Building Up Your Milk Supply

Question:

Hi, my name is Tania. I’m a young mommy, and I have a little girl who’s almost 5 months. How I feed is both breastfeeding and bottle feeding.. But, I’m trying to cut her off the bottle. She likes her bottle in the day time and she only takes the breast when she wants to sleep. Help me, what can I do? I want her to breastfeed more often.

(The following question was posted in my blog about formula problems, and I’ve taken the liberty of editing it for clarity and readability.)

Answer:

In order to answer this question, I must make a few assumptions about what has brought about this partial breastfeeding and formula feeding balance.

 If Tanya is like many mothers, she has recently encountered a growth spurt in her baby, as well as the increased display of personality in her little one.

It’s very tempting to give in and warm up a bottle when a moody little baby is growing impatient with all the work at the breast because they just want to eat – now! Breastfeeding requires the baby to patiently suck until the mother has had a let down. Bottle feeding allows the baby to start drinking right away with very little work involved.  

It doesn’t help when the baby is also experiencing increased hunger because of a growth spurt. For about 2 -4 days after a growth spurt has started, the baby will want to nurse constantly and it can be frustrating for both of you. But if you hang in there and don’t run for the bottle, 95% of the time your milk supply will catch up to your baby and you will then have a more abundant supply. Giving Baby the bottle will not allow your milk supply to grow, so you will develop dependency on it. Worse, Baby will begin to think that breasts are all work and no milk, and this will set up an attitude like Tania’s baby has, who refuses to nurse except for comfort, such as going to sleep.

So what can you do if you are in Tanya’s unfortunate situation? 

First, don’t be too hard on yourself. This is an easy mistake to make, and it’s a hard one to reverse.

Second, don’t try to just throw out the bottles right away. You will have to work at bringing your milk supply back up to where you need it to be. I suggest getting a breastpump and use it whenever the baby wants to eat. Stimulate your nipples with your hands or a breastpump until you cause a letdown and then offer the breast to her. Try to get Baby to breastfeed  every hour, if at all possible. Once your breasts feel empty, you can offer that bottle if she needs it, but go ahead and pump after she’s done nursing and try to get another surge of milk. You can put that expressed milk in a bottle to feed her, just like you would give her formula. Be sure to read up about pumping or hand expressing breastmilk so you learn how to handle and store the milk properly.

Third, once you have increased your milk supply, begin to cut out the bottle feedings, but make sure that she is continuing to get enough to eat. Let her feed whenever she wants, and don’t be discouraged if she becomes frustrated once in a while.

Fourth, when you are getting her used to breastfeeding during the day, don’t wait until she is screaming in anger before putting her to the breast. Screaming babies want to get down to business, not try new things.

If you are a new mom, I strongly recommend that you stay away from formula unless it’s medically indicated. Using a bottle with your breastmilk in it once in a while is okay, but usually the best thing is to avoid bottles or pacifiers for the first couple of months, in order to prevent something called “nipple confusion.” Basically, this means the baby needs to get really good at nursing first, because a bottle requires a different type of suck than a bottle, and you don’t want your baby to nurse the wrong way because they are confused about what they should do.