Stop Triple Feeding and Try These Alternatives

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Are you wondering if you’re going to survive triple feeding? Or are you at the point where you are ready to call it quits because you are at your wits end? Then pump the brakes on triple feeding because I’m going to go over a few options that you can do try to increase your supply and milk production.

Using a Supplemental Nursing System

The first option is using a Medela supplemental nursing system (SNS). This device is a tool that you can wear around your neck and what this allows you to do is wear the supplement you’re providing and offer it to your baby through a feeding tube. The SNS is ideal if you know how much supplement you need to be providing in advance, so you have it prepped in the bottle and ready to go. Of course, you could always prepare more supplement than you need and stop feeding your baby once they are full and content.

When you are ready to breastfeed you would take the feeding tubes and line them up to your nipples. Then you would secure the tubes in place with a little bit of medical tape. You would latch baby on with the tube inserted into their mouth as well and then you’re able to condense the three-step process of triple feeding by breastfeeding and supplementing at the same time.

This will cut out the time down because you are now able to do two steps in one. You would then pump after your doing feeding with the SNS. This is ideal for someone who doesn’t want to deal with juggling and washing multiple bottles.

I personally alternated between triple feeding and using the Medela SNS. It worked really well for me and I often attribute it to having positive associations at the breast for my baby. The down side is there is a learning curve. Honestly though, there’s a learning curve to breastfeeding in general too. It’s not always easy right out the gate, so it’s something that I would say definitely dabble with it for a little while before deciding if you like it or not.

Which SNS should you get?

Medela does have a smaller size but if you are in a position where you don’t really know how long you have to supplement for, I would just get the bigger one to begin with. The smaller size only goes up to 80 milliliters, which is just over two ounces. So it really depends on your supply, how much you do or don’t have, but this is something that I would recommend.

Breastfeeding and pumping at the same time

The second alternative is what’s called parallel pumping. This is when you are using an electric pump on one breast while simultaneously breastfeeding on the other side. My biggest tip for this is to use a hands-free pumping bra. This way you can have your hands free to do what you need to while pumping.

To parallel pump, you would have the bra wrapped around you but with one side wrapped underneath one breast. The second side would be resting across your other breast like it normally would. You’d then insert your flange on the side that’s laying across your breast, so that way you’re able to parallel pump, while the side that’s tucked underneath your breast is free for your baby to latch on.

You’d need to switch sides after your baby is done nursing on the first breast. This allows you to remove as much milk as possible while combining the triple feeding steps of breastfeeding and pumping. This means you’d then supplement after the feed.

I didn’t personally parallel pump, so I can’t speak from experience. However, those who have parallel pumped tend to say it’s a total game changer. To me it seemed a bit more overwhelming to set up my pump on one side and then having the flange and tubing in the way of latching my baby. On the flip side, some are really overwhelmed by the SNS and not tangling the feeding tubes.

I struggled to latch my son so I had to help him in the beginning. Which was something I needed both hands available for. Having a pump in the way would’ve made it more complicated for me. It’s something that I’d recommend you experiment with to find what works for you though.

Can you use a Haakaa?

I have heard some people recommend that you use a Haakaa pump but I would not recommend it for parallel pumping. It’s just not as efficient, thorough or as strong as an electric pump. Best practice would be to use a hospital grade pump for parallel pumping, but if you can’t do that, then a standard electric pump would be just fine. The Haakaa pump will not give you the stimulation that you really need in order to try and increase your supply. You can use it at other times in between feeds if you’d like.

Stack your steps and save time

In my previous post, I briefly talked about one other method where essentially I combine feeding a supplement and pumping at the same time. Check it out here for more details on some options in combining those steps.

So the trick to making triple feeding easier is to stack and combine these different steps together. This will save time and you’re able to be done faster. It’s still doing all the same work and it’s still doing the same necessary things that would need to happen in order for your supply to be signaled to increase (assuming that you’re doing this at a minimum eight times a day). Your results, whatever those may be for you, will vary. This is just something that helps keep this process from being as exhausting since you are still doing one of these methods every two hours to three hours.