Time Saving Measures

I see many families who are "triple feeding" - baby to breast, pumping, bottlefeeding - for various reasons such as low milk supply or oral restrictions. While this strategy can and should be a temporary measure while we work toward the root of the problem, it can still be exhausting and time-consuming. Recently, I have found myself with families brainstorming time-saving measures for this situation! Here are a couple of examples...

• Latch baby and pump at the same time - if baby latches easily and you can sling them diagonally down your body, freeing up the other breast....there you go! My only caveat...baby gets first dibs on both sides!

• Consider an SNS to supplement directly at the breast - this is a system with a bottle of expressed milk or formula being fed by tube directly at the breast. A fantastic way for a low-supply parent to combine the "bottle" with breast time!

Back To Work Planning

Back To Work?

One of my most popular follow-up visits is for back to work planning! Ideally, families have been moving along with breastfeeding, have practiced pumping and baby has practiced taking a bottle, and now they are ready to return to the office. I tend to get a lot of questions like - "Will I make enough milk?" "How do I know how much to send?"

Also, really common - "Daycare is saying to send more milk, but I am not producing as much as they are asking for! What do I do now? Does my baby need formula?"

Sometimes, in these scenarios, the parent IS producing enough, and some tweaks can be made to the management of what is sent, and the misunderstandings related to appropriate volumes for breastmilk vs formula. I like to look at the whole scenario - is baby being paced fed a slow flow bottle? how many total feeds are they taking these days? are solids in the mix, or on the horizon? The full picture helps us to see if more milk being sent is an appropriate request! I want to encourage everyone to take a step back and look at the full picture before jumping to "my milk supply is too low!" And, if it truly is lower than expected, there are strategies for that as well. The approach to these very common questions is not one size fits all!

Sidelying Paced Bottle Feeding

I often share about the importance of paced bottle feeding, especially when the goal is to have the baby easily go between breast and bottle. The idea is to slow down the flow of milk, and allow baby to control the feed, as they would at breast. Encourage them to latch in the same way, reward with milk when they "work" for it, tilt back and allow breaks, and generally follow their cues! Paced bottle feeding can be done with baby sitting upright, and also in a side-lying position as shown in the image here. Give it a try and see what your baby likes best!