How Do You Know Your Baby Is Getting Enough Milk?

You just finished an intense few hours of labor. You’re looking down at your sweet little bundle of joy. You bond during skin to skin, and your little one attempts to latch on, and finally, the moment comes, and it’s feeding time! 

It didn’t quite work out this way with my first; we had a lot of trouble latching, and when she did latch on, I wasn’t producing enough. We opted to supplement with formula. Since she was born prematurely, her sugar was low, and was taken to the nursery, where they fed her formula to increase her blood sugar.

With my second, everything was different. He latched on and would spend about 10-15 minutes at each breast. I was concerned because there’s no telling how many ounces they’re taking in when you breastfeed, and I didn’t know if he was getting anything out. I mean, it seemed like it since his mouth was moist, I could feel him swallowing, but at his first doctor’s visit, I would surely find out he was not getting enough milk.

I felt like something was wrong, I tried to ignore it since the nurses, lactation consultant, and doctors all reassured me that my son was getting sufficient milk and to trust the process. There is no real way to know exactly how much they are drinking. The more my baby would latch on, the more milk I would be producing.

Day 3 comes around, and my baby is constantly crying. He would latch on every other hour for several minutes, 20-30 minutes at times on each breast every other hour (this is already not a good sign). I was exhausted, sleep-deprived, and on the verge of a mental breakdown. I didn’t know what to do. I was still waiting on a breast pump, provided by my insurance, but due to the Christmas holiday, doctors and other staff who help fulfill these orders faster were out of the office or on vacation.

Lucky for me, we had my son’s first doctor’s visit the very next day. Here is where I beat myself up for what they are about to tell me. “Your son was born at 8lb 6oz. He is now 7lb 4oz, he’s lost a significant amount of weight since delivery” (over a pound to be exact). His doctor explained that a newborn needing to feed every hour for that length of time is not getting enough milk. He was practically burning off more energy than anything else.

I felt guilty. Guilty for not going with my instinct. For not supplementing with formula from the beginning and for not doing the proper research. We started supplementing with formula shortly after. His doctor suggested that I meet with a lactation consultant that might be able to help provide me with more information and tips.

Back to the hospital, I go, and guess what? The whole time I could have borrowed a hospital grade breast pump to help pump out milk and increase my milk supply. Where was this information after delivery? The truth is, they do not tell you, but they provide you with a packet of information. It is up to you to go through this information and keep yourself informed even after having gone through hours of labor and recovery.

While I waited for my insurance to ship out my breast pump, I rented the hospital grade pump for about a month. Every 4 days, I would follow up with the pediatrician to make sure my son was on track with his weight gain, and before I knew it, he was 6 oz. over his birth weight. To ensure that his weight loss was not attributed to a health issue, his doctors monitored his weight for the first two months.

Eventually, I ended my breastfeeding journey at 4 months (my milk supply never reached more than 4-6-oz a day). I tried lactation cookies, teas, heating pads, pumping every 2-3 hours. It was exhausting, and by then, he was already drinking about 24 oz. a day; I supplemented with mostly formula.

Some general tips if you’re a new mama are if you don’t own or have access to a breast pump, you can always rent a hospital-grade breast pump for the hospital or a distributor. You can search them online, and you can rent them weekly if that works for you.

Another option is supplementing with formula. You can have them latch on for 10-15 minutes at each breast and then supplement with formula. No one is going to judge you for this so, don’t feel guilty. There are plenty of mamas out there who do this. In a perfect world, we would all be able to solely breastfeed our babies, but that’s not realistic. The journey is different for every mama.