Breast and Bottle?

[madvoice]

Over the last few weeks my 16wko (4 calendar months as of the end of next week) daughter has become very fussy. She's obviously hungry but for some reason I don't think I have enough breastmilk to support her hunger. The biggest change I've noticed in Raleigh is that she's been waking up more frequently during the night and she's been harder to resettle as I think she's still hungry.

Yesterday I bit the bullet and bought a copule of sachets of Karicare Gold formula (feedback on this would be appreciated too :D). When I got home, I initially fed her on the breast then I mixed a bottle (I've got bottles since I was expressing milk early on in the piece but now I can't really express (no more than 40ml at a time if I'm lucky)) and she drank about 2/3 of it. Last night she only got up once. She slept from 5.30pm to 11pm then I fed her breast with a bottle top up and then slept from 11.30pm to 5.30am. It was AMAZING. I wonder if anyone else has gone through the same thing.

Earlier on, I was able to express around 120ml at a sitting and was feeding Raleigh EBM but like I mentioned above, its now almost gone. My diet is good, I'm making sure that I get enough water but Raleigh seems to be a very hungry baby. I was planning at weaning her at 6 months as I have to return to work then but I am thinking it may end up being sooner.

[mimi]

I think you should perhaps talk to a Lactation Consultant or an ABA person about this! Because you know that as soon as you start giving complimentary feeds of formula, whether your milk supply was inadequate or not, your own supply will automatically reduce. This is the downward spiral MANY mums get into - think there is not enough, then comp feed and inevitably, eventually 'no' milk!

Milk is made on/by demand, and if the demand is reduced [giving formula instead] then the supply is automatically reduced!

Have someone check it out for you soon!

[razzle]

I'm closing this thread to avoid any breast vs bottle arguments on request of madvoice.