A customer writes to us "I'm breastfeeding an 8 ½ month
old. He loves his solids and is doing really well, but over the
last couple of days he has turned his nose up at my boob. He
has a nanny two days a week who feeds him my milk from a bottle and
since she's been here this week, he's really only been interested
in the morning feed. I'm a bit worried that the less he's feeding
off me, the less I'm making so I'm trying to express as much as I
can to keep it up, but I never really get much when I express. (and
I can't keep this up as I don't have a lot of spare time in my life
to express all day and also feed him from a bottle and clean all
the expresser and bottles all day.)
I guess a major possibility is my supply has dwindled a lot so he
is getting frustrated on my boob so has decided not to
bother. I really want to feed him for twelve months at least
as only got to 8 ½ with my eldest (I decided to put her on formula
with farex mixed in as she wasn't keen on her solids).
Do you think I should stick to my guns and only offer him the boob
or is it really bad for him if he's not getting enough milk? If you
think I should persist, do you think a product to help my supply
would help with a baby this old?"
_____
This is my reply based on my experiences as a mother...
Firstly it is quite common for baby's to self wean at around the 9
month age, so that's not a total surprise.
Yes it is a lot of work expressing milk, aswell as the cleaning of
all the gear, and doing it while you are at work. I totally
understand you on that one.
Some women do really well with expressing, and can get 150mL +
with no problem. However its also very common for people to
really struggle to get much milk, it was always a real effort for
me to get a meager 50mls (and even then my son wouldn't drink it
from a bottle after all my efforts!)
You are right, the less your baby feeds from you, the less you
will make. The method is that you'd express milk at the times that
you would've been feeding him if you were home to keep your supply
up, but if you don't get much milk when pumping then your day time
supply will diminish. You'd still have supply for the other times,
but just at the times you would be pumping your breasts will start
making less milk at that time.
Maybe baby is rejecting the breast during the day time feeds
because the supply has dropped of at that time. And it could also
be, because he's had expressed milk from a bottle, he might have
learnt that its easier to drink from a bottle rather than a nipple.
This is really common, I have cases where babies as young as 3
weeks work out that its easier to use a teat! What teats are you
using?
I don't think any product such as Milk Tea or Fenugreek would help much with
supply. Though if it's a problem of bottle teat vs nipple, then I
do have the Chu Chu teats which work the
exact same way as a nipple. Baby has to work hard to suck the milk,
rather than getting lazy using a teat where the milk just flows
out.
You've already answered your question by saying that you'd like to
feed him for twelve months at least, so now we just have to figure
out how that's going to work.
Would you be open to a suggestion of breastmilk and formula? If
the pumping is not resulting in much, then maybe you'd think about
him having a bottle of formula during the day, and saving your
breastfeeds for morning and evening. Then its also something
special between the two of you, you get the relaxing cuddle time
after being at work all day, he gets your milk JUST from you (not
something the nanny can do - so you're not replaced!!). If you are
not keen on using formula, then personally I think as long as he
was getting the early morning and evening breastmilk from you it
would be fine. The nanny could just make sure he was getting plenty
of fluids during the day, and perhaps a yogurt rather than a bottle
of formula.
The hard thing for mums is always deciding on the right
balance.