How Can You Tell If Your Milk Supply Is Gone?

I had a lot of needle like pain while breastfeeding too - the entire time - and I did not have anything wrong. Some women just have pain but it is rare. I saw trained lactation professionals constantly...(one woman was so amazing! She became a family member!!) For me, we knew our son was not getting much milk bc he was crying CONSTANTLY. I did not want to use formula at first. The lac. consultant would have me pump and only a teeny teeny bit came out. Finally she started having me feed someone else's breastmilk through a tiny tube while my son was sucking on my breast. Immediately he seemed full and happy and did not cry all the time. It was such an awful experience bc I felt so bad about it all. When that other person's breastmilk ran out we switched to formula and I would give him a bottle after nursing him. He loved to nurse for a LONG time but not much was coming out. I would then pump about halfway through feedings and save my teeny bit of breastmilk to give to him. This whole process kept me up all night and kept me busy all day for 6 months. It was completely exhausting. I knew I did not have much from 1. seeing what came out while pumping and 2. seeing how my son was crying and upset after breastfeeding and happy/full after his bottle. The same thing happened again with my 2nd child but I gave up much sooner bc I wanted to still have time to spend with my first. I guess my recommendation would be to have a lactation specialist come to your house and help you out. But don't feel bad if you have to switch to formula.

For some women, supply and demand does not work. For 6 months I was feeding my son 10 x a day (waking up at night too). He had a great latch and he loved to nurse for a long time. But he was starving afterwards. For some women the pain does not go away. I'm not talking about regular nipple pain from not getting a good latch. I'm talking about the inside needle pain. It is SHARP and for me it never stopped. I just learned to ignore it but it was not enjoyable. My lactation specialist has been doing this for 35 years and she said it is super rare but some women get this....usually it is related to having red hair and very fair skin for some reason. She had no reason for why my milk supply was so low bc she said I was doing everything right. After months she had me try out 2 different drugs to increase my milk supply and neither of those did anything either. Maybe one of them will work for you? Anyway, again, I would see a specialist and don't give up yet! But know that even if you are doing everything right you can still have things go less than smoothly. Good luck to you...I wish you the best.

Milk supplies drop, but it doesn't mean your "drying up" and it will go back up just as easily. My milk supply dropped frequently during my son's 1st year. Once I figured out why it was dropping, I was able to nurse worry-free.

My milk dropped for 2 reasons - if I missed feedings a couple days in a row and/or did not nurse at night (6+ hours). My son was also an inefficient nurser, which similarly to wearing a nipple shield, can result in inadequate milk stimulation.

If I missed a couple of feedings a couple days in a row it would come back after 2 days of pumping and nursing regularly (every 2 hours). If my supply dropped because he did not nurse for 6 or more hours at night, I would nurse/pump regularly for 1 week (especially at night)...and it came back in full. I opted to pump because I was nervous that my son wasn't getting enough. I used kellymom.com to help me determine the minimum he would need (this is of course variable) and then pumped throughout the day to make sure I was making at least that much. If you supplement, make sure you pump (if you want your supply to come back up).

Kellymom.com also has a great section about a "fussy baby" and how women often confuse a fussy baby with low milk supply.

About the pain of nursing - believe it or not, it goes away after a few weeks. As you know, a poor latch can also contribute to sore nipples. My son didn't latch on well until he was older. My maternity nurse said she pumped for 6 months for each of her children until they finally latched on properly.

I went from nervous wreck to breastfeeding advocate - I love it - keep with it if you can, you won't regret it.

I would contact your local Le leche league at www.llli.org and get some help from them. Breastfeeding is supply and demand, if you are exclusively breastfeeding it is unlikely that your milk will just dry up. The pins and needles could be an infection. It is one of the symptoms of thrush which your son would also have. Which would make nursing uncomfortable for him as well. Also, watch his out-put. If he is having 6-10 wet diapers in 24hrs, he should be getting enough. Please continue offering the breast often and contact LLL.
Best wishes.

When I lost my milk with my 1st child (and I really did lose it, I know some people think that's impossible but it DOES happen) It felt like she was trying to suck daggers out of my nipples. It hurt SO bad! I hadn't had that pain the whole time I'd been nursing her until then.
There are teas and medicine you can take to increase your supply or if you are ready to switch her to formula you can do that also. (Or you might know of someone who'd be willing to pump for you if you want him to stay on breast milk and can't get your supply back up. I pumped for someone while I was nursing my son and it worked out well, he never even had to be on formula)
I hope that you find something to help you 'cause breastfeeding should be enjoyable for you and when it hurts that bad it's not!
Good luck!

I don't think it really sounds like your're drying up. If he's getting enough to eat during the day, then I would bet your supply is fine.

The nipple pain you described reminds me of when my son and I had thrush. That can really hurt! Once we began the medicine for thrush, he nursed better and the pain went away. Look inside his mouth to see if he has any white deposits. It's worth a call to the ped to see. If it's not that, I would talk to a lactation consultant to make sure his latch is good.

Good luck! Breastfeeding gets so much easier very soon!

Milk drying up - even if you intentionally try to do so, is very hard to do... so please do not worry about that. What may be happening is he's starting to cluster feed... which is feed more often, seem unsatisfied but is really priming your body to produce more milk for his next stage of development.

It can also be what you are eating, your menstrual cycle, etc changing the taste of your milk. Please do not give up so easily... formula is gross - you should taste and smell it!

The nipple pain may be signs of thrush - which is common and easily remedied. Check out www.kellymom.com and www.drjacknewman.com about both thrush and weaning off the nipple shield.

Don't doubt your body Mommy... it was designed especially for this!! You need to trust your body and baby and feed on demand and offer the breast often.

Can you express any milk by hand or with a pump? There are teas that can help increase milk supply.

You should definitely see a lactation consultant as soon as possible -- call one right away -- they might even be able to help you over the phone. It's important to get help right away so that you don't give up and switch to formula if it isn't necessary.

Good luck!