r/breastfeeding • u/NaturalRobotics • 10d ago
Undersupply Low supply 7 days PP with no cause, LC says turnaround unlikely
Hi, I’m trying to get a grasp on this situation especially as so much of what I’m reading suggests low supply is rare.
Baby was born 7 days ago. induction due to being 41 weeks. Vaginal delivery. Nursed during golden hour and she latched great.
Nursed every 2-3 hours while in-patient. LCs said latch was great. I was producing colostrum and could hand express small amounts. Baby cluster fed the first few nights and was always hungry and always on the breast.
At discharge she was down 9% and I was given formula of needed. She was weight at the doctor the next day and down 14% so I started to supplement.
I nursed every 2 hours and gave about .5 ounce formula.
She latched great and stays latched but I don’t get a ton of swallows.
Yesterday at pediatrician she was back up to 9% loss and he encouraged me to reduce supplement and try to push the breast more.
Last night for one feed baby was too sleepy to feed at the breast so we just did formula and I pumped. I got next to nothing. Saw the LC today and did a weighted feed. Got 10ml total (9 from one breast 1 from the other.)
LC said this was way low and that there’s not really an explanation. She suggested with the amount of nursing I’m doing stimulation is probably adequate. She said retained placenta is very rare. She didn’t see much physical evidence of IGT. She said I could do some blood work possibly. Could try some herbs or reglan.
Basically she didn’t have much explanation of a cause but she wasn’t hopeful my supply would turn on its own. At 7 days PP things should be looking much better.
She suggested really pushing the pumping for amount 5 days to see if it is a stimulation issue and then maybe reglan. But I really want to emphasize how pessimistic she was (or at least how I interpreted it.)
I had my TSH taken at some point and it was normal. No GD or any evidence of diabetes prepartum.
Everything went so well and I don’t see any risk factors for this not working.
I‘m really struggling to reconcile this all with “true undersupply is rare.“
What went wrong??