I am desperately trying to figure out why all of a sudden my milk supply is decreasing.  My daughter is 18 weeks old and has been nursing pretty well the whole time.  All of sudden this weekend, I've noticed my breasts less full so I started pumping a couple of times after nursing to stimulate some milk and to see how much I am getting after she is done.  To my shock, I wasn't pumping anything out when she was done.  So, I continued nursing over the weekend and just decided to see how much I pump at work on Monday.  Well, at 9 am I pumped only 4 oz instead of the usual 5 or 6 oz.  Then at 3 pm, I pumped 2 1/2 oz instead of 4 oz.   So, my supply is drastically diminishing even though I'm not stressed or dieting.  The only thing I can think of that I have done differently is stopped using a nipple shield,   But I would think that would help!  She is only nursing for a total of about 15 minutes now instead of 20 or more minutes.  So, I don't know if she stops nursing because my breasts are empty or if she is full.  She isn't fussy or seem hungry after I nurse.   One other thing, I have been pumping 5-6 oz of milk but only giving the sitter 4 oz and having her add 2 oz of formula to make a total of 6 oz for her bottle.  I then freeze the extra milk to save.  But I have been doing that already for 2-3 weeks with no problem.  I'm so confused!  And the extra pumping is not working.  I am nursing 6 or 7 times a day and pumping 2 times (I was anyway....now I'm pumping 4 times on top of the nursing).  I really don't want to lose my milk and stop nursing....please help!!!

There seems to be a little stress, but I think we can figure this out. When you started giving artificial breastmilk (formula)  then there was probubly less milk produced. This may have taken a week or so to happen or for you to notice. The pumping is probubly helping to keep you making breast milk, but pumping isn't as effecti.... Read More