, she would nurse at all or just a bit in the morning. But now, she just doesn't seem hungry all the time except the evening, is she reverse cycling due to being distracted, you think??? We nurse in a dark quiet room. I'm following her lead but I don't know my supply to drop in the process. Should I pump in between?

[*Ali*]

Do you think she is developing a preference for the bottle? Is there a reason you don't BF at night or did I misunderstand that?

How many feeds is she having in the day now? Is it just the BT one?

If she has suddenly gone to 1 or 2 feeds from the usual 5-6 then I would pump if you want to maintain your supply. Is the bottle formula or EBM?

[newkidontheblock]

Hi Ali. Congratulations!

We have always given a bottle of expressed milk in the night as for the longest time she took hours for a feed. I have tried nursing at night but she then has a tough time going back to sleep and then wakes up almost hourly. Also, since 3 ish months, we haven't had any night feeds except for DF.

Yesterday she nursed 4 times- Wu at 6, 11.30(not hungry) 12 reoffered and she ate, 4 and finally 6 before bed. She ate well in the morning and then before bed. The rest were rubbish. I feel that I am making a mistake with the solids
 First I was offering too less and now too much.

But fine, I will pump. Don't want this to cause a dip


 

[goldmom]

I'm doing just 5 feeds a day: 7 (wu, bf), 11 (pumping - he takes a bottle), 3:30 (pumping, usually only get a let down on one side, he takes a bottle), 6:30/7 (bf), plus a df at 10:30 (bf), and my supply has been pretty good (on weekends I nurse at all these times, usually only on one side each time).

My last two babies I did see a slow down in supply at around 6 months, and I've put that down to needing to replace parts of my pump since it wasn't suctioning well. However, with my first I was pg at 6 months (while ebf/ebm), so that probably caused the supply problems then, and for my second I got af at around 6 months, so with my pump needing replacement parts my supply did drop then (but I was still able to nurse and pump for her for another 1.5 months when I became pg again and my supply dropped even further, she had never been a big drinker though in general). This baby is my first lo where my supply isn't dropping at this 6 month stage, and he's bigger (and better eater) than my others.

I think that as long as you are offering her feeds and she is nursing most of the time with you (at least 4 times per day at 7 months) you should be ok and your body will just adjust to what she wants. In the early days your body is getting used to producing milk, but now your body knows all about it, so it works accordingly. I would just try to pump when your lo is taking only a bottle in order to stimulate the feeds that she would be taking (except at night I wouldn't pump  )

Also DD never took too much milk in her bottles (she never had more than 4 oz) and was able to go 4+ hours between bottles, especially at 7 months. I noticed she preferred more solids so I gave her a lot of that, over her milk intake, and just upped her yogurt and cheese intake too to compensate. I'm just mentioning this to let you know that although I often hear about babies taking 7-10 oz per bottle and it seemed like my LO should've been starving based on how little she was taking, really she was fine and I didn't have to worry too much about it. At this age, all you can do is offer some opportunities to bf, and the rest is up to her.

[newkidontheblock]

Thanks. Yes, I offer only one bottle at dream feed and lately she's been having 6-  7 oz. Usually it's 3-4. She took 5 oz last night and still wasn't hungry this morning. So infuriating especially since I too need her to nurse then! Such a hassle to pump on holiday

[*Ali*]

How much solid food is she eating then and when? If more than 2 small servings a day or 3 very small servings (few bites) then I would cut back until the nursing is back on track.

[newkidontheblock]

At home, I was giving her a small piece of banana or half a plum. Here at the hotel I have taken away the first top up by giving her a decent quantity. We're doing BLW so I'm not really forcing anything. This morning she had 2 spoons of upma, half an egg yolk and one chunk of papaya. Yesterday I did not give her any lunch and still it didn't make a difference. Today for lunch I offered a bit of watermelon and  musk melon and then she gnawed on a bread stick. She won't let us eat unless she is. Little tyrant: p I'm happy with the spacing of feeds now. I realized that it wasn't just the spacing, she also needed to go to the breast hungry.

So basically, supply can decrease quickly post 6 months too if there baby does not nurse enough, right?

[*Ali*]

Yes supply will decrease if not nursing much for a few days but probably only in line with the new demand. And you will probably be able to get it up again if she starts feeding more again assuming you have no history of low supply issues.

My worry would be that she is getting enough milk though. Average intake should be about 25oz at this age, minimum 19oz. I think she would struggle to get that in less than 4, possibly even 5 BFs. Milk needs to be her main source of nutrition.

If she is feeding herself and you are not spoon feeding her then I think it is fine to offer 2-3 times a day (although in UK the advice is to only add a third meal at 8-9mo) as it sounds like she is eating a smallish amount. I'd definitely make sure though that she is having solids after breast milk so, as you say, she is going to the breast hungry and not full up on solids. Tracy recommended doing solids an hour after BM so they then have about 3hrs to get hungry again before the next breast feed.

[jessmum46]

Genuine question Ali - where is the advice about not adding a third meal until 8/9 months from?  It's not something I've heard commonly in medical practice but if I should be advising something different I'd like to know x

[*Ali*]

It's on the NHS website http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/Pages/solid-foods-weaning.aspx
Scroll down to the bit that says Feeding Your Baby from 8-9mo and it says "Gradually, in this time your baby will move toward eating three meals a day." Further up the page it says "Babies don’t need three meals a day to start with, so you can start by offering foods at a time that suits you both." and "Start by offering just a few pieces or teaspoons of food, once a day."

I don't believe that was the advice when I weaned Colby 3 yrs ago so it must be a more recent thing.

HTH

[jessmum46]

Thanks hun that's useful x