How much Breast Milk should one produce?

O

Obiwan

Registered User
Hiya, I am wondering what is a 'normal' amount of breast milk one should expect at

1. Day 1
2. Day 5 (My baby is 5 day-old now)
3. 1 Week
4. 2 Weeks
5. 3 Weeks
6. 1 Month

I understand that milk production and flow will increase as breast feeding is better established, but am not sure if I am producing the 'right' amount of is too little. Can anyone help?

By the way, how much milk does a baby need? Thank you very much.
 
All babies are different and need different amounts so there isn't one right answer in terms of how many ounces, which you woulnd't know anywyas unless you exclusively pumped. Pumping does not always tell you how much you make, I had very fat , growing babies and could hardly pump anything, so if the question is how to tell if you baby is getting enough (both in terms of making enough milk, and baby removing enough milk, 2 totally different things), then
the general guidline is
Day one 1 pee, 1 poop
Day 2 2 pee, 2 poop
day 3 3 pee, 2 or more large poop( about 1 tbsp in amount)
day 4 6-10 wet diaper/day from here on, and poop should be seedy and yellow by now, minimum 2 large, burt some babies poop way more than that.
regain birth weight by 10 days
gain on average 5-6 oz/week the first 3 months (some weeks will be more, some weeks less,

the bottom line is if you baby is gaining weight, you have enough milk, it is not amount the specific amount of milk that is important
 
Does it seem like your baby is not getting enough? I know when I was in the hospital I had to top mine off with formula until day 4 (when I refused and just let him suck suck suck). I never knew if I had enough either. I pumped whenever I had the chance, until one day at around 1 month, I noticed my baby had gotten a lot bigger and found out he gained more than a kilo since birth.
I don`t know about actual amounts we`re supposed to produce, but I think it`s more helpful to looks towards your baby for signs of him/her getting enough, like wet diapers, adequate weight gain. Some babies like to breastfeed more often than others, and there are also growth spurts to consider - I think at 3 weeks, 6 weeks at first.
 
Thank you ladies!!

When I was at Matilda, I was getting about 10ml each breast on day 3 - 4 when I expressed and the mid-wives there were very encouraging, telling me that my milk supply was improving.

I was reading this forum and notice that most people here are producing >90ml (!!) each pump, and am wondering if I'm producing too little, or that this is an OK amount on day 5 - 6 (20ml each breast now).

Baby is pooping several times a day, but i don't have 8 - 10 wet diapers (only get about at most 3 pee a day). Or perhaps I can't tell if she also pees when she poops....

Btw, had a really great experience at Matilda (not cheap though) and highly recommend it. The mid-wives there are great (a few better than some others), and when we left, we could get the baby to latch on, and are pretty comfortable with breastfeeding, know how to bathe, change and swaddle the baby etc.
 
i could only pump 10ml 6 weeks postpartum (10 minutes on double electric pump) which gradually increased to 30ml. Most of the time my baby had 70ml per feed which seems lower than most mums on geobaby. I worried all the time about whether she had enough, but she was thriving outwardly, gaining weight, had wet nappies etc. From 3 months postpartum milk pumped from each session increased very gradually, from 60ml to 100 ml. I breastfed 4 times a day and pumped another 2-3 sessions as well. So you should not be thinking in terms of weeks but I would say months. My baby is exclusively breastfed and I must admit i have been counting the days til she started solids to take the pressure off. Just hang in there, keep breastfeeding and pumping, don't listen to the naysayers.
 
Thanks for your encouragement Lisa88. May I ask if you feed your baby with bottle when you pump?

I understand that bottles are discouraged for the first 6 weeks of breastfeeding, so I have been using the Medela spoon when I pump. Some times the baby takes it, but there are occasions when the baby doesn't want that and only wants to suckle on the breasts. Do you ladies have similar experience and what do you do?

Thanks.
 
Be careful~ Aside from the first few days in the hospital, i didn`t give my son a bottle at all. the pumped milk I had was just in the freezer. I waited too long to reintroduce the bottle and then it was too late. I did it at about 5.5-6 weeks, possibly a week or so too late. He totally rejected it. Until now, I only breastfeed him. The window of opportunity for introducing a bottle seems to be at about 4-5 weeks from what I read. If breastfeeding is going fine before that (for us it wasn`t), then I think there is nothing wrong with introducing it earlier than that.
 
Thanks Shenzhennifer, glad to hear that it's ok to introduce the bottle.

My nipples are getting sore and painful from all the suckling and they really hurt when i first put her to the breasts and she starts sucking vigorously! If she rejects the spoon, and I don't use the bottle, I will have no choice but to bear with the pain each time :(

I recall reading somewhere that they discourage us from using bottle and pacifier/dummy before 6 weeks though ... nipple confusion et al?

By the way, can you mix different batches of pumped breast milk into one? Or do they have to be kept separately?

Thanks again!
 
Hi Obiwan

Sorry for the late reply, have been away and just got back online.

Yes my baby had expressed breast milk in a bottle from age 10 weeks, because I went back to work then. I know there are a lot of dos and don'ts about giving your baby the bottle and the pacifier before certain age, but I was lucky with my baby, she suckled from my breast and EBM in a bottle too, without any fuss. I got the Tommee Tippee bottles with the teats that seem pretty similar to the human nipple from Mothercare, maybe that helped.

There is a lot of information on breastfeeding at the La Leche League website, both the HK and International sites. You can also call up the leaders (English and Cantonese) with all the questions you have from time to time, they are very very knowledgeable and supportive.

Good luck!
 
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