DD2 is 3.5months old. Due to health issues, she is still a tiny 3.6kg and she has a naso-gastric tube for overnight feeding. She is breast fed on demand during the day and has 3 feeds via the ng tube overnight, which is EBM with added calories and some formula. She has these feeds 4 hourly, and I express each time. I was wondering if I was to not express for the middle overnight feed would it effect my supply during the day?
I'm not an expert, but in my experience I'd say no. When both my DDs stopped waking for a night feed I still found my supply good during the day. The only thing would be to make sure you are still able to express enough for those overnight feeds I guess.
Wow you are doing an incredible job- expressing isn't easy especially during the night. Your little one has been given a beautiful gift through all that mama milk.
I'd agree with Chody- your supply should be fine. If it does drop slightly, your body will soon get the memo to make enough for baby during the day since you are demand feeding then- demand feeding ensures a perfect supply for bubba's needs.
Again, congratulations on such an awesome job BF so far. I find it really inspiring.
Hi, When you say breastfeeding on demand, how often does she feed during the day? You have a special situation - it is important to have the extra milk for your baby and it sounds like she is not able to feed effectively, hence the tube. It would be normal for a 3.5 mnth old baby to still be waking every several times per night for a feed. So, I think, for now you would be better off to continue to expess. If milk supply drops, at this stage, it will be relatively more difficult to build it up. I don’t think you can extrapolate from other people’s “normal” situations. Usually babies wouldn’t sleep through until they are much older. You are doing an amazing job. Make sure you have the best equiptment, a good hospital grade rental pump for instance. Get support from friends and family where you can.
Thanks. Barb, she is feeding roughly 2-3 hourly during the day, so has between 4-6 feeds between 6am and 7pm roughly. Although the time of her first feeds depends on the time of her last tube feed. I think her feeding during the day is good, she just does not wake up overnight. She doesn't sleep very well during the day but is content when she is awake. I think my supply is ok during the day, although I do take motilium. Last week she pulled her tube out before the first night feed and so we decided to see what she did overnight, she fed at 9pm and then didn't wake till 6am. She has Down Syndrome, a high pallette so we still use a nipple shield and laryngeal malacia, which she on oxygen to help with her breathing. Her weight gain even with the added calories is slow as she is expending more energy than usual to breath. Bottles were banned by the speech path, although that is going to be reassessed in the next couple of weeks. My plan was to continue to express at the 1st and third overnight feeds, but miss the middle one so that DH and I could take turns so that every second night we could get more sleep. We are at that point that we are running on empty as we are lucky to get 6 hours of sleep at night, and that is broken. Both my son and older daughter wake overnight most nights too, and so I have no dreams of being able to sleep a full 8 hours unbroken. We also have kindy drop offs for DD1 (soon to be school), various medical appointments and early intervention for DD2 and speech sessions for my son so sleeping during the day is out. I have the medala symphony on hire. I'm aware that I may not have enough EBM to give her purely that overnight, but I was just wondering how it would affect my supply during the day.
Last edited by SammyRo; June 25th, 2013 at 01:44 PM.
Hi, You are really, really doing something quite amazing for your little one, and I have worked very closely with mums of babies with Down Syndrome. And I mean this very sincerely when I say you have got one of the hardest roads. Your little one is not having many feeds during the day and she is probably not very effective at milking the breast due to her issues. I could tell you it would be alright, but really, your supply will suffer if you don’t express overnight. And as she gets older it will be harder to build your supply. However, it won’t always be so difficult or intense. She will get better and better at feeding. Do you express after your daytime feeds? You need all the help you can get here. Get a hospital grade medela symphony (hire from ABA) - don’t muck around with anything less. The cost is completely worth it. Keep expressing to a minimum - just 5 mins each side with a good pump - but it’s worth it, particularly if she needs surgery down the track. If you want to talk it through pm me and we can talk
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dropping a feed/expression overnight and supply
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