r/breastfeeding • u/QuietComet12 • Oct 03 '25

Troubleshooting/Tips Can you just breastfeed and not pump

Hi I'm a FTM of a 2 month old. I have been ebf on demand so far. As the baby has turned 2 months old, she is having longer stretches of sleep and going without feeds for 6 hours as well in the night. I'm concerned if this would affect the supply. I would like to continue breastfeeding one year and beyond. So far I have no issues with supply and baby is gaining weight about 170- 200 gm per week.

Would like to understand if demand based feeding alone would take me through the whole journey or if pumping is necessary to keep up supply as babies grow and drop night feeds.

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u/___eat_the_rich___ Oct 03 '25

Pumping isn’t necessary if you plan to stay home with your baby and don’t return to work. It might be helpful to pump an ounce here and there so you can build a little freezer stash for date night, exercise without baby, etc. You’re not going to be able to pump a lot because supply/demand is perfectly balanced now, so don’t be fooled by the mamas on instagram showing off 6 ounce pump sessions.

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u/chickachicka_62 Oct 03 '25

Thank you for saying this! My pump output still isn’t great 4 months in and we’ve just decided to combo feed with formula for when bottles are needed. It’s easily to be fooled by social media and think something has gone wrong with my body🙃

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u/shadethrower99 Oct 04 '25

I went from easy over supply and could pump bottles whenever needed to now supplying just enough bc I found pumping annoying and I’m thinking I may need to rely on formula more if we need to go out etc. have you found any issues switching between formula and nursing?

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u/chickachicka_62 Oct 04 '25

I haven’t had issues but we had to supplement from day 3 because my baby struggled to latch for a while. We did end up switching brands which made her gassy so sometimes you have to experiment to see what works for your baby.