Triple Feeding

22 Apr

What is triple feeding?

Triple feeding is a term used when mothers breastfeed, express their milk and then top-up their infant all in the same feeding session.

Triple-feeding is to increase your milk supply to solely breastfeed eventually without supplementation. We know the more milk you remove the more milk you will make right?

What does triple feeding look like?

Let us explore what happens when a mother triple feeds.

The process starts with breastfeeding every 2–3 hours, 8–12 times in 24 hours, for as long as the infant stays at the breast actively sucking, normally 15–20 minutes. Next is to start pumping, preferably double pumping, for 15–20 minutes, ending with topping up the infant with expressed breast milk and/or infant formula of usually 10–30mls.

The reality of triple feeding

Sounds exhausting doesn't it? Spending hours either breastfeeding, expressing or cleaning pump parts only to have to repeat the process all over again.

This never-ending routine means no rest, no time to provide yourself with adequate nourishment or the basics of personal hygiene like showering. With everything you are trying to keep up with you now find yourself stressed. Stress and milk supply don’t go well together.

This drawn-out cycle can take up to an hour or so, causing you to feel exhausted — and I mean as if having a newborn doesn’t already do that.

When we start feeling overtired and mentally challenged, we then experience negative thoughts and self-talk.

The impact

This may see a premature end to your breastfeeding journey when you have given it your all and just don’t have anything else to give, not to mention the impact on your mental health.

When you are so time-poor trying to keep up with the cycle of triple feeding, it makes it very difficult to attend to your baby in a normal biological way, which can impact bonding.

Mothers who have been in this situation describe their time as being “traumatic, causing them to feel disconnected, stressed and anxious”. They felt they didn’t have “adequate support to maintain this type of feeding plan”.

There are other options

The good news is that there are other options available to you that may be able to make your breastfeeding relationship more enjoyable and still encourage success.

Start with support

My first advice would be to seek professional support and guidance so that a plan can be established, giving you a time frame with an end goal. You need not only lactation support but also support for your mental health.

Assess the underlying cause

Before we go ahead and make any type of feeding plan, we need to take a look at any underlying causes of low milk supply or slow infant weight gain. We need to assess positioning and attachment to ensure optimal effectiveness with milk removal. We need to assess your infant’s oral function and ability to transfer your milk.

Ways to support milk supply

Things you can try to help increase your milk supply whilst ensuring your infant receives adequate food:

Offering the breast as often as you can, including overnight
Switching sides throughout feeding whenever your infant’s sucking slows
Instead of using a bottle, use a supplement nursing system so your infant gets their top-up whilst being directly at the breast
Pump one breast whilst breastfeeding from the other
Pump when your infant sleeps or you have help from others
Have multiple pumping parts so you don’t have to worry about frequent cleaning
Top-up with donor milk to reduce the stress of having to pump a certain amount
Top up with infant formula if needed

Additional supportive strategies