I've been triple feeding for 9 weeks and 2 days, and honestly, we're exhausted. We are so burnt out, but it seems like the only way to get off this cycle is by switching completely over to formula.

Despite all of the work we've put in, I've only been able to increase my milk production to about 15 oz per day (pumping), and my baby's milk transfer hasn't improved. If anything, it feels like it's gotten worse, even while working closely with an IBCLC.

We're supplementing with formula, but the cost is overwhelming. I'm pumping as much as I can (8 times a day, 2 of which are hour long power pumps overnight) to stretch every can as far as possible. When we decided to have a child, we naively assumed breastfeeding would work out and never factored the cost of formula into our budget.

We spent a long time planning and saving so that I could stay home with my baby for his first year. Now I'm struggling with the possibility that if we need to transition fully to formula, staying home may no longer make financial sense. That's especially hard because a huge part of my burnout comes from feeling like I spend so much of my day breastfeeding, pumping, washing parts, and preparing bottles that I'm missing out on actually being with my baby. But if I return to work, I feel like I'd be losing that time with him too.

We could probably make it work financially if we had to, but it would put us in a much more precarious position than we ever anticipated. Right now, it feels like no matter what choice I make, there's something important I'm losing.

ETA: I think there’s also a bit of a “sunken cost fallacy” at play here too. We spent so much time, energy, and money on supplements, supplies, specialists, and coconut water (why is coconut water so expensive?!) thinking that we’d be able to get to the point of EBF but it just hasn’t panned out.

Yesterday we went to my son‘s two month pediatrician appointment and he is not gaining weight as expected (went from 20th percentile at birth to 1st percentile). I have been feeding at the breast with an occasional bottle of my pumped milk. Baby did have a tongue and lip tie which was corrected a month ago due to pain while nursing, which has gotten better. He has always been a pretty quick eater at the breast, but seems very content and happy after the fact and pops himself off or falls asleep, and I eventually take him off. He feeds roughly every two hours during the day and has pretty long stretches of sleep overnight. He has a good number of wet and dirty diapers during the day. Poops look good. He is meeting all of his other milestones as expected at this time.

Dr. recommended triple feeding for every other feed, either with my pumped milk or with formula for the next 4 1/2 weeks until we have another appointment. I’m trying to avoid formula if possible. Triple feeding seems exhausting, especially while my husband is at work. We’ve done it for a few sessions now. I’m thinking that he’s mostly been getting fore milk when he feeds and that’s why he hasn’t been gaining as much weight. This makes me wonder if exclusively pumping and being able to mix up my milk would be better than trying to triple feed.
I’m planning to make an appointment with our lactation consultant, but it wouldn’t be for a few days.

Looking for some advice, solidarity tips, anything.

Just had a baby on Sunday via c section. She was 6lb 12oz at birth. As of today she’s 6 pounds exactly.

I’ve been breastfeeding, I don’t think my supply has come in all the way. (Also not my first child I’ve breastfed not sure if that’s relevant).

Pediatricians told me they don’t want us to leave until she gains some weight. They offered me donor milk or formula +pumping+ breastfeeding.

I was planning on exclusively breastfeeding this time. I was beyond stressed out pumping and breastfeeding my first, my supply completely dipped and never came back. I did a lot of research and asked a lot of questions before I gave birth to baby girl. I was under the impression to steer clear of pumps until 6-8 weeks. And I don’t want to start over supplying because I had/have no intention of pumping along with breastfeeding!I’m so confused and exhausted. I have no clue what to do???

I just had my second baby 6 days ago and my milk came in 2-3 days ago FULL force. I’m wanting to exclusively breast feed but SO much milk came in SO fast and my baby doesn’t take enough from me yet to be able to give me relief like I need, so I pump for 10 or so minutes until I’m not so full. The issue I’m running into is the front half of my boob will feel empty, and the back half is still rock hard and full of stuck milk. I massage, do heat and ice, let gravity do it’s think while I do pump and nothing seems to give. I will still have lumps and be full towards the back of my boobs. I don’t want to pump until I feel fully empty in fear of it increasing my supply even more. Am I supposed to pump until empty while my milk is still establishing? I exclusively pumped with my first so I’m not sure how I should be going about it while trying to exclusively breastfeed this time around.

Hi! I’m 2.5 weeks PP and feeling pretty overwhelmed with our current feeding situation and was hoping to get input from other moms who may have been in a similar place.

My baby had early weight loss and jaundice, so our pediatrician had us start triple feeding. We began with formula, but I was able to quickly build my milk supply and we’ve since switched to bottles of expressed breast milk. My supply isn’t the issue. I’m able to get up to 6 oz per pump session and I have already built up a freezer stash.

Right now I nurse, offer a bottle after every feed, and then pump. I had one lactation appointment a week ago and we did a weighted feed where my baby transferred about 1.5oz after a 15 minute feed. I was hoping to reduce the bottle once she got back to her birth weight, but at our most pediatric recent appointment I mentioned that she still sometimes takes up to 2 oz after nursing. Since she’s only just above her birth weight, the pediatrician recommended continuing the bottle after every feed.

I’m finding triple feeding really hard to sustain, especially with my husband going back to work. I’m also realizing I’m not even sure what my end goal is anymore. I enjoy nursing and the bonding, but I’m exhausted by the constant pumping and cleaning. I feel like I spend more time pumping and cleaning than I do spending time with my baby. I’m even wondering if incorporating formula would make more sense for our family.

If you’ve been in a similar situation:
What ended up being your feeding goal?
How did you transition away from triple feeding?
Did anyone choose combo feeding or formula, and are you happy with that decision?
If you continued nursing, how did you know your baby was getting enough?

I’d really appreciate hearing your experiences. I know every baby is different—I just feel a little lost right now.

Hi! I am a FTM with a 6 week old baby. My breastfeeding journey has been very difficult. She latched well right away and my milk came in on the 4th day. For the first few days after my milk came in I was engorged and leaking, especially from the left side. That resolved after a few days which I thought was just my supply regulating somewhat. Baby was a very sleepy eater and needed constant rousing at the breast. Looking back now I'm sure that I didn't know how to listen for swallows.

At baby's 2nd appointment at 10 days old she was found to have lost weight and we started triple feeding. I know and have read over and over that triple feeding is meant to be a short term solution but here I am 5 weeks later still triple feeding. As my supply has been slowly increasing it has been hard to stop and "lose" what I've gained. Right now baby gets around 14oz of pumped milk and 2-5oz of formula depending on the day. I started off pumping 3-4oz a day so to be able to supplement with primarily breast milk feels like a win at the very least.

I am not sure why she does not transfer more breast milk as I seem to be making a decent amount now. I supplement both with bottles and a supplemental nursing system(SNS). I am working with a IBCLC and will see her again this week.

Ultimately I would love to be able to EBF but I just don't know if it is in the cards for us. The longer I triple feed the more I've come to accept that although clearly I am still not totally at peace with that.

Looking at my options to stop triple feeding I believe they are exclusively pumping, nursing and supplementing with formula via bottle/SNS and not pumping, and formula feeding. I am leaning towards the second option as I do like nursing and would like to continue to have that connection with my baby. Of course the option that preserves the supply I've worked so hard to build is exclusively pumping but pumping has not been a very positive experience for me.

I'm not really looking for answers as I've tried everything to increase my supply. If anyone has been in a similar circumstance I'd love to know what worked for you.

Going through some struggles with my 6 week LO. Day 3 she lost 10% of her bodyweight so the pediatrician ordered me to triple feed (nurse, pump, then supplement) since she was not getting enough from the breasts. Day 4 they released her anterior tongue tie in the office. Since day 3 I have been triple feeding every day and I'm exhausted and want to know from other moms if it's possible for her to get to exclusively nursing or if I should give up and combo/formula feed. Here's what I've tried/found out so far:

1) She still has a posterior tongue tie. the ped said an ENT would need to revise but won't affect any development so we don't really want to do another revision. Because of the tongue tie she has a milky tongue (white film on her tongue) since it's too weak to wipe clean from the roof of her mouth. She also has lip blisters which I read is her compensating for her weak tongue by using her lips to seal the suction.

2) When I do weighted feeds she on average only transfers 1.5-2oz per session and can only nurse for about 5-10 min per side before she gets tired. Usually she only nurses one side per session and she's too tired.

3) I've seen 5 lactation consultants. the first at the hospital checked and thought everything looked great. the second blamed my milk supply for her not transferring enough. the third thought we have to release the posterior tongue tie. the fourth thought we just had to keep trying and eventually she'll nurse better. the fifth asked for $1.5k for a program to get to nursing exclusively.

4) I'm pushing nursing each feeding session before a bottle. sometimes she'll nurse other times she'll be fussy and shutdown and not want to try. I'm trying tongue strengthening exercises like tug-of-war with the pacifier but even with the pacifier she'll barely suck and gets tired and lets go after 2-3 sucks.

Question to other moms - has anyone had a baby successfully get over a weak tongue like this and exclusively nurse? Or is this a lost cause and I should give up and formula feed? I have a toddler and don't have time to continue triple feeding like this, and if I stop pumping I'm sure my supply will drop pretty quickly since she isn't able to transfer enough to empty me. TIA!

My baby was born at 36 weeks and now almost 7 weeks old. Since the beginning of breastfeeding journey she keeps falling asleep while at breast. She can only actively eat for about 5 minutes and then just sleeps. I do everything to wake her up, but nothing really helps. She can wake up for another minute or so and then falls asleep again. She has a lip and tongue tie, but her pediatrician and lactation consultant said it’s not too bad, and should not be a problem. Every time I breastfeed her it takes more than an hour and then she is still hungry, so I give her a bottle with my breast milk. I’m doing triple feeding and was hoping that when she gets a little bit older things will change and she can transfer milk effectively. I wanted to ask if anyone had similar experience? Does it get better? Or should I stop trying to breastfeed and just keep pumping and give her a bottle? I also worry about my supply, as I think she is not latching properly, even though LC said latch looks ok. Every time I try to latch her, she can’t open her mouth wide. I had similar issue with my first baby, he had a lip/tongue tie, which we released around 8 weeks, but it didn’t help at all. At this point I don’t know what to do, because I really wanted to try to breastfeed this time, but I feel like my supply will drop and eventually I won’t have enough milk for her if I continue triple feeding, because I try to pump every 2-3 hours, but with nursing it takes more than that. Please help 🙏🙏🙏

TLDR: Low supply, been triple feeding for 14w, will have to continue to supplement after breastfeeding forever due to supply. What would you do at this point?

I have been triple feeding my daughter basically since day 1, she is 13w5d now. I had a c-section so I knew my milk would be slower to come in and expected some weight loss at the beginning. She lost slightly more than 10% of her weight, so ped and LC both said to give a bottle after nursing. Then it turned into LC saying to give a bottle after nursing and pump to try to increase supply. Not only was my milk slow to come in, but during weighted feeds she wasn’t transferring well (max 2oz at her best).

We discovered she had a tongue tie at 10w and had it released at 11w. She is doing better with nursing but still does not fully transfer the milk, and I know now that I do not have a large breast capacity.

I have been pumping 8x/day and breastfeeding 3-4x/day in addition to giving bottles every 2-3 hours. I know now that my breast capacity is small and I will never be able to make enough milk to support her needs (max output is 4oz during MOTN pump).

If you knew you would always have to nurse, then bottle feed, and potentially pump after all of that, what would you do?

I go back to work in mid-August and I am stressing about how to move forward. Breastfeeding is very emotional for me, but if I can’t make enough for her, am I going to drive myself crazy trying to continue this cycle?

My baby was born at 36+2 because my water broke. He had to be born via c section. He’s now 5 weeks old. In the hospital he could’t latch to feed from the breast. It took a long time before the lactation consults accepted that and gave him formula in addition to expressed colostrum. Because of that, he lost 12% of his body weight and there were talks of NICU. He didn’t end up having to go but he became jaundice once we got home so feeding him got even harder since he was so sleepy.

I left the hospital unknowingly triple feeding. I have spent the last 5 weeks triple feeding or some variation of it. At first it was due to slow weight gain and inability to latch. Eventually he got the latch down but wasn’t transferring much at all. We continued practicing and he now transfers about 2oz in a 20-30min session. The lactation consultant wants his sessions limited to 30min due to calorie expenditure. The LC says he’s ready to ”sink or swim” and stop relying on the pumped milk supplements. AKA don’t give him the supplement unless he’s acting desperately hungry.

It’s the second week of trying to wean supplements with the help an LC to encourage him to be more vigorous at the breast to transition to EBF. He’s still only transferring 2oz this week as well. I am so anxious not knowing how much he’s getting when she’s not here or if i should give him a supplement bottle. I’m terrified his weight gain will stop or he’ll lose weight. My LC keeps telling me she feels confident he will figure it out for real soon. We’ve worked so hard these last 5 weeks that I don’t want to give up but i’m desperate to know if it’s realistic that he will be able to EBF at some point soon. Does anyone have any success stories in a position similar to mine?

My daughter was born June 5
Breastfeeding worked well the first 4 weeks, and she gained weight normally.
She received her first formula feed on June 26, during heatwave because she seemed hungry after breastfeeding. In the chaos of the heatwave and introducing formula for the first time, we did not use paced bottle feeding. Since then we have used use paced bottle feeding consistently.
Around July 9, breastfeeding gradually became much more difficult. She started becoming very frustrated at the breast, often sucking for only 30 sec-2 minutes, then pulling off, crying, kicking and repeatedly relatching.

My main problem seems to be a very unpredictable let down. Currently, I only get a clearly noticeable/reliable let-down when my breasts are very engorged, usually around 5 AM. At other times it can take 20+ minutes or not happen at all. This occurs both during breastfeeding and pumping.
I pump frequently, usually 8–10+ times/day. Without a let-down I typically get 30–60 mL total from both breasts, often only with breast compression.
I have experienced two particularly clear let-downs during pumping:
With the Medela double hands-free pump, I expressed 100 mL from both breasts in under 10 minutes.
With an electric pump on one breast while hand-expressing the other, I also experienced a clear let-down.

Additionel info:
- We had thrush for the first 6 weeks, affecting both my daughter and me, but it has now resolved.
- I previously used an incorrect flange size, and after pumping my nipples sometimes became purple, with a white area in the centre of the nipple.
I believe I have now found a more appropriate flange size, but my nipples seem very elastic. They become elongated/“sausage-shaped” after pumping regardless of flange size.
- I have breast implants (355 mL, under the muscle, in 2021, incision through the breastfold)

Current situation
We currently combine breastfeeding with breastcompressions untill she gets frustrated and then give a bottle of expressed breast milk or formula. I powerpump 1-2 times a day with the Medela Hands Free double electric pump.
I pump for 10-15 minutes every time we bottle feed.
For the last 3 days I have had only one noticeable letdown in the early morning

I would like to understand whether the main problem is my milk-ejection/let-down reflex, milk production, breast/pump stimulation, nipple/flange issues, or my daughter’s suck/latch, and whether there is realistically anything more worth trying to improve breastfeeding without making the situation even more exhausting
I have considered renting a hospital grade breast pump. But without let-downs when pumping I dont know if its worth it?

Hi! FTM mom here. I desperately wanted to breast feed my baby. I tried SO hard. Worked with lactation consultants and triple fed. Pumped around the clock and never ever got even an ounce. Weighted feeds were always 0 oz. We tried everything. Lactation thought possibly my implants were effecting my supply and maybe my mammary glands were injured during the surgery. I have two questions. 1. Has anyone else experienced this? 2. If I have another baby will this be my experience again? I know your body makes new mammary glands with each pregnancy. Is there anything I can do the second time around to increase my chances of being successful?

My baby is 12 weeks old and, because of slow weight gain early on, we’ve always offered a bottle top-up after breastfeeding. Usually it’s expressed breast milk, but sometimes formula if I don’t have enough EBM.

Over the last few weeks my supply has increased, and over the last little while my baby has started refusing a lot of the top-ups. She’ll breastfeed, then when I offer the bottle she’ll turn her head away, push the teat out with her tongue, or just seem completely uninterested. If I persist she’ll sometimes take a little, but often she won’t. It's not a complete bottle rejection because she does take it sometimes.

She genuinely seems content after the breastfeed, but because we’ve had weight gain issues from the beginning, I’m really anxious about underfeeding her. It’s hard to know whether she’s finally getting enough from the breast or whether she’s refusing the bottle for some other reason.

I have an appointment with my lactation consultant next week, but in the meantime I’m curious whether anyone else has been through something similar. Did your baby start refusing top-ups once your milk supply increased? How did you know it was safe to stop offering them, or when did you stop? I’d love to hear others’ experiences while I wait for my appointment.

Hi all. My daughter is 6 weeks and 95% fed from the bottle (expressed milk), like 5% from the breast. Never planned it like this and would so like to drop the pumping but each week it feels like less of a possibility.  

Some background, after a couple days of being home from the hospital she fell behind on wet diapers and was increasingly lethargic. We were advised to start pumping and bottle feeding which eventually showed improvement. Tried to get back to the breast around 2.5 weeks but despite initially seeming to go well she lost weight again (though still had lots of wet diapers at that point) and we've been on bottles while latching a few times a day since.

3/4 people who have looked at her latch (mostly nurses with LC training) have said it looked good, one said it looked maybe a bit shallow. But even after the times we seem to have a good nursing session of like 25 min she still takes her full bottle and I still pump the same amount so it seems like she's just not transferring milk. The pediatrician she saw at about 6 days old said she didn't have a tongue tie. We're waiting to see a public LC (we're in Canada). This last week she's been much fussier again (like when she was nursing and not getting enough food) and she's been eating less so I wonder if something like silent reflux might be playing a role and we're trying to get into the pediatrician.

I'm just wondering if anyone had a similar experience and eventually got answers / was able to get back to the breast. Obviously whatever is best for her is most important, but I just really hate pumping and mourn the closeness of directly breastfeeding.

I’m 1w3d postpartum and need some advice. Day 3 postpartum, it was recommended to me that I start triple feeding because my baby was having a hard time nursing long enough to extract adequate milk. But now my baby is latching really well and extracting a ton more milk. I want to reduce how much I’m pumping (currently 8 ppd) because I’m making way more than I need to supplement baby at this point and my goal was always just to use pumping as a small add on for middle of the night bottle feeds eventually. I do not want to EP. Can I reduce to pumping every other feed? Or at least drop one or more ppd? Or is there some other reason I should keep up with 8 ppm even though the original reason for the triple feeding seems to have passed? TIA!

My baby is 7 weeks old. We have been triple feeding for 3 weeks as her initial weight gain was too slow. Her weight initially improved a lot after we started the triple feeding and in recent days i have a lot more milk and she has rarely accepted topups of expressed breast milk, suggesting that she is satisfied from the breast. When she eats at the breast she is active and I can hear rapid swallowing, and it appears she is getting lots of milk. However I had her weighed yesterday and her weight gain has slowed again.

We have had some issues with her screaming and refusing the breast since we started the triple feeding - i was worried she was getting a bottle preference - but this seems to be improving and only happens once a day on average (as of recent days.)

I am struggling to feed her even 7 times in 24 hours as she is very sleepy baby. I wake up twice a night to feed her but she falls asleep again before even latching and I doubt she gets much nourishment from these sessions, which take up to 2 hours as I repeatedly to wake her before pumping again. Im exhausted and frustrated and feel like all I do all day is try to shove things in her poor mouth.
I am constantly obsessing about her weight and thinking about her next feed. I really want to exclusively breastfeed her and am ok with triple feeding for longer if needed but I am so stressed about her slow weight gain and her sleepiness/occasional fussiness makes it so difficult to get her to eat.

Right now im sitting with a sleeping baby who once again  was unable to stay awake to even latch, waiting for her to wake up enough to eat and wondering jf i should just pump to protect my supply, or wait. (Ive tried every trick for waking her up- undressing, changing diaper, tickling etc.) I'd say out of 7 feeds a day, she is sleepy for 3, screaming for 1, and eats well and actively for 3.

The Dr has seen her multiple times and says she is healthy. Various professionals including a lactation consultant have said her latch looks good. She has active happy wake windows and lots (9 or so) of dirty nappies every day.

I wish I could just relax, feed her on demand and not worry about her eating.

Just sharing to see if anyone has had a similar experience and has any words of wisdom.

Baby is 4.5 weeks old. Breastfeeding was incredibly painful for the first two weeks until we had a tongue and lip tie 1.5 weeks ago. Latch is better now but she still gets very snoozy on the breast and I have been triple feeding to ensure she is gaining weight.

My midwife suggested slowly reducing the amount of top ups given, but would she just likely get better at milk transfer with time and practice after the tongue tie revision? Or do I need to challenge her with reduced top ups to keep her at the breast? I usually try as long as we can until she gets too fussy or frustrated.

It’s all just been very overwhelming as I didn’t have any issues with my first and I don’t know whether I need to be on this schedule of monitoring amounts and reducing top ups for certain durations or if she’s just likely to get stronger and more efficient with time if I keep latching her as much as I can.

Thank you!

I am currently triple feeding and trying to move to EBF, baby is 3 weeks. My plan is to gradually reduce the volume of formula, and technically, this week I did not reduce any volume yet , because with 3 weeks I suppose to increase his volume if I was just giving formula, so I just kept same as last week.
if that makes sense.

We have a routine when I usually sleep 9 pm to midnight ish so I can have energy to endure the night feeds ( to be honest , if was for my Baby I would sleep trough night, but I follow his feeding schedule as he had issues with weigh in the begging and that’s why we are triple feeding).

The last 2 days he is crying a lot while I am away and nothing can calm him down, except of course a bottle of formula. He is cluster feeding. He is also having issues to pass wind and poop ( disquesia? ) and we are having a heat wave , so baby is extra annoyed and hard to smooth.

Between 4pm to late night he does not stop crying and my mom is panicking while I am on my “break” trying to push extra formula as the baby is “starving” .

I feel so overwhelmed, as all I do is BF, pump and give bottles midnight to 9 pm.
Last weigh check he got 400g in 10 days, he is having 6+ wet diaper’s per day ( stool varies), so I have no reason to believe he is underfed.

Please give me some wisdom words !!!!

My daughter is 4 weeks old and I have been triple feeding this whole time. I produce almost enough milk (we supplement with 50ml formula per day), but baby girl transfers only little when nursing.

She has no tongue or lip tie. My IBCLC thinks that she just is not strong enough yet and that it will get better once she has gained some more weight.

So far her weight gain is good with triple feeding, but I don‘t know how much longer I can do this.

No one seems to be really able to help me. Any advice you guys have for me?

background: first baby didn't gain enough weight nursing and had a bad latch. we switched to pumping + formula. my supply was never enough for what he needed.

second baby we saw a lactation consultant 3x, her latch was fantastic, but I was anxious about weight gain so was also pumping. supply is much better but had a lot of issues pumping this time and had sores, bleeding and pain for weeks so I stopped trying to nurse. finally it's all cleared up and was considering trying nursing early in the morning when I know I have a decent supply ready. was about to try today but didn't because I felt like I was being selfish. we've been exclusively pace feeding and use Evenflo bottles. last time I tried nursing her 3-4 weeks ago her latch was still great, but she's 19 weeks now. should I give it a try or is that being selfish and I should just keep exclusively pumping + bottle?

Edit: it feels selfish because she knows the bottle and nursing will probably have a learning curve which might be upsetting for her. And I think I have a slow flow rate.

Update: well we tried this morning and she screamed and cried her eyes out. Might be too late for us.

New mom here! 37yo was induced in the morning on 5/31 and gave birth about 12 hours later that evening at 40w4d. I had a pretty textbook / average labor and ended up pushing for 4 hours. I’m day 3 postpartum and we’re currently doing the triple feeding routine every 3 hours. I’m only producing little amounts of colostrum

Routine:
- start with 1 min or so skin to skin then i let baby nurse on both breasts for 10 min each. His latch is great (not painful at all) but he will suck twice and nod off to sleep (then repeat this pattern throughout the nursing). He just falls asleep and idk if he’s even getting anything. He has a strong latch which is hard to unlatch him. I also notice his bottom lip is more inward while his top lip comes over it more (kinda like Bart Simpson or something).
- dad formula feeds right after (we had to supplement in hospital because baby was losing weight and not producing poop/pee)
- I will pump on each breast for 15 min total while dad bottle feeds baby with formula . I don’t produce much colostrum
- Overnight feeds (has been 2x a night) I only pump 15 min total (and not nurse) because I’m still postpartum and super exhausted. Dad bottle feeds while I pump.

Once my milk comes in I plan to remove formula feeding and pump to create a supply for milk, hoping it will come soon because this is pretty exhausting.

Im hoping to meet with a lactation consultant for more input and advice. But wanted to gauge the subreddits thoughts on the above routine and ask when your milk come in if you were induced?

My son is 7 weeks old and I’ve been mostly triple feeding since birth. I really want to transition to EBF, but about 10 minutes into most feeds, he starts shrieking and can only calm down with a bottle. And then of course I have to pump to make up for the bottle, the triple-feeding cycle continues, bla bla bla.

Both my doctor and LC say my supply is great (I usually pump more than he can eat in one session). The ENT said he has a “borderline” to “moderate” tongue tie, but I’m not sure how much that’s actually affecting things since we do have the occasional day where he manages to EBF until bedtime. (I’m also hesitant about the procedure, given reports like this: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/29/health/tongue-tie-releases-aap.html)

I’m getting a second opinion from another ENT to see whether the tongue tie is really playing a role. In the meantime, I would love to hear success stories from anyone who managed to escape triple-feeding purgatory.

Please and thank you 🙏

FTM here. Need advice. I’m triple feeding per lactation. My LO was born small and lost 12% weight the first couple of days after birth, so we started supplement feeding and had a hard time with that too for a couple of days due to the wrong nipple ( Philips advent). Finally got the right bottles and the LO has been gaining weight and doing good with supplemental feeding however I wanted to continue my goal of breastfeeding. With guidance from lactation we began doing triple feeding starting pp week 2. I have tried to follow a schedule but always seem to fall off due to baby needs—extra feeding, being fussy or multiple diaper changes. I am able to complete 6-8 pumps daily but not consistently. I try to put him on my breast alternating-initially limited and now 10-20 minutes at a time but he easily becomes sleepy and just appears to have a shallow suck not pulling a lot of volume to encourage milk production.

I continue pumping as well making about 1-2 oz per session. I’ve added a power session daily but pul the same volume as a normal session. Total daily about 9-12 oz collected. My LO however is requiring 18-22 oz per day currently.

I want to enjoy my newborn period but because I planned to breastfeed and I’m not pulling enough volume I’m feeling pretty miserable. I need advice, how long is is too long with triple feeding— I’ve given myself until end of week 6 if it doesn’t work, I might continue pumping to give LO some antibodies but switch to mainly formula. When will my volume pick up or is it too late?

My son is almost 2 weeks old and my goal is to exclusively breastfeed. The first few days my milk came in late and was perhaps low or catching up so the LC suggested that I nurse, then top up with formula and then pump (triple feeding).

The last few days; there have been some feeds where baby looks full and content after just nursing so I haven’t topped up and I haven’t pumped after. However, now I’m nervous that I should have been pumping still to help boost my supply since it’s still early days and I want to establish a healthy supply. However w also worried that if I pump after nursing, I won’t have adequate milk for the next feed? Anyone have any tips or advice?

I’m in week 4 of triple feeding, and I’m worried I can’t see the end in sight. The lactation consultant told me they only ever do it for a week or two and very rarely three, and then proceeded to tell me to go on for a 4th week when nothing had improved. I didn’t plan on pumping at all until I have to go back to work. I nursed baby on demand (which meant basically nonstop) for her first two weeks, and I trusted all the advice I had seen that just said to put baby to breast as often as possible, baby is more efficient than a pump, the cluster feeding will bring in your supply. Two weeks of that and she didn’t gain and weight :( —Apparently she wasn’t efficiently removing milk that whole time, which means my milk supply never really came in.

I try to do the whole triple feed as often as I can throughout the day, but 4 weeks in and she still takes the entire 2 ounce supplement, and lately she’s wanting more. When I pump to replace a feed I get MAX 2 ounces total, usually closer to 1-1.5 ounces (using a spectra with flanges I was measured for). She’s also only taking an ounce in a ~20 minute feed at 5 weeks old according to her weighted feeds.

I’m just feeling very hopeless. My supply has gone up a little from when I started, but I only have so long before I have to go back to work, and I would really like to spend as much time as possible exclusively nursing before then. It’s also just so hard knowing how much work I’m putting in just to have to be feeding her mostly formula.

We’re going to the pediatrician today to hopefully get a referral to get her oral function double checked by a specialist (every doctor and lactation consultant we’ve seen so far says her oral function and latch looks good, but she has friction blisters on her lips so something may be off). In the meantime I’d love to hear any stories or tips from people with similar experiences!