Breastfeeding
marym94
member
need to help baby put on weight - increase milk supply for 9 month old?
marym94
member
Hello! I haven't logged in here for a while but I am really hoping to find a positive story or two. My 9 month old needs to put on some weight (according to the ped). He nurses 5 times a day and eats solids.. but he is easily distracted and we have realized that he is only getting 3-4 oz per session. The ped has us on very strict feeding schedule. LO now drinks a 7-9 oz bottle 4 times a day... when he nurses he only takes in 3-4 ounces, so i am now pumping all day and giving him BM bottles. I have a freezer full of frozen milk so i am supplementing my fresh milk (3-4 oz) with frozen milk, to make these bottles. we have been doing this for one week now and he is doing so well... but now i realize that i am taking milk out of the freezer and not replacing it (of course) and hoping to get my supply up so he can stay on this for at least the first year. i just got mothers milk tea.. and i am extending my pumping sessions after I have gone "dry" - but wondering if there are any other tips or success stories at getting milk up, so far into the first year.
Re: need to help baby put on weight - increase milk supply for 9 month old?
Did you do a weighed feeding to determine how many ounces LO actually gets in a nursing session? What does LO's growth curve look like? Is your pedi using the WHO growth chart for him? He should, since LO is breastfed. The CDC chart is for formula fed babies.
I obviously don't know the whole situation, but it sounds like the pedi doesn't know much about bf'ing, and is giving advice better suited to formula fed babies.
As far as solids go, you can offer LO things like avocado and banana. Those have a lot of calories, and avocado has healthy fat in it too.
https://kellymom.com/health/growth/growthcharts/
DD1: allergic to eggs & dairy
c/p 4/1/11
DD2: milk and soy protein intolerant, allergic to eggs, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, bananas
MSPI Moms Check-In Blog
Is this a temporary feeding schedule until you see the doc again? Because as pp said, most breastfed babies only eat about an ounce per hour since feeding. So, 4 ounces 5 times a day actually seems way normal to me. Of its only temporary, you may have a big enough stash of milk after all!!
My son would get very distracted when nursing at that age too!! Helping him focus also sounds like a good thing to address while helping him gain weight. Did the pediatrician give you any advice about this? Things I did that helped were:
1. Wearing a scarf for him to fiddle with while nursing.
2. Always nursing in a dimly lit room, lying down. ( basically nursing in same boring place)
3. Always offer him the other breast twice. (So, side one, side two, side one, side two)
Oatmeal is supposed to be good for milk supply, as well. You might want to see if you doctor will write a perception for a better, hospital grade pump, since pumps are just not a good at stimulating milk production as babies. I don't actually know is they will do this for moms of older babies.
I hope your babies weight stagnation (loss?) is resolved soon and you can breathe a sigh of relief! If you feel comfortable sharing more details about your nursing relationship and baby we may have more ideas.