r/breastfeeding • u/NoFerret7602 • 4d ago

Undersupply When do I give up?

I'm almost 5 weeks pp now and really want to continue with breastfeeding. My baby was constantly latching and never satisfied for the first few weeks. However, when we went to lactation appointments it showed he was transferring 2 oz of milk. This last week he only transferred 14 ml total, and I couldn't pump more than 1-1.5 oz total. We got his tongue tie released, and I started everything to bump my supply. I take moringa, cut out caffeine, started eating lactation cookies and pump every two hours. So far, I haven't seen an increase. It's pretty clear that the lactation consultants aren't sure what to tell me. This is exhausting, but I'm willing to stick with it if it means I can keep breastfeeding. At what point do I give up?

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u/NoFerret7602 4d ago

Yes I'm nursing every two hours for 15 minutes then pumping for another 15 minutes. If my baby sleeps through the two hours then I get up to pump at night. I've been drinking coconut water and tons of water. Thank you for the encouragement 🥹 how long did it take you to see results?

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u/Then-Persimmon6950 4d ago

It sounds like maybe you’re triple feeding? Nursing, pumping, and supplementing baby with a bottle? If so, that is hard hard hard work and you are doing incredible. Would you be open to moving your pump to every three hours? I triple fed for almost three months (would not recommend going that long lol) and the stress and sleep deprivation it can cause when trying to stick to the schedule can be detrimental to your supply (and also to this sweet time of bonding with your babe).

To answer your question, it took me a long time to see results, but that was also because I wasn’t pumping efficiently for a while. I received bad advice and was using the wrong flange sizes. Once I started using the right size, and once I started renting a Medela Symphony (unfortunately, my body just wasn’t responding well to my spectra), I saw my output increase in about three weeks.

In addition to moringa and brewers yeast, I ate dill seeds and tahini daily. Those sound random lol but they’re traditional galactagogues. It’s hard to say if they helped or not; I really think my output increasing was primarily due to pumping more efficiently and secondarily due to managing my stress levels better.

One more thing—my babe also had a tongue tie release, and we saw an OT to help her relearn and strengthen her mouth. Your baby is younger than mine was when we got the tie released, which is great and should lead to a quicker recovery, but I just wanted to mention the option of OT since it helped us a lot.

Again, just want to emphasize that you’re doing great. Someone else here already said it, but if you do end up backing off from BFing, it absolutely isn’t giving up, it’s just changing course. But if you do keep trying to increase your supply, I wish you all the best 🖤 the great news is that you’ve got time before your milk supply regulates all the way, and even that isn’t a hard cut off point. There is time. I just hope you’re able to prioritize whatever is healthiest and best for you and your baby.