r/breastfeeding•
katlar

Low supply issues, desperately need help

Undersupply

Please help! My LO is six weeks, and we've had breastfeeding issues from the start. He didn't want to breastfeed in the beginning, and the first few days I trusted the nurses at the hospital saying that it was totally fine and that he would learn and become interested on his own. He only breastfed a couple of minutes per day, and my supply ranked.

I exclusively breastfed in the beginning, and he didn't regain his birth weight until around 3-4 weeks. I started pumping around three weeks to get my supply up, which didn't have a big effect. At four weeks I got a clogged milk duct and had to lay off the extra pumping for a few days. That also made my supply go down. From week four we have been advised to add a bottle of formula after every feed since he wasn't gaining more than 50-100 grams per week.

He's now gaining weight fast and seem happier and more energetic, but I am extremely worried about my supply. I pump at least 10 minutes after every feed, and he feeds around every three hours during the day, around six to seven feeds. I also power pump once in the morning. Throughout the day I get about 150ml all together. Baby has started to want to sleep through the night, or he wakes up but refuses to breastfeed. His doctor says to let him sleep, because he is more or less impossible to wake and seems to need the sleep. In theory I could pump instead, but I find it hard to manage practically. I am so sleepy in the night, managing the baby by myself in the night from start, and the baby also frequently wakes up when I try to leave the room.

Breastfeeding is extremely important to me, both the health benefits of breast milk and the bonding of feeding. But I really am starting to loose hope since nothing is working and I'm not getting a lot of support. Breastfeeding, pumping and then bottle feeding takes around two hours and I'm really starting to get exhausted. Right now I have some help during the day, so someone can watch the baby that extra hour every cycle for me to eat and pee and stuff, but that's just for one more week. Please help me.

(I take calcium, moringa leaf and lecithin every day, and try to get some oatmeal in my diet regularly)

Posted Aug 14, 2026, 6:02 AM UTC

15
Loading comments…