Not enough milk

Sometimes mothers feel that if they aren’t producing enough milk to breastfeed exclusively, then they might as well wean. “Concern about milk supply is one of the most common problems mothers seek help with,” says Romphf.

Strategy: Supplemented breastfeeding Romphf reminds mothers that the benefits are dose related: “The more human milk the baby gets, the healthier he or she will be. Even if you need to partially formula-feed, it’s worth it to keep breastfeeding as well.”

The tricky part can be persuading the baby to continue breastfeeding since this takes more work than getting milk from a fast-flowing bottle. Diana West, a lactation consultant in New Jersey and co-author of The Breastfeeding Mother’s Guide to Making More Milk, suggests giving your baby a little formula first, then the breast. Why? A baby who is less hungry may be more willing to work at breastfeeding. Romphf adds that with this approach, because the baby is more relaxed, “you get all the lovely parts of breastfeeding — the baby touching the mother’s hair and falling asleep at the breast.”

Robyn Berman, a Halifax doula who runs a breastfeeding support group, says she sees many mothers who struggle with supplementing. “One mother told me that every time she looked at the bottle of formula, she just felt horrified. But if you need to supplement, then it’s not a bad thing.”

Originally published in Today's Parent, October 2008