Breastfeeding Question... - Palo Alto,CA

I found for me at least that my supply did not decrease because my daughter was wanting to eat just as much as before just spread out differently. I suggest getting the sleep.

Healthy nursing tea by secrets of tea is the best natural way to boost milk production.

Hi my name is L. and have three kids all boys.. 1 just turned 7 years old and my twins just turn 4 years old. I breast feed my oldest son til he was 10 months and my twins til about four months. But i was lucky to have lots of breast milk. What i did was pump the milk out and store it in the Frig. that will keep your breast milk with steady flow so your massaging around the breast to produce more milk. So once your baby wakes up after four hours of sleep your ready to feed and still have extra milk for your baby to drink from with the bottle. Don't worry it won't ran out just pump if you don't want to wake your baby up.

milk production is a supply and demand proposition . I would nurse the baby as much ashe will during the day with no formula . then at night use your 3/4 and 1/4 get some sleep because if you do not rest the milk supply will decrese also. I went to a convention and women were talking about usana vitamins and they stated that it could help with milk production. if interested my e mail is stork1973 at hotmail.com good luck S.

Just a thought...Have you had your thyroid checked? Sometimes that can be the cause of low milk supply. Make sure your doctor tests TSH, Free T3 and Free T4. TSH alone does not tell the whole story. Low thyroid was my problem and it was so frustrating.

I'll let others with more recent experience answer your milk supply questions. My youngest is 8 now. :)

Take care~

Hi L. -

You are a wonderful mom, doing everything you can to make sure your baby gets every drop of breastmilk he can!

I used a supplemental feeder for 7 months, and towards the end was able to produce only a few ounces of milk a day; we were both unhappy, so I stopped supplementing, and my now one-year old is happy with her bottle, has a great metabolism and is very healthy.

With only one child I'm not expert, but I learned a lot by reading and talking to everyone I could! What was enormously helpful to me were two web sites: http://www.mobimotherhood.org/MM/default.aspx and www.lowmilksupply.org, and the book that the authors wrote "Making More Milk". I found these when my daughter was 5 or 6 monmths, too late to do much...

There are many many issues that can affect milk supply, and lack of sleep is one of them. So get some sleep! The suggestion to pump manually on one breast during the first morning feeding is good - your body learns when and how much to produce, so if you tell your breasts that you need lots and lots of milk for that first feeding, you'll get it.

For me, the Monther's Milk tea did not work, and the fennugreek pills helped if I took 3-4 pills 3-4 times a day. That's a lot of pills, and I smelled like maple syrup for months! I also took More Milk Plus tincture, but what really helped me was WishGarden Herbs Goat's Rue tincture. Different herbs do different things, and goat's rue will help to produce more lactation by stimulating lactation tissue production.

I have heard that acupuncture and chiropractic care can make a huge difference for many moms. If I had had the money, I would have done that too - acupuncture helped me to get pregnant!

Also check your iron intake - here's a link to an article describing a link btwn low iron and low milk supply http://www.mobimotherhood.org/MM/article-anemia.aspx.

Good luck!

If you try skipping that night time pumping session I would make sure you are doing all you can durring the day time. Pumping after every feeding can help. Let the pump completely deplete your breast and then leave it pumping a few minutes more. My baby is 9 weeks and he is eating less often durring the day and sleeping longer at night. I think I need to go back to pumping to help my supply. The other night I think he was fussing cause he was still hungry and there was not enough there. I heard certain foods can help increase supply. Drinking water at, durring or after every feeding can help. Mothers Milk Tea is suppose to help. It sounds like nursing is really important to you but keep in mind sleep is also important. I think there are LLC that will give you some tips for free. Good luck! If you find something that does the trick, I'd love to know what it is.

Hi L.,
If you really want a full milk supply you should empty your breasts every 2 hours during the day and every 2 hours will help at night. but i understand wanting to sleep.
you should be able to get a full supply by always offering the breast first, even if you know you don't have a full meal for that little one. Get him to nurse as long as possible, even for comfort, and if you have a pump try pumping after you nurse him for the extra stimulation(5-10 minutes).
There is am herb called fenugereek, seems to help.
I know that getting your milk supply up can be really difficult, so remember to be happy that he is mostly getting breast milk. That is really great. I would also talk to a LLC for more advice.
good luck mama!

i think every person is different. you can try and go the 4 hours and see what happens. you should have an idea in 2-3 days. but you just dont want to take the chance then i would do the pump. you can also save that milk for a night out or use it instead of formula in another feeding. i am the opposite. i produce TOO much milk...but for me if i go the four hours it does not decrease my supply. i just fill up and leak out.

First off, major kudos to you for sticking it out even though your body hasn't exactly cooperated!

It's my understanding that as long as you don't go more than six hours at night and three during the day and nurse at least eight times in a 24 hour period you should be OK.

We had trouble getting my LO to take a bottle because I didn't offer one to her consistently enough because I was worried about doing anything that might jeopardize me breastfeeding her, but when we were half-heartedly trying to get her to take one I always made sure to pump out at least as much milk as she drank from the bottle. With a low milk supply I'm sure that would be extremely tough, but if you can try to sneak in a pumping session between nursing sessions that would likely do wonders to help increase your milk supply and perhaps mean that you could transition your formula supplementation to breast milk supplementation.

This link is more intended for older babies (four months or so) but I don't see why the suggestions in it for increasing milk supply wouldn't work at any point to help Mom increase milk supply.

http://mostgladly.typepad.com/cj/2007/09/its-my-party-an....

Good luck to you!

Ditch the formula so Baby nurses longer with you and your body will catch up to his increased appetite in a week or so - he won't starve in the meantime - it'll just take longer nursing sessions. If he's growing, he's getting enough to eat.
Check with a good lactation consultant - make sure Baby is latching on correctly.
Also - Fenugreek and Mother's Milk Tea helped me as well as adding sweet potatoes, apricots and brown rice to my diet.
You can get the tea and Fenugreek at a good healthfood store - GNC doesn't carry it. I took 3 Fenugreek capsules 3 times a day as instructed by the lactation nurse at Kaiser. It helped a lot.
I was never able to pump more than 2 oz. per breast at a time so always felt I had lazy boobs but my son nursed to age 10 months and was growing etc. just fine.

Hi L.

Your body will make as much milk as your baby will demand. If you don't empty your breast every 2 then the baby will do it every 4,or whatever his schedule is. The best way to increase the supply is to pump (with a rented hospital pump if possible) after you nurse him. this fools your body into thinking that the baby needs more and it will gradually make more over time.

I hope this helps and congratulations on the extra sleep. Every bit helps!

R.
PS i was just reading the other responses and had an AHA moment. I had a really had time making enough milk. I was able to do it with my first, but with my second (I think due to not having a hospital pump) by 3 months I just didn't have enough, hardly any. I was just reading about the thyroid connection that someone else mentioned and realized that that might have been the cause of my problem. I have Hachimottos disease and take thyroid hormone every day. That was discovered way after I was done with nursing. Just a thought, if you are not making enough milk have you thyroid checked.

Drinking MORE water will help increase milk supply....

As others have said, I would also recommend ditching the formula and trying for 100% breast milk. Fenugreek did work for me, although, it worked almost too well and for a while I had a messy oversupply.

One thing that I did throughout my breastfeeding times (7 months with my first and 17 months with my second) is when I would get more than 3 hours of sleep, I would pump while nursing in the morning. After a long stretch my baby wouldn't empty both breasts so there was enough milk for baby and for me to pump and freeze. I had a small hand pump (Isis, the only pump I ever had) and would nurse the baby on one side and at the same time pump the other side. Because the baby was already nursing it was very easy to let down and I was able to get 2-6oz in less than the time it took baby to finish the first breast. Then I would switch sides with the baby and let them finish off the second side. For me, I found trying to pump after feeding to be annoying and with no immediate reward (seeing the milk in the bottle). I am the impatient type and like to multi-task whenever possible. Pumping while nursing took a little getting used to but after I got the hang of it, it was sooo easy to get extra supply and drain both breasts after waking up full from a long sleep (4 hours, haha). If you could figure out how to make this work for you it could help you get the rest you need.

Please don't give up or get overwhelmed by all the advice. Just pick through it and find what works for you. I wish the best for you and your baby.

Congrats on breastfeeding! I think a lot of us struggle with this, so it is completly normal. But I am a "go with it" kind of person, so my advice to you is SLEEP...your milk supply is directly related to supply and demand. However your breats are smart little cookies as well. They will quickly figure out that daytime is when baby eats, and nighttime is time to sleep. Your milk might suffer when you first start, but it will soon get right back up to speed with they figure out that additional supply is needed during the day. Plus, night leaking is so beyond annoying and when you quit pumping at night, this will end as well! I think it is so great that you are breastfeeding and I also supplemented my brest milk with formula. I truely believe you just have to do what works for you. Your baby is lucky to get the breastmilk that it does, and there is nothing wrong with formula, so keep up the good work!