Help with expressing

Hi everyone, Millie has decided to stop feeding (again!), this time however she will drink expressed milk from a cup with a teat (she has never had a bottle). I only had a manual pump which was rubbish so I have bought an electric pump with the intention of expressing so she can still have milk morning and evening as she won't drink formula or cows milk. I just wondered if anyone had any tips for succesful expressing as I don't seem to be gettng that much. The first time I used the new pump I got nearly 4oz in 30mins but since I have only managed about 1 1/2oz in the same time. Any suggestions anyone? Cheers, Kerry xx

i was the same hun, i coudlnt get much out, i think u need to eat lots of food with fat in it, i was told cheese , choc and milk was good to produce more milk but i had already given up by then 🤔

soak your breasts with warm water then massage downwards just before you express. its hard to get alot out all the time but expressing regulary should help. i was told between 6 and 8 times a day (although after finally being able to sleep at night after switching to bottle therre was no way i was getting up twice a night to expsress aswell) eat plenty of calcium and protein x

You should warm the breasts using heated towels or by taking a shower or bath and then massage the breasts in a downwards motion towards the nipples for several minutes before you begin.

To stimulate milk production you need to compress the milk ducts surrounding the nipple rather than the nipple itself. Place your thumb and index finger on either side of your areola (you will feel small lumps under the skin, these are the milk ducts) and compress your breast back towards your chest whilst squeezing your fingers together gently. If your hands are placed correctly a stream of milk should be produced. Release the pressure and rhythmically repeat, working your fingers around the whole of your nipple area so as to release milk from all of the ducts. Once milk production has ceased on one breast you should repeat the process on the other 🙂

many find that the best time to express is in the morning when milk production is at its highest.

Hey Kerry, I'm a little behind on posts, trying to catch up, sorry I didn't respond earlier. I had the same problem, my boobies 😉 didn't want to give it up for anything but Aaralyn's mouth. I was able to express alot at first but when we got into her 7th and 8th months, I could not get anything by expressing (with an electric pump)but Aaralyn was still getting milk by breastfeeding. She just finally weaned herself at around 8 months (I think it was you I mentioned before that I just switched her to whole milk (cow's milk) and she did fine with that. Funny thing is, she is now 4 1/2 and I can still squeeze milk out of my right breast (I even had it tested to make sure it wasn't some other kind of bad fluid), go figure, huh! good luck hun. Sounds like Angelmum has some good advise along with the others 🙂

Cheers girls, still not having much success but she drank 3oz this morning of breastmilk mixed half and half with cows milk so with a bit of luck I will be able to slowly switch her on to just cows milk.