My son is 4 and half months old, and I am losing my milk supply. I am in the military and I had to go back to work when my son was 6 weeks old. I started pumping while at work, but I was hardly getting anything from that. Now I am barely able to nurse him for 10 minutes before he gets fussy because there isn't enough coming out. I heard of Mother's Milk tea and Fenugreek, and I have been using the Fenugreek for a week now and haven't had any improvement. Any advise will be welcome.
Try lactation Blend by Vitanica www.vitanica.com
It's sold in vitamin shops also.
If you can't find that try using Fenugreek 3 pills 3 times a day along with Blessed Thistle 3 pills 3 times a day.
Dear D.,
I understand that when you pump, then less milk comes that particular time. I really don't know anything about it, but you can find out a lot more on www.drgreene.com. They have a very long list of subjects .
Also, you can go on About.com to the Pediatricians -
Good Luck, C. N.
D., call Outpatient Lactation Services, Naval Medical Center, San Diego, Breastfeeding Warmline (Helpline) at ###-###-####. Non-urgent questions will be answered from 8:30 am to 4pm. Good luck and congratulations on the birth of your son.
you could also try breastea.com - they are really great tasting too - especially the chocolate caramel one..you just have to drink a LOT and once you start sweating maple syrup you'll know it's working! good luck!!
How much fenugreek do you take? You have to take a lot, I guess your sweat should start to smell like maple syrup when you are taking enough. I took 4 610 mg capsules 3x a day. I don't think I ever smelled like syrup but I had plenty of milk. Good luck.
So, my mom gave me these three suggestions when I was losing my milk with my second son. They're a little weird, but they worked for me AND for a girlfriend of mine.
1. Eat a whole head of iceberg lettuce in a 24 hour period. Don't know why it owrks, it just does.
2. Some people will disagree with this given that you're nursing,but drink a Guiness. Lots of yeast, and good nutrition for you - not to mention the pleasant side affects.
3. A package of active yeast in hot water. YUCKY - and I haven't tried this one, but my mom swears by it.
My mom raised 7 kids, and nursed all of us for a year each. I hope this helps.
HI D... I can totally empathize with you. My situation was about the same. As soon a I started pumping my supply dwindled down to not much at all, eventually at 5 months my daughter just turned away and wouldnt even breast feed anymore. I was crushed cause here I had this perfect image in my mind of breastfeeding till she was one nad all that good stuff. Well, I'd say contact the Le Leche League and ask for their advice. Or go talk to your doctor. I know there was some sort of shot or medicine or something that My doctor over at Pearl Harbor offered me and it was supposed to increase my milk..but I never took him up on the offer. I've heard of the tea as well and it did nothing for me..didnt know about fenugreek though, I'll have to remembe that one. Try contacting Le leche league and or contacting the lactation specialist at your hospital where you gave birth. Good luck!
Just try nursing more often. Your milk supply depends soley on the need of your baby. If you give up and give him the bottle you will continur to lose your milk. Remember to stay well hydrated as well Best of luck.
My son is the same age as yours. I went through the same thing about a month ago, and I ended up switching to formula. I really don't think the pump gets your milk supply going like your baby actually nursing does, so that in itself makes it harder to keep up the supply after going back to work. Plus, we have busy lives, and when I had a friend visit from the mainland and we spent our days running all over the island, I basically lost my supply in 3 days because I could not keep up with the pumping. Not to mention the stress of wanting to keep nursing will negatively affect your supply!
I honestly don't know how to get it back once you're losing it, except maybe to relax and keep yourself hydrated and well-fed. But I do know what it feels like to want to keep nursing, but instead get frustrated (and your baby's frustrated), and I just want to say there's nothing wrong with formula. Even though it isn't quite breastmilk, the formulas are fortified with all the iron, and DHA and ARA your baby needs for proper development. I know my baby's happier for it; I don't have to try to make a bottle in the middle of a feeding because I ran out of milk! Besides, you've brought him through his crucial first three months, and you've already done a great job by doing that. Don't feel bad if you need to stop nursing. But good luck in finding something that works!
I was able to increase my milk supply by drinking herbs tea; Healthy Nursing Tea by secrets of tea every day.!!
I took Brewer's Yeast tablets and seemed to help. Drink alot of water also.
Hi D.,
I can totally sympathise - I've had low milk supply throughout the whole time I've been nursing. My now 4 month son had bad reflux and couldn't lie down to nurse well and so my milk was always pretty low and it dropped even more when I returned to work 4 weeks ago.
I took Fenugreek for about 3 months, and then switched to Shatavari which I found a lot better. There is information about shatavari on kellymom.com I've found that a lot of times now when I pump I'm getting almost double what I was a week or so ago. I would also suggest reading a magazine or something while you pump, it'll take your mind off it and help you relax. I used to sit with a picture of my son as they suggest in the pump manuals and on a lot of the websites, but I found that I would just get more stressed out about missing him, and about how little milk I was producing for him to have at daycare. Now I just sit and read and it really helps me to relax and stop from stressing about how much or little I've pumped.
I also drink about 4 liters of water a day, a few cups of Mother's Milk tea, and try to get plenty of protein (oatmeal in the morning, and cashew nuts, cheese, protein drinks throughout the day). I'm not sure how much these help, but I think they're keeping my milk going to some extent. And as someone else suggested in response, having a guiness or other yeasty beer can help. If I do that I time it so that it's after I've either nursed or pumped - after the last feed or pump before your son goes to bed is a good time as it gives a good long period of time before you'll feed again. The lactation consultant I worked with suggested this, and it's widely used in Britain, as long as you're sensible about it!
Hope this helps!
the best way that I know of to get your milk supply back is to nurse more often. Sometimes the more expensive electric pumps will work better for you...when I was nursing I would pump one side and nurse the other and that helped me to get more milk.. enough to feed him and have some for the times that I wasn't able to breastfeed... goodluck!
Keep taking fenugreek, mother's milk tea, and eat oatmeal. And give it time. If it took a few weeks for it to slow down, it will take a few weeks for your milk to catch up again. Keep pumping as often as you can.
Good luck!
When trying to keep up with twins I contacted an online herbalist who creates her teas specially for your situation. I explined and she made me a combination that really helped. I got her name from Stanford's NICU but of course I checked all the ingrediants with my doc. The ounce that made quite a bit of tea only cost me about 15$. I drank it as iced tea, a big glass every time I pumped. I wish I could remember the name of the person.
http://www.kellymom.com/parenting/sleep/4mo-sleep.html
http://www.bflrc.com/newman/articles.htm
Check out the above links for more information. The first one saved my sanity when my supply "got lower" even though it really wasn't.
The Jack Newman articles have lots of great information to check out.
Diane,
I know exactly how you are feeling. When my daughter was born, I ended up going back to work when she was 5 weeks. What I found what worked for me was to pump before feeding. Like one of the other moms stated she pumped while feeding. I would get up about 30 minutes early and pump, then feed. The body will produce just like supply and demand. A friend (breastfeed 5 children 18 months each) told me that it also has something to do with the way the baby feeds. Something about how the mouth moves in comparison with the demand of the pump. When I went back to work I used a Medela double pump, I would take at least a 45 minute lunch, sit back, relax, read a book (or something that relaxes you)and enjoy your lunch and think of the baby feeding while the pump is running. I haven't breastfed in 3+ years but my nipples still tingle when I hear that "hungry cry" from infants. Hope this helps...
J.
HI D.,
What I can tell you from experience is RELAX! Stop worrying about loosing your milk supply because stress WILL help you loose it. Drink plenty of fluids, lots and lots BUT AVOID caffeine and soda. If you can, stay in bed with your baby one day (or as much as possible) and nurse him. If possible, take a whole weekend and just relax. Forget about housework, work and everything else. Just enjoy the time with your baby and nurse him. Take it slow and I know Fenugreek also works. It worked for me. My son is almost 5 months old but everytime I start worrying about my milk supply going down, it does go down, so again, try to RELAX!
