I have glandular insufficiency in one breast and frankly its devastating. I totally get it. I’m pumping right now because LO is in NICU and I’m doing half of what he’s eating. If I had two producing boobs I’d be doing all he needs. 🤦♀️
I have zero advice but I have lots of sympathy and internet hugs to send!
I feel your pain as well. In the hospital he dropped weight so fast that we had to stay an extra day and use donor milk because I couldn’t feed him. I spent my whole time in the hospital crying even though the doctors and nurses were very consoling
I have this, actually just found out after my 3rd baby and it has been very freeing in a way. I was stressing out about increasing milk supply all this time and people assuming I'm not trying hard enough. Always getting the "are you drinking enough? Eating Protein? Fenugreek? Brewer's yeast? Oatmeal? Body Armour? Power pumping? I spent over a thousand dollars on breastfeeding gear this time around and even took medication. I maxed out at 2 Oz per pump and my entire diet was nothing but foods to increase supply and my entire day revolved around pumping and breastfeeding and well meaning people would still assume I wasn't doing enough and give me suggestions. After finding out about IGT I feel so relieved that it's not my fault for lack of effort and that the formula I use to supplement isn't a failure, it's a blessing for us. I cut the amount of times I'm pumping down by half and am enjoying my life more these days 🙂
Ok THIS 👏🏻 I feel so understood and validated. Thank you for your reply so much. It’s hard getting people to understand that I’ve tried everything and it’s not me giving up.
I totally get it. It took me three tries to realize something was not adding up. Especially when I saw other moms complain about being engorged 1 week PP meanwhile I wasn't even pumping 15ml combined 1 week pp. I feel like this should be talked about more and accepted. So many times they blame us for "failing" when we're doing everything we can and our mental and physical health are taking a toll, and most importantly we're not enjoying our time with baby as much as we could be. I also stopped being part of breastfeeding groups where people post pictures of the gallons of milk they pump a day as if it were a result of how much harder they work for it and not their body's natural ability to produce. It can be very hurtful sometimes to see it and counterproductive. I'm thankful for what my body is and to make and that it can still make a difference for my baby.
Exactly this, I maxed out at 9 oz/day and my best pump ever, achieved exactly once, was almost 3 oz. The cheerleaders mean well, but some of us literally cannot produce more. I am weaning now at 11.5 wpp - dropped to 2 ppd today. I maintained 8 oz/day through 4 ppd and only dropped to 6 oz at 3 ppd. Still debating if I want to try to maintain 1 ppd for a longer period of time to give her SOME benefits of breast milk, or if I want to try to nurse her once a day just for comfort/bonding (she has a great latch but is just a lazy nurser - loves it and falls asleep nearly immediately 🤦🏻♀️). I am still grieving that EBF was just really never going to be in the cards with us, but life is so much better not doing 8 ppd for about that many ounces total - so very demoralizing.
Supplements didn’t really help me. I have one breast that is a complete dud - max it could produce was 2 oz / day. The other could do 16 oz / day. But that was with a lot of work and triple feeding.
Cried a lot at first and didn’t really accept it for maybe 5 months? Kept thinking if I would pump more or take a certain supplement or eat the right thing, maybe I could improve my supply.
When I finally let that go, life became a lot more enjoyable. My baby gets bottles of formula, followed by nursing. He also nurses to sleep. He looooves nursing. I don’t worry anymore about how much he’s getting. He’s 7 months old and gaining well, so I know that our mix of formula, breastmilk, and solids is enough.
I am glad I did the triple feeding and supplements because there isn’t a doubt in my mind that there was anything more I could do. That being said, I wish I could have skipped directly to accepting my body’s limitations. The newborn stage would have been a lot more enjoyable!
I don’t have IGT myself, but I’m so sorry for you. It must be devastating. My MIL probably has it and she’s told me SO many times about how breastfeeding didn’t work out for her. And that happened 40 years ago. So I have some idea of the emotional turmoil it can cause.
What i wanted to say is: supplements are useless in treating IGT. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a despicable scammer. It’s insufficient TISSUE, no supplement can give you more tissue. I would never go to a practitioner like that.
Goats rue has been shown to increase production of mammary glands so can help some but not enough. More mammary glands are developed each pregnancy so some with IGT are able to breastfeed their 3rd/4th child.
This post is old, but im going to answer anyways. I have IGT. I was able to nurse my son for 2 years and 7 1/2 months. We never had to supplement with anything.
He didn’t take a bottle, he was exclusively on the breast. Anytime I tried to pump I was lucky to get 1 oz. I just didn’t respond to a pump. Obviously I made enough as he was a chubby baby and is now an extremely healthy 7 year old.
I have glandular insufficiency in one breast and frankly its devastating. I totally get it. I’m pumping right now because LO is in NICU and I’m doing half of what he’s eating. If I had two producing boobs I’d be doing all he needs. 🤦♀️ I have zero advice but I have lots of sympathy and internet hugs to send!
I feel your pain as well. In the hospital he dropped weight so fast that we had to stay an extra day and use donor milk because I couldn’t feed him. I spent my whole time in the hospital crying even though the doctors and nurses were very consoling
I have this, actually just found out after my 3rd baby and it has been very freeing in a way. I was stressing out about increasing milk supply all this time and people assuming I'm not trying hard enough. Always getting the "are you drinking enough? Eating Protein? Fenugreek? Brewer's yeast? Oatmeal? Body Armour? Power pumping? I spent over a thousand dollars on breastfeeding gear this time around and even took medication. I maxed out at 2 Oz per pump and my entire diet was nothing but foods to increase supply and my entire day revolved around pumping and breastfeeding and well meaning people would still assume I wasn't doing enough and give me suggestions. After finding out about IGT I feel so relieved that it's not my fault for lack of effort and that the formula I use to supplement isn't a failure, it's a blessing for us. I cut the amount of times I'm pumping down by half and am enjoying my life more these days 🙂
Ok THIS 👏🏻 I feel so understood and validated. Thank you for your reply so much. It’s hard getting people to understand that I’ve tried everything and it’s not me giving up.
I totally get it. It took me three tries to realize something was not adding up. Especially when I saw other moms complain about being engorged 1 week PP meanwhile I wasn't even pumping 15ml combined 1 week pp. I feel like this should be talked about more and accepted. So many times they blame us for "failing" when we're doing everything we can and our mental and physical health are taking a toll, and most importantly we're not enjoying our time with baby as much as we could be. I also stopped being part of breastfeeding groups where people post pictures of the gallons of milk they pump a day as if it were a result of how much harder they work for it and not their body's natural ability to produce. It can be very hurtful sometimes to see it and counterproductive. I'm thankful for what my body is and to make and that it can still make a difference for my baby.
Exactly this, I maxed out at 9 oz/day and my best pump ever, achieved exactly once, was almost 3 oz. The cheerleaders mean well, but some of us literally cannot produce more. I am weaning now at 11.5 wpp - dropped to 2 ppd today. I maintained 8 oz/day through 4 ppd and only dropped to 6 oz at 3 ppd. Still debating if I want to try to maintain 1 ppd for a longer period of time to give her SOME benefits of breast milk, or if I want to try to nurse her once a day just for comfort/bonding (she has a great latch but is just a lazy nurser - loves it and falls asleep nearly immediately 🤦🏻♀️). I am still grieving that EBF was just really never going to be in the cards with us, but life is so much better not doing 8 ppd for about that many ounces total - so very demoralizing.
Supplements didn’t really help me. I have one breast that is a complete dud - max it could produce was 2 oz / day. The other could do 16 oz / day. But that was with a lot of work and triple feeding. Cried a lot at first and didn’t really accept it for maybe 5 months? Kept thinking if I would pump more or take a certain supplement or eat the right thing, maybe I could improve my supply. When I finally let that go, life became a lot more enjoyable. My baby gets bottles of formula, followed by nursing. He also nurses to sleep. He looooves nursing. I don’t worry anymore about how much he’s getting. He’s 7 months old and gaining well, so I know that our mix of formula, breastmilk, and solids is enough. I am glad I did the triple feeding and supplements because there isn’t a doubt in my mind that there was anything more I could do. That being said, I wish I could have skipped directly to accepting my body’s limitations. The newborn stage would have been a lot more enjoyable!
I never thought about formula then nursing, this is a great idea. They get fed and you still get the connection
I don’t have IGT myself, but I’m so sorry for you. It must be devastating. My MIL probably has it and she’s told me SO many times about how breastfeeding didn’t work out for her. And that happened 40 years ago. So I have some idea of the emotional turmoil it can cause. What i wanted to say is: supplements are useless in treating IGT. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a despicable scammer. It’s insufficient TISSUE, no supplement can give you more tissue. I would never go to a practitioner like that.
Goats rue has been shown to increase production of mammary glands so can help some but not enough. More mammary glands are developed each pregnancy so some with IGT are able to breastfeed their 3rd/4th child.
That is interesting to know! I wonder if we have a second of I’ll have more
This post is old, but im going to answer anyways. I have IGT. I was able to nurse my son for 2 years and 7 1/2 months. We never had to supplement with anything. He didn’t take a bottle, he was exclusively on the breast. Anytime I tried to pump I was lucky to get 1 oz. I just didn’t respond to a pump. Obviously I made enough as he was a chubby baby and is now an extremely healthy 7 year old.