Breastfeeding Q&A

Question:

My 5 month old baby has started sleeping through the night. While this is great news, I’m worried about how it may affect my milk supply. I have always had a great milk supply. Now that he’s sleeping through the night, there is a period from 7:30pm - 7:00am where he’s not nursing. I have added a pump around 10 pm before I go to sleep. Is that enough? Or will my supply suffer without a middle of the night pump? How should I proceed?

Will My Milk supply decrease when baby sleeps through the night?

Answer:

Congrats on this milestone! As long as your child is sleeping through the night on his own and you are nursing him on demand during the day, your milk supply should be fine. Since he is still young, it’s possible that there will come a time when he begins to wake up again in the middle of the night (sorry, I hope it doesn’t happen!) and if that’s the case, I recommend you feed him if he wants it. Otherwise, continue to follow his cues during the day. You can also offer him the breast more frequently during the day if you have concerns, but mostly continue feeding on demand, understanding that he might want to feed more frequently now that he’s sleeping longer chunks. As for pumping, there is no reason to pump unless your baby doesn’t seem to be keeping up with his growth curve. However, if you pump regularly and feed him this milk, then you can keep up this routine. Most of all, if your baby is growing well on your milk, try to just go with the flow in terms of sleep and feeding.