10month old and inconsistant supply and fluxuating weight

[lilysmommy13009]

My son is currently 10 months old and was ebf and coslept until 7mths when we introduced solids and my 2yr old moved back into our bed due to surgery and they were keeping each other up so he was moved to his crib. At that time i was slowly introducing solids and continued to night nurse aprox 3times per night. At 8mths we had visitors and traveled and reduced him to one night feeding and 1 to 2 small jars of food per day. He was still nursing 8 to 10 times per day at this point and still acting starving. At around 9mths i got on the scale and realized he was not gaining any weight and at his 9mth appointment found he had dropped back to his 6mth weight. I was panicked. The doc encouraged me to nurse both sides per feeding since i was only doing one side because historically i had an oversupply issue. So i did that as well and brought him back into my bed and took more milk supplement and fed him more solids at the peds request. Well sure enough i noticed that duh he was having more wet diapers, gulping more, and gained 2lbs in 3weeks. I dont know how i missed that! Then he went on a nursing strike due to teething and just doesnt seem consistant in how much he is nursing or eating and so my supply is just up and down and i just feel like each day is a battle to get him enough milk. Im tired and stressed and dont want to supplement because im afriad it will hurt my supply worse but i got on the scale today with him because i was sick the last two days and had a feeling im super low again and sure enough he is down a 1/2 lb!! What should i do? I dont get much pumping, i even rented a hospital grade pump. I have about 50oz of donated breastmilk from a reliable tested source but i havent given it to him because i feel like that is defeat and feel sad about giving him someone elses milk. Anyone else have this problem? Ideas? Thanks!

[Megan73]

There's some great info on kellymom.com about dealing with nursing strikes if you haven't already seen it. What I'd do is offer, offer, offer in a low key way - hanging out topless worked for me when my older son wasn't nursing enough at that age - and pump to keep up your supply or, if that's not working for you, try hand expressing.
You could also focus on high-calorie solids - meat, egg yolk, full-fat yogurt, avocado or sweet potato instead of jarred food.