can i breastfeed this time

With my first baby i never had enough breast milk for her i also had to bottle feed. I am 18 weeks pregnant with my second baby i am wondering if i will have enough milk for this one. Has any one ever had this happen to them

[greenpixie]

Ccan you contact a lactation consultant to see if there is something you can do to increase your supply?

[myproblem]

I agree that a lactation consultant will be helpful to you.

[anothergirl]

It is not common to not have enough milk, but a low milk supply can be treated. See a lactation consultant AND find a doctor willing to work with you and the LC. Look now and don't wait, it can be hard to find reliable people. Where I live LCs don't even answer the phone, you have to leave a message and they'll call you back (sometimes it takes a while). You'll need a supportive team of people to pull you through any difficulties, more so than if everything went fine. I've been experienceing that myself. Don't take "breastfeeding friendly" at face value, just because people say that doesn't mean they won't let you give up when the going gets rough. It's more like politically correct to say you support breastfeeding, but not everyone will say it is better than formula. Find someone who believes the two are not created equal. Breast is best, even if your first was formula raised (just like mine). It grossed me out when I was told there is a 32oz per day limit on formula because doctors know it is too full of chemicals to give more than that safely. Breastfed babies eat more than that daily, an average of 2.5-3oz per pound of weight (my 3month old drinks about 34-36oz per day according to my LC).

Almost all doctors in my experience recommend supplementing formula for your problem and this REALLY makes it worse. Breastfeeding is based on supply/demand, when baby suckles your body makes milk. When baby sucks on a bottle your body doesn't make milk - it's that easy to make the problem worse when the dr says that's what you need to do!!

Take care of your health to benefit your milk supply. Arm yourself with knowledge by taking a class, attending a La Leche League meeting, or reading some good books on the subject. Stand up against bad or outdated advice - YOU CAN DO IT. Your baby will benefit and so will you!

[cutiemama]

A lactation consultant is exactly who you need to call as she can teach you how to increase your supply. A lot of women think that they're not producing enough milk and so they begin to introduce formula which doesn't help matters. If you want to increase supply, you have to continue nursing and even pump in btwn feedings to signal the brain to produce more milk.

[emma10]

When my first was born he wasn't latching on correctly and not therefore getting enough milk which of course makes you produce less.  La Leche League is a free group that helps promote breastfeeding and keeps lists of people who will even do consulting for free. After 5 mins. with a consultant the baby "learned" how to do it (or was it me?) and nursed happily for over a year. You can also pump in between feedings to get supply up. With a hospital grade pump, using it one day in between feedings, getting ready to go back to work, I had double milk. It is a demand--supply perfect system. NEVER EVER let them feed the baby anything, even 'sugar water'.  And just don't take no for an answer. Unless the baby has the shortened frenum (where tongue can't reach to make contact) you can nurse. My son had numerous severe allergies and probably would have died if I hadn't been able to breastfeed so long (he wouldn't have been able to tolerate cow/soy or even cornbased formula).

[roxymay]

Thank you everyone i will get ahold of someone for some classes. I did try to pump when she would bottle feed but still didnt work for me. I also have chrones disease and after i had my first baby i was realy sick i dont know if that had somthing to do with low milk supply. But hopefully this time i will be ok because i know how much better the breast milk is for your baby. And it just makes you and your baby bond so much.

[myproblem]

Being ill can definately affect milk suply. If you were on certain antibiotics, they can dry up your milk too. I took one that dreid up my milk in less than 2 days. I stopped it as soon as I realized, and asked the Dr. for something else. My supply came back in a couple of days, but I was worried.