Slow let-down? Baby prefers breast w/ SNS.

[germin8]

Help me figure this out.

During a roadtrip, we bottlefed our 2 month old DD. I would pump in the car afterwards and would get 1 ounce. (BTW, I have a low supply...)

What I am wondering is... when we are home and it's time to feed our DD, she is not satisfied with breast alone so we use SNS. Why can't she nurse the 1 ounce (or more) that I have without the SNS and without getting desperate for more? She just gives up and cries!!! So, I have to put the Medela SNS with the supplement. I use the largest tube (size 4?), and then she's happy. I'm sure she gets the 1 oz from me this way too. But, why does it have to be this way... do I have a slow let down? Is the quantity coming out just not enough for her?

Oddly, she is fine nursing at 1AM, 3AM, 5AM without SNS. This is when she's kinda sleeping anyway. When I pump at this time, I get about 1 - 1.5 ounces, depending how much she has had... she usually doesn't have very much.

Help!


Also, I want to stop pumping at 5AM since it is my peak production and I want her to nurse and have that, rather than have it pumped out and she is left with 1 ounce in 2 hours when it's time to eat again. Ideas on that too?

[ewe+lamb]

For nursing withthe SNS I would get the smaller tube size - just the next one down which will make a slight difference but not enormous, then after that the next one down and so on, it sounds as if she has a bit of a lazy suck so maybe doing some exercises to strengthen the suck would be a good idea, wash your hands thoroughly, then insert your little finger palm side up into baby's mouth, let her suck a few times and then start to pull your little finger out gently encouraging her to suck to pull it back into the mouth, keep doing this to strengthen the suck for as long as you need to.

Have you seen this website www.biologicalnurturing.com this could be of help to maybe get out of the use of the SNS and back to the breast full time, and if you can i would highly recommend a nursing vacation in bed, yup get organised cancel all play dates, outings, appointments you may have and go to bed with your baby nurse as much as possible, take her into the bath to nurse - which encourages bonding and revives birthing experiences, you never know something like this may just help to stop the supplements - keep pumping until you really notice a difference.

Finally, when your baby is nursing you have no idea 'how' much milk she takes - no mother knows, and just because she cries may not be indicative of hunger, she maybe tired, cold, a pain in her tummy, lots of reasons, if you offer the breast then she can always say no but just because your baby cries doesn't mean to say it's because of the nursing. You're doing a great job, hang in there and keep going ....

[HappyBuckeye]

Your LO sounds like my DS2. He's a little over 10 months and I have very low supply as well. We've been using the SNS since he was about a week old. I have tried to cut out using it, but for him he won't nurse without it. It's frustrating. We've tried going abck to the smallest tubing and even not turning on the SNS until I am empty. But he just pounds on my chest, unlatches and screams until the SNS starts flowing.

We've embraced it. I want our nursing relationship to continue so he gets the breast and SNS every single time he nurses (we're down to about 5 times a day).

[germin8]

Thanks for the response. I will try nursing with a smaller tube early to mid-morning... since she doesn't want the SNS before going to bed. She chugs 3-4 oz by bottle but then sleeps thru the night! It's like she knows she needs a fast flow to chug all that milk before falling asleep for the night. :-)

I've attached her a couple times between feedings or when I'm putting her to sleep. She does get some then... but again, she's not hungry, just wants some comfort or something.

I'll try strengthening her suck first... I didn't know you could do that!

However, I really do think it's my let-down that's the problem... how do you "speed" that up?

BTW, I'm not skipping the 5AM pumping. It's worth the 1.5-2oz I get. I tried skipping it this morning, but still needed the SNS at 7:30A. I may as well get my 2 pumping oz to save for later.

HappyBuckeye: I have a feeling I'll be using the SNS for a very long time. Sometimes I just want to give up! (But fortunately, that feeling doesn't last long enough to the next feeding.)