Hi

My son is 13 weeks old and has always been breastfed. We had a problem after a few weeks in that he only put on a few oz per week so I was advised to give him a top up of expressed milk which we've always done at his 10pm feed after I've fed him. His weight gain is usually between 4 and 7 oz a week and the doctor/HV aren't concerned about this.

He wants feeding anything from every 1.5 hours to 3 hours and used to go 5 - 6 hours during the night. It was at the middle of the night feed that I could express off for his top-up and would get 4-5oz at a time.

A couple of weeks ago I was concerned that  my milk supply felt down so I did the Gina Ford 5 day plan to increase my supply. I struggled to get  the expressed amounts off that she said and wasn't engorged on the morning when i should have been!

Since then I haven't been able to express much off - my nightly expressing is now down to 2oz so consequently the top-up bottle isn't satisfying my son and he's waking up earlier in the night needing a feed.

I'm trying to express off after each feed during the day but only get a few drops. My son feeds from both sides and empties each breast so I don't know how I can express anymore off?

I'd like to start to build up a supply in the freezer as I've got a couple of training courses coming up before I go back to work but at the moment as I can't get enough for his top-up there's no chance!

Hope this makes sense!

At 13 weeks, your son will be having growth spurts, so that could be a reason he's waking earlier than usual looking his feeds. I wasn't overly successful with expressing, although I still did it, but I never did it unless I REALLY had to.

domperidone! that is my best friend and the reason I have been able to BF Alice. she is nearly 5 months old but the first start of her life, for 8 weeks she was in hospital, as 10 weeks early!!!

So for 8 weeks I had to express and the last 4ish days was 100% from me! and since that has been from me but due to being such a dink she has to have formula top ups, not expressed.

Go to your doc and get some domperidone, the more you are stimulated the more you will make! Im not very good for the pump, i dont perform for it really so hopsital was hard when she was NGT fed! I used to only get 60mils TOP! but on dommy I can make 150mils! in 5 minutes! so if I worked LONGER on the pump. wow. I would be super epic moo cow!

 xxxx

Perhaps its time to do it the other way round?  Bottle feed and then top-up with your expressed milk?  I had twins and only one functioning breast (following breast cancer) and I expressed what I could (mainly because they were prem and poor feeders and I couldn't tell how much they were taking) and supplemented with formula.  As time went on, and they needed more, my breast milk made up less of their actual feed.  Fortunately my girls were happy taking either so it wasn't a problem.  I felt good in that I was doing my best for my daughters but realised I had limitations so didn't beat myself up about it.  Hope whatever you go with works out for you and your little one!   

Ibottle fed my first two children but with my little '6 year later surprise' I had a real desire to breast feed. Luckly it went well but I found expressing between feeds to build up a stock was virtually impossible getting maybe 2oz's in almost an hour. For me to go out I had to accept formula was necessary and knowing my first two were absolutely fine took the pressure off. Expressing after missing a couple of feeds was always a massive relief mind you and I could get 6oz in 20 mins.

I went back to work at 6 months and thankfully the transition was a breeze I think because it was already introduced for both of us.

Hope all goes well but enjoy your baby thats the most important thing not really what they eat  x