Expert: ruth kraft - 12/1/2009

Question
My son is almost 5 months old and we have been breast feeding the whole time.  Everything has gone smoothly until about 3 days ago when i noticed in the afternoon and evening when he eats he gets real fussy when eating. He gets off and back on my breast and I finally tried expressing some milk and nothing is coming out.  I feel like hes getting fussy because There is no milk for him so I have been giving him formula so he doesn't go hungry.  We have given him formula only a few times to supplement for a feeding that would have been missed due to various reasons.  Also, I pump everyday at work so there is some milk for him the next day.  It has been going ok, but I do notice a lessening in the amount that is being pumped.  I was just wondering why this would be happening and if there is any way for me to increase the supply so I don't have to switch him to formula for good. Thank you.  

Answer
The more formula you feed the less milk you will make. It sounds to me like he was starting a growth spurt ( acting like he wanted more etc ) I have never had a client who had great success for 5 months and then suddenly milk dried for no reason. If you feed formula or give other foods, or even excess use of a pacifier it will reduce milk supply because there isnt the amount of nursing that would have been before.  

So my suggestion would be to not give the formula at all. drink some mothers milk tea and fenugreek, continue pumping as you have, maybe increase it by a time a day etc just to see what happens until it gets back to where it was. If you have started solids, milk will go down. And of couse, any formula given should be replaced by the same amount of pumping. If it was a growth spurt, then nursing is even more important, just keep offering to the baby and he will eventually take it. He needs to increase supply through the growth spurt.  

I hope that helped !