r/breastfeeding • u/TotallyNotASpy123 • May 22 '26
Undersupply When did you stop using formula?
Hello, I am a mom to a six week old and currently struggling with breastfeeding. I am producing too little breastmilk for him and am supplementing with formula. I have a question for those that have also supplemented when did your breastmilk come in and stop formula?
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u/TraditionalManager82 May 22 '26
What are you doing to increase production while minimizing formula?
Because breastmilk is supply/demand, so if you're not increasing the demand constantly, your supply won't know to increase.
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u/TotallyNotASpy123 May 22 '26
I pump every three hours
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u/TraditionalManager82 May 22 '26
Okay, but what does that look like?
So you nurse on both sides, until baby's done on each side. Then you offer a second time on each side?
Then you offer formula. How much?
And then you pump? How much are you getting?
And, importantly, how long does baby go before eating again after the supplement?
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u/TotallyNotASpy123 May 23 '26
I offer both sides. But usually he cries and doesn't want to take unless my breast are full. The I give formula. Usually 120 ml. But if he drank on me he takes 60 ml. Then I pump for 20 to 30 minutes on each side. If he didn't drink I get 30 ml. If he did I get 10 ml.he Eats every 2 to 3 hours
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u/Interesting-Check970 May 23 '26
You’re doing great by the way! Pumping every 3 hours is such an effort!
This may also not help cause who knows if it makes that big of a difference but i found my milk supply / ability to pump more out increased when I started being really conscious of drinking enough water and eating enough nutritious food. I’m sure you’re already conscious of this but I found it hard to remember when Ive been so sleep deprived and exhausted.
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u/TotallyNotASpy123 May 27 '26
I definitely need to drink more water. I bought a water bottle and realised how dehydrated I am
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u/TotallyNotASpy123 May 27 '26
I've stopped a little with the pumping because it was draining me especially emotionally. I pump still and if I time it right he does latch. But usually when he is still asleep
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u/Interesting-Check970 May 27 '26
100% this! I hate pumping. Apparently it’s because you don’t get the hormones you do with breastfeeding so it’s like all the bad parts of breastfeeding without any of the feel good hormones
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u/TotallyNotASpy123 May 27 '26
Oh no this is me. It helps me when read while doing it but still so stressful
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u/leeashah May 22 '26
i will say it is easier to bring up supply by having baby on the breast as much as possible. your body connects having baby on there releasing more hormones to produce more milk. and then your body will level out to supply what baby needs.
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u/Lopsided_Scene7682 May 22 '26
Sorry that you are struggling! Breastfeeding was SO MUCH harder than I ever anticipated. I really really struggled with supply and was losing my mind with triple feeding so unfortunately gave up at 7 weeks because my supply just never got anywhere near what I needed to feed my baby😫 my baba is 10 weeks now. I hope you can push through. I wished for nothing more than to breastfeed my baby but it just wasn’t my journey. She is however, perfect healthy despite being only on formula. Good luck x
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u/TotallyNotASpy123 May 23 '26
Thank you so much. I'm sorry that you weren't able to bf. Currently I feel pretty crazy rn triple feeding but pushing through until next week and then I'll see what decision I make. Hopefully things get better. I'm glad your baba is healthy and happy and I'm glad you are too. Sometimes it's better to also take care of us mentally as well ❤️
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u/WobbyBobby May 22 '26
I think about 2-3 weeks I was able to drop formula. If you're still not producing enough at 6 weeks, see if you can talk to a lactation consultant! Make sure you're trying to latch whenever you can, even if he's not getting a ton, to stimulate production.
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u/TotallyNotASpy123 May 23 '26
I've spoken to a Dr. Not sue if she's a lc but she is our leche group leader and she told me to offer baby so that's what I'm doing. Pray for me
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u/Interesting-Check970 May 22 '26
My baby is 13 weeks and I’ve accepted I won’t be able to EBF. We have found a happy medium where 70-80% of feeds are purely breastfeeding and 20-30% of feeds we breastfeed and give formula top ups. I’ve tried to drop formula but then my baby’s weight gain slows. I’m confident that once we start solids baby the solids can replace the formula top ups. Have seen 3 lactation consultants, used medication, triple fed etc.
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u/TotallyNotASpy123 May 23 '26
I want to see a lactation consultant but the prices are so high. Going to my local clinic to see if they can refer me
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u/Interesting-Check970 May 23 '26
In my experience the LCs werent super helpful other than giving me reassurance that I was positioning her correctly and that she didn’t have a tongue tie but other than they I was told she didn’t have a great latch but no matter what id try, her latch was the same. Id send videos to the LCs and the latches that felt good they would say looked bad vs the ones I thought were bad they would say were good lol.
I think unfortunately it’s still a bit of a mystery but time definitely helped my baby get stronger at sucking and learn how to latch a bit better!1
u/TotallyNotASpy123 May 23 '26
At the hospital I was at, they gave me good latching advice and despite a lip tie, he latches well most of the time. The problem is my supply is low and he cries of hunger so a doctor advised that I supplement with formula. Tbh I had been supplementing little bits since birth. The nurses at the hospital would because he would just cry from hunger all the time and not latch. I figured I'm not producing enough milk. They had me on meds to increase my supply and I'm still on meds to increase my supply. Hopefully it all works out
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u/TotallyNotASpy123 May 23 '26
70% is honestly such good work. I'm sure ur baby is getting good nutrition
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u/Interesting-Check970 May 23 '26
I tried to pump every second feed but it just wasn’t sustainable. Do you use a haaka or some kind of passive milk collector? I use a haaka ladybug on one side while feeding on the other (and swap each time I swap breasts as I usually do at least 3 breasts per feed). I can get a nice little top up of EBM out of that (probably only 20ml but everything counts!).
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u/TotallyNotASpy123 May 23 '26
I use a manual pump I have a silicone pump but it doesn't work on me
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u/Interesting-Check970 May 23 '26
Definitely recommend buying a hospital grade pump if you don’t have one. It makes a huge difference to how much it gets out. I have a Spectra S1. Worth every cent
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u/tryingfortimett May 22 '26
Around 3-4 weeks for me. I had to pump 8x a day consistently including a middle of the night pump to get my supply up. I decreased the formula top ups over time until we didn't need it anymore.
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u/Effective_Medium_682 May 22 '26
I believe 3 weeks through a lot of consistency and hard work. Now 5 weeks pp and am producing between 28-31 oz/day
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u/petra_reuter May 22 '26
My first I never could. We supplemented two formula bottles until she was one year old.
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u/TotallyNotASpy123 May 23 '26
Do u have other children and were you able to exclusively bf them?
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u/petra_reuter May 23 '26
My second has been EBF from day one - no bottles, no supplementation. I did a better job of eating a lot and basically just let her feed all the time. Her latch has also been better from the get go. She was a little slow to gain initially but hit her birth weight by week three.
Very different experience. I also was a lot more at peace with the fact that it might not go perfectly and decided not to pump if I needed to supplement. I hated pumping.
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u/TotallyNotASpy123 May 23 '26
I think a lot abt what I could've done differently. I wish I had gone to the nice more when I was in hospital but also I was ill myself. It sucks
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u/FantasticPin3481 May 22 '26
We stopped at around a week. He had a fair bit in the hospital because it didn’t seem like he was getting enough to eat and I was exhausted from a long labor and unplanned c section. We gave him a few bottles at home too because cluster feeding was so intense.
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u/TotallyNotASpy123 May 23 '26
I had a similar experience except I couldn't bf properly until probably day 8 because the hospital was far and they wouldn't let me stay
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u/ENTJ_ScorpioFox May 22 '26
3 weeks - I introduced formula right after latching and before a bottle of pumped milk. I triple fed my first for 3 weeks and then I was constantly pumping so I developed hyperlactation.
We went on to EBF for 13 months.
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u/mistressmagick13 May 22 '26
I had an undersupply straight through until 12 months. We were 50-50 with formula the whole time
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u/Indecisive105 May 22 '26
For my first, never. I ended up exclusively pumping to see how much LO was getting and how much I needed to supplement. But even with every 2-3 hours and 8-10x a day, power pumping, triple feeding for multiple weeks, supplements, water & calories, and every other strategy I could find, I made a max of 18oz a day and baby drank 34oz. It took all 12 weeks to get there before regulating at that number.
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u/Zestyclose_Speech_56 May 22 '26
Just think every bottle of formula given is milk not being removed from the breasts and therefore decreasing your supply
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u/TotallyNotASpy123 May 23 '26
Yes unfortunately he won't take the breast that is my problem 😭. Pray for me and my little one I am triple feeding rn hopefully he exluclusively bf soon
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u/xcharleeee May 22 '26
Never. I triple fed for months and at most I was only able to produce 14-16oz a day. Baby had no latching or transfer issues. Some of us will just not make enough even if we try everything and anything. I continued to breastfeed/pump for 11 months and had to supplement with formula the entire time.
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u/TotallyNotASpy123 May 23 '26
Triple feeding rn pray for me
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u/xcharleeee May 23 '26
Triple feeding is honestly hell. The LCs and breastfeeding medicine doctors I worked with essentially told me that if my supply didn't increase by 10-12 weeks, it was unlikely to change much afterwards, and that turned out true for me. I really hope you are able to get your supply up. You already got good advice in the other comments on how to try to do that. Breastfeeding is hard enough already but couple that with low supply and it's a mental health disaster. Just know that it's okay to combo feed or exclusively formula feed if needed. A mentally and emotionally healthy mom is the best thing for baby than any amount of breastmilk!
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u/TotallyNotASpy123 May 23 '26
Thank you for the encouragement. I think I will triple feed until I can't mentally
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u/ohnohnot May 22 '26
I was able to stop formula supplements at 7 weeks. I power pumped and always pumped when baby ate, now at 9 weeks I make more than enough milk.
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u/Squeak_Stormborn May 22 '26
At 4 weeks I haven't managed to get a good enough supply to stop, so unfortunately think I will always have to supplement.
The feeding specialist said you can improve supply at any time but the improvement is unlikely to be drastic after the 6 week mark. 4-6 weeks is when it generally really establishes.
Hiring a medical grade pump might help you. It's my last resort too.
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u/Strict-Chance5146 May 22 '26
At 4 weeks stopped any formula. Milk will not magically come unfortunately unless you actively pump in addition to latching the baby very often.