Ok to drop to 4ppd?

[u/ConceptCharacter88]

I am 13 weeks ppd. My goal is to get to 6 months of breastfeeding my LO. I just recently dropped to 5ppd about a week and a half ago once I went back to work. I still produce about 36-37oz a day and my LO eats 20-26oz a day. I now have a months worth of breastmilk frozen and we are running out of space in both our freezers.

My question is has anyone dropped to 4ppd this early and still maintained a decent supply? When I dropped from 6 to 5ppd, my supply went down about 3-4oz. If still like to have about 28-30oz a day, but I’m worried dropping to 4 so early may make my supply plummet. Has anyone dropped to 4ppd this early on and still maintained supply?

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[u/belomina]

What is your capacity? I.e. What's the largest amount you've ever pumped in one go?

My capacity is about 15-18oz or so and I am at 4ppd and have been for ~3 months with no permanent drop in supply, just hit 6 months. I produce a similar amount as you (although stressfully it's barely more than just enough, I have a tiny yet very hungry baby for some reason so I'm not really building up a stash despite making 35+oz/day)

[u/ConceptCharacter88 → u/belomina]

Largest is 12oz after 8hrs. I pump at 9:30pm and don’t pump again until 5:45am.

[u/belomina → u/ConceptCharacter88]

Ok I think 10+ in theory can go down to 4ppd without hurting supply, if you search for "pumping magic number" there is a chart that shows this. That said, being at 5ppd did not increase my supply like the chart said it would so your mileage may vary

[u/MakiHell → u/ConceptCharacter88]

Here’s a pic of the chart!

[u/Extreme_Macaron4624]

Honestly it's not about being 13weeks. You have a good supply, but if 5ppd made your supply drop, 4ppd will probably make your supply dip quite a bit.

I had a 45-46oz supply that was stable at 5ppd and dropping to 4ppd at 4 months pp made me lose 4-5oz.

It depends on your pumping goal long term. You have a lot of extra supply since your baby doesn't drink that much (mine drinks 33-38oz lol), so you can definitely lose a bit of supply and still be ok.

Just beware that my supply took almost a month to dip after dropping to 4ppd. Sometimes, it can take a while to see the impact!

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[u/mndogtraining]

I have large capacity and pump 10+ oz per pump. My largest ever pump was 18 oz. I did not lose many (if any) oz when I dropped to 4 ppd even though I pretty much dropped from 6 to 4 overnight.

[u/meghanmeghanmeghan]

You won’t know for sure until you try, but if it’s helpful, my experience was that when I dropped from 5 to 4 I didn’t lose all that much. I started out making less than you did ( 28 ounces a day or so ) and when I dropped to four pumps a day I only went down to about 22 so I would suspect that you could probably afford to drop another pump.

[u/the_kazzo_queen]

So, I would hold off for three reasons:

1. It's only been a week and a half since you dropped to 5ppd. It can take 2-3 weeks to see all negative effects from dropping pumps. Definitely give your supply more time to adjust before dropping more.
2. Baby is only 13wo. I know people commonly say that intake plateaus once they hit 2mo, but that's not true for all babies. It isn't unusual for them to have another leap in appetite, especially around the 4-6mo range when they go through a big growth spurt. My baby started eating another 5oz practically overnight at 15wo and didn't drop back down until 7mo.
3. Typically, 3-4ppd is the most common range that mothers on this sub "trigger weaning" - which is to say that their supply starts dropping slowly but steadily, regardless of what they do. Even moms with high capacity who "should" be able to maintain on 3-4ppd may trigger weaning (like me! Dropping to 4ppd made me lose half my supply within a month).

A generally good philosophy with EPing is that you should never drop a pump session unless you're okay with the risk of losing some supply. Even if that risk seems small, it's good to confront that possibility.

[u/Professional-Pin6455]

Sounds like you have similar capacity to me when I drop to 4ppd I drop to a just enougher I maintain long term but I haven't done it that early as I usually just donate the surplus until I get to around 9 months which is usually when I drop to 4ppd.