breastfeeding question

[Anonymous]

Hello. At 6 wks old what is the longest a baby can go without eating and it not diminish the milk supply? Also, is it true that some breastfeed babies can go a whole week without a dirty diaper? We’re not there yet, but yesterday he only had 2 and he usually has 5.

Thank you,

Shelby

[Anonymous]

Hi Shelby,

In my experience my supply dropped quickly if my babies did not nurse well or I didn’t pump after only a day or two.

As for the pooping, my doctor told me that breast feeding babies can go 5 days without pooping or only poop an average of twice per week because the breast milk is such a perfect food that it produces very little waste.

Hope that helps,

Christine

[Anonymous]

In the beginning, you want to make sure you pump or feed every 2 or 3 hours. If you go longer than this for a couple of days, your milk could start to diminish. Also, if you dont feed or pump during the night for several night in a row, your supply can decrease too. Your body has the highest levels of prolactin at night, therefore, nursing atleast once during the night between midnight and 5:00 a.m. will help keep your supply up.

I’m not sure about the pooping though. All 3 of my babies always went atleast 4 or 5 times a day for the first couple of months. Then it went down to 2 or so times a day after that.

[Anonymous]

My niece was exclusively breastfed and sometimes she didn’t go for 6-7 days! Usually after 5 days my sister had to give her a tiny bit of prune juice just because she was fussy. But our ped said it was normal.

I have to say that I found that for some reason, I could not sustain a good milk supply by pumping alone. In the beginning, for the first few months, I nursed every two hours and then pumped for 10 minutes after that (because Hailey wasn’t sucking terribly well and I was engorged). Then after she was 2.5 months old or so- when the feeding strike was full blown- I couldn’t get her to suck and went to exclusive pumping about 4 times a day. My supply went down exponentially and by 4 months was basically gone.

That’s just my experience though. Good luck to you. I know that Laura has a link to the yahoo breastfeeding forum, maybe they can help you out more there (sorry I don’t know the address).

[hellbennt]

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/breastfeedingreflux/

& a great resource: http://www.kellymom.com/

here’s la leche league- you can find a local group & even email or call-in questions: http://www.lalecheleague.org/WebUS.html

[Author]

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