Supply issues/refusing formula (9.5 months)

sara401 · May 2011

DD is 9.5 months old already and she's only had BM and my supply is plummeting. She usually drinks 12 oz while I'm at work, but now I can barely get 7-8. I nurse her in the morning, she takes a 6 oz bottle around noon, she takes another 6 oz before I get home from work and nurses again as soon as I get home. She's eating table food at night and eats almost 2 jars of food, 2.5 tbsp of cereal and yogurt while I'm gone.

Anyways, I only have about 60 oz. frozen and she absolutely refuses formula (as a supplement). We've tried 3 kinds (Enfamil, Sam's Club and Similac), 3 different ways - straight formula, mixed with BM (in very small amounts) and mixed with prune juice. Even when there was just a tiny bit of formula in the BM she absolutely refused to take it.

I asked the Pediatrician about milk and she advised against it until 1 year. I'm not sure what else to do. Any ideas??

JenRose05 · May 2011

Nathan wouldnt take formula either...surprisngly I bought the ready to feed that is pre-made so I wouldnt have to buy a can to waste and hes taken it like a champ! Maybe try that? At 9 months, the pedi told us to give N three meals a day, it hasnt seemed to impact his nursing frequency though. Mothers milk did wonders for my supply, maybe try buying the tincture from whole foods?

KristenBtobe · May 2011

Maybe try making her bottles smaller. Neither of my kids took more than 4 oz per bottle at their highest consumption. I struggled with this around the same age with Owen, we reduced his bottle to 3.5 oz as he started eating more solids. Can you add another pumping somewhere?

sara401 · May 2011

KristenBtobe:
Maybe try making her bottles smaller. Neither of my kids took more than 4 oz per bottle at their highest consumption. I struggled with this around the same age with Owen, we reduced his bottle to 3.5 oz as he started eating more solids. Can you add another pumping somewhere?

Do you remember how many oz/day were they taking around 9-10 months? I've tried pumping every hour for a couple of days and it made no change. I'm going to try again this week. For lunch, Stella eats 6 oz plus her oatmeal and 1.5 jars of food! I'm afraid if I cut back, she will be hungry. She doesn't eat much at dinner. Only a few bites and then she throws a fit when I try feeding her more.

l.m.k. · May 2011

Like PP, I would suggest trying to cut back her 2 daytime bottles. If you are nursing and not supplementing on the weekends, and she's getting enough then, I bet you can cut back the bottles. Nora currently nurses 4x a day and during 2 daytime feedings she really only nurses about 10-15 minutes, tops. Sometimes it's more like 5.

As far as solids, Nora eats 4-6 ozs at breakfast, about 6 at lunch, and 6-8 ozs at dinnertime. She really likes yogurt and will eat more of that than anything else. Are there some solid foods that Stella really likes that you could try giving her more of? For example, I can give Nora 4 ounces of fruit and then she'll eat a whole 4 ounce container of yogurt, but if I were to switch to a veggie instead of the yogurt, she'd probably only eat 2 ounces of the veggie.

Also, could you pump 1x/day on the weekends when you're exclusively nursing? That might help your supply during the week.

GL! I hope your supply comes back up again. Sending positive BFing vibes your way.

Traycee1242 · May 2011

Everyone had great suggestions... I highly recommend Mother's Milk Plus. You can find it at Whole Foods... the liquid form is disgusting, but if you put it in about 1-2oz of fruit juice and "shoot it" it's tolerable. I tried everything (fenugeek, pumping marathons, etc) and Mother's Milk Plus worked immediately and I saw a huge increase.

I started buying it on Amazon (if it works for you) You can get an 8oz bottle for $50.

GL!!!

Mrs.Cooley2bee · May 2011

When my supply dips I add in a pump session at night right after Asher's last feeding. I pump for a good 20-25 minutes. I usually don't get a ton of milk but it cues my body to make more. Also, if you know she will sleep a certain amount if time, add in another pump session right before you go to bed. I did this for about a week and I really noticed a difference during my daytime pumps at work. GL!

adamsbabble · May 2011

sara401:

KristenBtobe:
Maybe try making her bottles smaller. Neither of my kids took more than 4 oz per bottle at their highest consumption. I struggled with this around the same age with Owen, we reduced his bottle to 3.5 oz as he started eating more solids. Can you add another pumping somewhere?

Do you remember how many oz/day were they taking around 9-10 months? I've tried pumping every hour for a couple of days and it made no change. I'm going to try again this week. For lunch, Stella eats 6 oz plus her oatmeal and 1.5 jars of food! I'm afraid if I cut back, she will be hungry. She doesn't eat much at dinner. Only a few bites and then she throws a fit when I try feeding her more.

I agree with this. At 9-10 months, Ava cut back on her bottles as well. Also, it will probably be easier for her to make up those lost ounces (if she even misses them) when she's actually nursing than it will be for you to try to pump more.

l.m.k. · May 2011

Another thing I thought of was her cereal - is it made with BM? You could probably cut that out of her solids entirely and she might not even notice. Or maybe you could try making it with formula and see if she still refuses.

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Supply issues/refusing formula (9.5 months)

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