No letdown or full feeling?

[Popples1]

I'm really worried about my milk supply. I've been bf my LO and topping up with EBM but given that he'll happily guzzle 50ml or more of EBM after I've fed him I'm worried about how much he's taking from the breast. I can express up to 3oz so I feel like it's in there somewhere but LO tends to fall asleep while feeding from me. He has a little tongue tie which has been checked but I'm wondering if it's making feeding difficult for him?

 

[pcsoph2890]

Hey..... mines is exactly the same. Mine can take up to 4floz from ebm after a bit of time on the boob. I know there is milk there as sometimes trying to latch her it literally squirts out.
Mine is I think a bit of a lazy nibbler and a bottle is a lot easier for her and less work.

I have no idea what let down feels like either. This morning nearly 5 weeks in I felt a life full, and I fed her at 6:30am and for the first time ever after feeding off the one boob she fell asleep for 2hrs... usually I have to top her up...

 

[Popples1]

Well, it seems relaxing may be the key to milk supply. I just woke up with huge hard, sore boobs and am expressing quietly in the dark to sort them out!

 

[jessicatunnel]

If he's having enough wet and dirty diapers, he's getting enough! Just keep feeding from the breast as much as possible.

I've never felt a letdown either, my lc said some women just never feel it.

 

[Rachel_C]

I don't think I felt letdown until LO was at least 6 weeks old and then it was a (very nice!) surprise, so I wouldn't worry about that.

Babies will often take milk from a bottle even if they're not hungry. Imagine eating a nice piece of cake and feeling full but then somebody holds a fork of it right in front of your face - most likely you'll eat it even though you don't really want or need it. It's the same with a bottle.

Unless you need to feed expressed milk for some reason, I would stop offering a bottle. Otherwise LO has no incentive to feed properly from the breast and your boobs won't be getting the proper signals about when LO needs the milk and how much.

 

[MommyJogger]

I'd also like to add that nearly all babies used to being fed from the breast (even moreso the younger they are) tend to guzzle bottles even if they're already full-- babies like to suck and they can't regulate at a bottle how much comes out like they can at the breast. So guzzling from a bottle really doesn't indicate anything.
I completely agree with Jessica-- if they're having lots of wet and dirty diapers, they're doing fine and there's really no need to offer a bottle if you're doing so just to get milk in them. My son fell asleep when he fed from me until he was about 3-4 months old. It was warm and relaxing and young babies like to sleep that way. I just kept dream feeding most of the time unless I had something really pressing I needed to do and he couldn't be nursing while I did it.