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Do you practice mixed breastfeeding but have noticed a sudden drop in your lactation? A temporary drop in lactation is often a sign of insufficient stimulation of your breasts by your baby, which implies a reduction in your milk production.
It is important to react quickly and implement actions to boost your lactation if you wish to continue breastfeeding. Let's see together how to do this in the best possible way!
A reminder of what mixed breastfeeding is
Mixed breastfeeding offers the possibility :
- breast-feed your child,
- let baby enjoy all the benefits your body has to offer
- and also to bottle-feed directly!
For bottle-fed meals, you can offer your baby breast milk pumped from a manual or electric breast pump, or powdered milk, available from supermarkets or pharmacies.
Mixed breastfeeding allows you to combine greater freedom with moments of intimacy between mother and child. It can happen that lactation isreduced or temporarily stopped during mixed breastfeeding. There are various reasons for this.
Let's find out what they are!
Causes and solutions to boost your lactation and continue mixed breastfeeding
There are many reasons why your lactation may be reduced. We offer solutions for all of them, to help you continue your mixed breastfeeding.
Cause n°1 : You no longer have the time to breastfeed your baby directly and your lactation is affected.
Despite the fact that you've switched to mixed breastfeeding, perhaps even as soon as you've returned from the maternity ward, you're putting your baby to the breast less and less, for lack of time or even desire.
The trouble is, if lactation is decreasing, it's because you're failing to express the milk your body instinctively produces at mealtimes with a breast pump. Your breasts, through lack of stimulation, thus receive the signal to stop milk production. 🥛
The less you breastfeed your child, the less milk you will produce! This is the principle of supply and demand. This request is not a favor granted by your employer but a legal obligation to which he himself is bound, at the rate of one hour per day (subdivisible).
- Solution 1: If time is an issue, you'll need to reorganize your schedule to be able to continue mixed breastfeeding.
Do you have the option of reducing your working hours? Or taking paid (or even unpaid) leave to keep your dream of breastfeeding alive? Do you plan toexpress milk regularly? If so, ask your employer for a special room for this purpose.
- Solution 2 : If it's a problem of craving, you'll have to talk about something completely different!
The time has come for weaning . Thoughts and body are intimately linked. Your lactation is decreasing as a result of your lack of motivation to breastfeed your child. But don't let this make you feel guilty! It doesn't matter whether you've chosen to breastfeed for 1 year, 3 months or a few days.
- The most important thing is to listen to you as a mother, but also as a woman.
Cause n°2 : You offer baby the breast but he turns away from it, causing lactation to drop
On the other hand, you're still very much into breastfeeding and regularly suggest that baby takes your breast at mealtimes. Unfortunately for you, your little one doesn't seem any more interested than that and is reluctant to drink. He even seems to be clamoring for his bottle... How frustrating! Once again, your breasts are not sufficiently stimulated and lactation naturally decreases.
Did you know that this phenomenon has a name in the wonderful world of parenthood? The feeding strike... ✊ No, you're not dreaming. The love of your life, so small, so fragile, and above all so cute, is already showing his preferences and loudly claiming his discontent!
Simply by using your motherly charms, you can persuade your baby, little by little and always without force, to take your breast by means of gentle words and cuddles. However, check that your baby doesn't have a lump. A refusal to suckle the mother's breast can be explained by a reason other than a need for convergence, such asinvisible pain in the eyes of the parents, for example:
- Infant colic,
- teething,
- postural pain or kiss syndrome,
- blocked nose,
- lash in the eye,
- cut on finger,
- otitis,
- gastric reflux,
- stomach ache,
- stress,
- unsuitable room temperature or fever...
Review every detail that could affect the calmness of the heads. If the feeding strike is prolonged, consult your pediatrician and express your milk to avoid engorgement or mastitis (rare). This will allow your lactation to continue until things settle down.
Cause 3: You are ill, tired or deficient and this affects your lactation.
A final hypothesis that could explain why your milk secretion is declining is simply that you're tired, ill or deficient. Producing milk requires energy resources (nutrients) from which your body draws naturally.
But it's above all the hormone prolactin that plays a major role in the natural wonder of breastfeeding! If you're feeling weak (colds, lack of sleep, stress, etc.), your energy and vitality are reduced. And if you're in poor health, tired, suffering from migraines or general demotivation, this will slow down prolactin production, and in turn, your lactation.
- Eat healthily during mixed breastfeeding.
- Don't smoke, or get help to stop! A child is an opportunity to set an example by making good resolutions 😉
- If possible, go to bed early and respect your need for sleep.
- Limit sources of stress as much as possible. Treat yourself to some relaxation (shopping, walks, cinema, etc.).
If you're feeling depressed, or even post-partum, it's important to be well surrounded and to react as quickly as possible to get out of the vicious circle. It's not always easy to confide in those closest to you. And swallowing a tube of vitamin C isn't enough to make you feel better in times of deep distress. Raising a baby involves a stratospheric amount of responsibility in the first few weeks. No parent is ever really prepared.
📳 For your information, a toll-free number called "Allo Parents bébé" allows you to ask any questions you may have about your infant or child up to the age of 3, anonymously! To reach this number, dial 0800 00 3456, , Monday to Friday, 10am to 9pm.
What you need to know from this article
- Mixed breastfeeding is appreciated for combining the freedom of bottle-feeding with the closeness of breastfeeding.
- Occasionally, lactation may diminish, with the baby taking the breast or the machine expressing milk insufficiently or not at all.
- It's important to reorganize your days and free up time to encourage milk production, but also to make sure that this slowing-down problem isn't due to the child rejecting the breast.
- If, as a mother, you feel that you are "the cause" of this lack of milk, we advise you to take stock of your emotions, your state of health and your drinking habits, in order to identify any obstacles that may be preventing you from mixed breastfeeding. Don't be left alone with your doubts and worries.
- Finally, of course, you can take the next step and wean your baby if you so wish. Have you ever thought of getting a bottle that combines all the physical characteristics of the mother's breast?
At Elhée, we make and sell feeding bottles shaped like the breast to suit weaned and semi-weaned babies.
