Supply in the afternoon

[alanasmum]

DD is almost fully breastfed and only has the occasional bottle of formula now. Her twin is FF due to a number of issues.

My question is regarding supply in the afternoon and early evening. She seems very satisfied with the overnight and morning feeds (around midnight, 6.00am and 10.00am) and my supply at these times seems to be very good. But she is never satisfied in the afternoons and it affects her sleep.

I let her feed frequently in the afternoons but it does not seem to make much difference and it is not overly practical with another baby and a toddler to take care of.

I have tried giving her a bottle of formula in the afternoon to make sure she is satisfied but I then find that she is not overly interested in breastfeeding later on and I end up with too much supply around 10pm. She doesn't wake for a feed until b/w midnight and 2am.

Any ideas please? I have tried various supply boosting things over the last few months - fenugreek, blessed thistle and the cookies but they all seemed to give her an upset tummy. Could it be that she is ready for solids? She is almost 5 months.

[our little treasures]

Are you drained, huh yes I hear you say.. lol I find my arvo feeds are not as "good quality" as my mornign evening.
Mine is due to exhaustion. My body has been going all day non stop and I am trying to feed baby as well. It takes it's toll. I know this is not going to help you

But I nap with my toddler and baby when I notice my supply is suffering. I pop my son on the computer lock everything up and lay with the 2 of them. I only do this when supply is really suffering after several late nights a stressful week etc.

Also I find drinking extra water during these days as well. I feel that helps getting extra milk.

Oh adn are you eating? When I skip breaky DD is not settled in the afternoon.

I think it all comes down to you being well rested as well.

I really hope you work it out.
You're doing such a great job so far!!:flowerz:

[katieinwa]

i always found that it took till afternoon for the full feeling to go away. because over night my body is still telling me to make lots of milk and thus wake with engorgment. once the engorgement is taken care of by the morning feeds then my body would make the right amount of milk that DD needed for the rest of the day. this milk is thicker than the watery morning milk and left her feeling fuller and set her up for a nice long sleep at night. i guess one would also call it "arsenic hours" at first i mistook it for not having enough milk but really my body was doing what its meant to be doing. you are never empty of milk, your body is making more as bubs takes the milk away. after some months my body adjusted so that it made milk when it was needed.

having been through the exact same thing at the same time (i took the fenugreek and BT capsules and my supply would perk up for a day or 2 but it was like a battle between my body supplying milk for my DD and fighting against what i was trying to overstimulate) all i can advise you to keep perserveerig if you can is to just demand feed your DD through the afternoon and early evening. bottle milk takes longer to digest so that is probably the reason why she is not interested in the 10pm feed. your body has missed the earlier feeds so thats why you have the oversupply by that time in the night

hope this helps...this info is based on several LC's, info from ABA and my own personal experience :)

oh and keep up with the water and food