Doubts on expressing

[KR2105]

Hello ladies. I am first time mom so back with another question regarding expressing. If my son drinks 5oz milk every feed, can I just express 5oz and stop pumping or is it important to get every drop out in order to pump up the supply? The reason I ask is, my expressing sessions take longer than an hour even with a good electric double expressing pump. This is because I pump more than what he needs and store the reminder separately. I don't feel like stopping when I see milk drops falling into the bottle. However if I were to pump only 5oz every time, this would save a lot time for me as I would be done in 30 mins. If I do that, will my milk supply reduce as I am only pumping 5oz as opposed a bit more? What do you think?

Also thanks for all the expert advise earlier regarding expressing. That was very useful!!

[roxannacar]

If you pump how much he drinks you should be ok. However you do need to have some spare as you want to make sure he is having as much as he needs rather than limit to 5oz. Also he will go through a growth spurt and will be wanting more at certain points. So then you just need to pump more to provide what he needs and increase your supply.

As long as you pump regularly there's not reason why your supply should decrease, if you were breastfeeding would you express over and above what he has?

[bd123]

If you want to save time, it's ok to pump 15-20 mins per side but do it every 3-4 hours. You should still have plenty of milk. The health visitor once told me it's best not to pump yourself dry.

To save time, there's no need to wash and sterilise the pump parts/container each time. You can just keep the non-motorised parts in the fridge till the end of the day then wash and sterilise at the end of each day. I didn't know that so my whole pump, feed, burp, wash, sterilise cycle used to take 2 hours then it was time to do it all over again make sure you get time to rest in between

[KR2105 in reply to bd123]

Thanks bd123. I never heard of keeping the pump parts in the fridge and sterilising once a day. Did you put them all in a bag and leave in the fridge or open. After how many uses did you normally sterilise? If that works, that would save a lot of time for me too.

[KR2105 in reply to bd123]

Also did you wash the parts and put them in the fridge or just put them right after using. I am asking because I read that bacteria grows fast when in contact with milk and can cause illness in babies. So want to know more about the method you mentioned. Thanks

[bd123 in reply to KR2105]

Yes, I thought the same but if you pump into a milk bottle and leave the bottle in the fridge, you can use it for 3 or so days (the milk). So if you use a pump and put it in the fridge (the funnel and bottle parts), the milk residue won't go off if you put it in the fridge straightaway. You can then rinse with boiling water before using again.

I put the pump parts in a zipper sealed plastic bag immediately after use and popped in the fridge. For my second baby I was only pumping 4 times per day so I washed and sterilised last thing at night. My first baby I pumped up to 8 times a day but it was so time consuming that i had to give up after a few months.

Please check with your health visitor first though. This is the info I was given as I was a expressing full time and I'm not sure how common it is because of the time it can take x

[tashalucy]

If you need help and guidance on pumping, I found lots online. You should take a good look here babyconfused.com/expressing.... Also if you contact them, with your problem they can assist more