Breastfeeding

Low supply - when am I producing enough?

my LO is 2 weeks old. I've had issues with low supply since the beginning and have been supplementing. I'm in a "nurse with shield - supplement - pump" cycle. However, I occasionally take a break from nursing to let my nipples heal. All of this is from work with a lactation consultant.

Since I've been working with LC and taking fenugreek, my supply is slowly increasing. On sessions when I only pumped, I used to get 10ml total between nth breasts. Now I'm up to almost 30ml total. Is this enough at this point if I'm feeding LO every 2.5-3.5 hours?

Re: Low supply - when am I producing enough?

  • amymariamymari member
    If you mean ounces instead of ml, I'd say that sounds fine.
  • I'm pretty sure she means ml. 10ounces would be a lot..
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  • 30ml is only an ounce. It's hard to tell what is "enough" since each baby is different. But my LC told me my LO should be eating at least 2 oz at 2 weeks. I too was, and still am, struggling to produce enough. I also heard of a formula to figure out how much breast milk your baby should be eating. Take your baby's weight times 2.5, this is the total oz they should eat in a day. Then divide by number of feedings in the day. So if your baby is 7 lbs they should eat 17.5oz per day, or ~2oz at each feeding if they eat 8 times per day. Its a rough guideline I was given, but at least it's something.
  • ldmwldmw member
    Thanks. Sounds like I'm halfway there, which is better than where I was when I started. Trying to stay optimistic.
  • Hang in there! The more you can nurse the better. It's more efficient than pumping. I had to exclusively bottle feed for 2 weeks to heal my destroyed nipples. Once I started nursing again I saw my supply improve. In the end, any amount of breast milk you can give your LO is amazing!!
  • @TracyB4889 did you pump during that time? I'm also struggling with low supply
  • Yes I did, religiously. I pumped for about 10 min after each feeding. That also gave me a little something to supplement her with after nursing if she wasn't satisfied. I also pumped at night even if she didn't wake. Lately she has started cluster feeding in the evenings, I think that has helped too.
  • My LO won't latch on at all. She was born premature and I can use the shield but its a poor latch. Ive been trying to exclusively pump so she can at least get the benefits of breast milk but I am just not producing enough milk. I pump every 2 hours and get one ounce per pump session .
  • ldmwldmw member
    I use a shield to nurse with also, and I wish I could get rid of it because I know it's not helping with my supply. But, for right now it's needed so my healing nipples don't go backwards.
  • ldmwldmw member
    Has anyone tried power pumping? I've read about it, but haven't tried it yet. I want to try everything I can, but I'm also trying to be cautious not to overdue it and cause my healing nipples to become bleeding again.
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