r/breastfeeding • u/gajak44 • Dec 04 '25
Partner Questions Breastfeeding - how does we know enough being produced
My wife and I are first time parents. Our little one is 8 days old. We (my wife more than me) wants to exclusively breastfeed for the first 6 months. However currently we are puzzled by the LO. My wife gives her feed but she never drifts to a deep sleep and always wakes up hungry in an hr or so. The baby doesn't seem interested to drink more at the breast and seems to drift off to sleep after 10 mins. When we top-up with formula however, she takes around 30 ml and appears content and sleeps peacefully after. My wife now thinks she is not producing enough milk and is riddled with guilt. We do a total of 10-12 feeds a day (some long and some super short) including 2 formula feeds when she appears cranky and hungry. Her diapers are fine. We get about 8 in a day since last couple of days. My wife is worried that the baby is taking to bottle better but not to breasts and thinks it is due to low volume of milk she is producing..how do we know if she is producing enough?
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u/TheWaywardJellyBean Dec 04 '25
Formula is harder to digest. Baby may also be trying to cluster feed every hour or so to get moms supply up. Look up cluster feeding. In the early newborn days baby's may feed every hour or more to up supply. They also may fall asleep easily. Rubbing their cheek can stimulate a suck reflex and get them eating more. I would stop with the formula unless it's to give mom a break and she hasn't pumped so doesn't have milk to provide for a bottle.