Can I still exclusive breastfeeding/pump at 4 months?

Question

I struggled a lot and had to supplement with formula. But I’m wondering if there’s anyway I can quit formula now.
I’m still producing but it’s not enough. 
The reason I started is because baby was losing weight due to poor latching. It was due to a posterior tongue tie. Since baby could bottle feed, they didn’t want to do any surgery on it (it’s quite invasive honestly) so I would have to mix breast and bottle feed if I wanted to use my breast milk to make sure baby was getting enough. 
Unfortunately I tried everything even power pumping and I still can’t get more than 30 ml per breast every two hours, which isn’t enough for my baby. My breast become flat as a pancake before I have to quit pumping. pumping hasn’t been a great journey for me. It’s been such a pain. Especially with holding my heavy large 38J breasts and the pump while pumping. 
Any tips? I tried the teas, watermelon, everything to increase my breastmilk supply. It hasn’t worked so that’s why I supplemented with powdered milk (formula). 
Baby is 16 weeks so I’m wondering if it’s about to be too late to even try to up my supply.
There has to be a way.
By the way, I’m on high blood pressure medicine. I wonder if that’s why I can’t produce enough. Nifedipine.

Answer

It’s not too late. The only thing that will boost your supply is power pumping. You need to do it even when you are getting literally nothing. Your body will produce off demand and you need to increase the demand until your body produces. Don’t stop power pumping

Answer

I would definitely get a second opinion on the tongue tie. 
But yea it's possible to get supply up, at 4 months. power pumping, be sure to change the sealing membranes on your pump, check if the flanges are the correct size sill - it may change over time.  Try different settings on your pump, and remember that max suction is absolutely not the same as max output!

Answer

I will say it's much harder to pick up your milk supply once the baby is passed 6 wks pp, I've been there with my twins I wasn't consistent with pumping wasn't pumping every 3 hours mad my milk dipped I make between 2-4 Oz every 3 hours which wasn't enough my babies so I quit , before when I was "trying to pick my milk supply up I tried every herb under the sun power pumping nothing really worked " so I just quit it was too much for me and by the way I couldn't stand pumping current baby I'm breastfeeding amd 9 months going strong 💪🏻 I wish you luck !! 💞

Answer

Have you tried using a pumping bra? I have a zip front one from Walmart and I would have never been able to exclusively pump without it. I am a 40ddd and it made such a difference being able to have my hands free. What pump are you using? Some women respond better to a manual pump vs an automatic. Some women just don’t respond well to pumps at all. Have you made sure you have the right flange size? Have you changed the valves and membranes for your pump? If you are exclusively pumping they wear out quickly, for me it was every 3-4 weeks. Are you pumping overnight as well? Also if you are taking any supplements with fenugreek that can hurt your supply for a lot of women.

Answer

Get a pumping bra that helps you be hands free. It even helps with keeping the pumps attached to your breasts better. Once you are pumping don’t look at the bottles to see how much is coming out. If you need to, put baby socks over the bottle. When you keep thinking about how much is coming out/not coming out you are stressing your self out and that affects you. While you are pumping look at videos and pics of your baby to release more of the oxytocin hormone.

Answer

Did you try nipple shields to help baby latch? It helped so much with my youngest.

Can I still exclusive breastfeeding/pump at 4 months?

Let’s Glow

Glow is here for you on your path to pregnancy

25+ million

4.8 stars

20+

Getting Pregnant

Pregnancy

1st Year (Baby & You)

Baby Products