Milk Not Coming Through Anymore

I had the same problem with my youngest. I actually found that pumping inbetween feeding worked miracles! Within a couple days I had plenty of milk, and I froze the excess milk for special outings from baby, and it worked great to transition to the bottle. I hope this helps!

Hello J., I had the same problem with breastfeeding my son. My doctor told me to try holding warm compresses on my breasts which helps to keep milk flowing. Drinking lots of water, and keeping caffiene down to 1-2 cups a day is recommended. But sometimes mothers have trouble producing enough milk for babies once they start to get bigger and eat more. Hope this helps you.

J.-

How long now has it seemed you aren't producing enough milk? It could just be that the baby is having a growth spurt. My 4 1/2 month old has times where he nurses non-stop. My breasts don't have enough time to fill up completely before he's ready to nurse again. I just stick with the constant nursing and within a few days he's back to his regular nursing. Pumping in between feedings will help increase your milk supply too. I've read and heard that eating oatmeal everyday will help increase the milk supply too. It's worth a shot anyway! What you eat and how much you drink is only really crucial in the beginning when your milk comes in. As far as caffeine....I would try to eliminate it or only have it once in a while. In our bodies, caffeine filters out in about 2-4 hours. The stongest concentration is one hour after consuming. In a breastfed baby it can take up to 96 hours to completely filter out!! Caffeine can make them fussy & restless. When I really want to drink caffeine, I make sure to have pumped milk on hand. That way the baby will be able to have "clean" breastmilk until the caffeine filters out. There was one time I did drink caffeine without having some pumped milk on hand. My baby was indeed fussy and didn't sleep good for a few days. Plus, almost all beverages come in decaf or caffeine-free anyway. Hope this helps you. Just try to stick with the breastfeeding. Any mom that does deserves a pat on the back knowing they are doing what it best for their baby. If it doesn't work out, just feel good knowing that Marcus got a good 4 months of breastfeeding, plus the ever important colostrum.

Good Luck!
R.

What do you mean it's not coming through like it used to? Do you mean your let down sensation isn't as powerful as it used to be? That will ease over time naturally... so if that is your concern, be rest assured. If you are talking about the volume you get from pumping.... pumping will never extract as much milk as the baby does, so don't let that be a concern either.

As long as your baby has adequate wet and soiled diapers and is gaining, you are fine :)

Caffiene can be upsetting to babies belly, so I really recommend low levels of that. Make sure to drink lots of water and eating oatmeal helps as well.

Also, if you have the ability to lay with baby for a day.... you topless and baby topless, the skin to skin contact encourages your body to produce more milk (increases the hormone levels).

Have you been to the doctor yet? It could be any number of things. Are you having any pain that might suggest clogged milk ducts? Is you son nursing every two hours or so to keep up your supply? Your doc can give you something that helps increase your milk supply. I'm not sure what it's called though. Have you visited or called a lactation consultant? They may be able to help. And this may be a silly questionm but how do you know no milk is coming out?

Congrats on your new baby J.! I would talk to a Lactation nurse. You may not be doing anything 'wrong' but they can talk to you about your routines and give you some more/new suggestions.

I had the same issue with my 6 mth old. I am now weening him because my supply has gotten too low and nothing has helped it.

Have you tried taking Fenugreek or drinking Mothers Milk Tea? They help boost your supply. They have worked for me (a little) and I know several ladies who had an awesome experience with it.

Also kellymom.com has tons of wonderful information that might help you as well.

Good Luck!

As long as your baby is not fussy, and is peeing more than 6 wet diapers a day, you're breastfeeding fine. If your baby is eating ALL the time, and not having enough wet diapers, your milk supply may be low...drink water until you float! Also, try A beer, it helps with let-down...Yes caffeine can affect your baby, if you notice a difference after you feed after consuming caffeine, perhaps you should cut back. Every baby is an individual and you need to do what works for your family. It's okay not to breastfeed, or partially breastfeed: a generation ago, breastfeeding was discouraged, and was raised on formula only and they're normal and just fine!
I breastfed both of my girls for about 4 months, weaning them off with formula(soy) during the day and breast at night. My 6 month old is now on soy formula only and developing and gaining weight normally.
Best of luck continuing with the breast!
B.

Hi J..
I realize your post was put up quite awhile ago, so you've probably gotten the help you need...but I thought I'd offer my advice! I've been successfully breastfeeding my son for 14-months now and I hope you've been able to continue b/c as my son has grown more independent it has remained a great bond b/t us and gives us nice quiet time together every day!
That said, I found "The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding", put out by the La Leche League, to be a great book and source of info. So you might check into that.
Your milk supply WILL increase with increased feedings. Your son is not going to go hungry, I promise! Just keep feeding him. I'm not sure if you're working or not, b/c I can understand that with work this could be difficult--if so you might try pumping more often, but again, that could be difficult. If you're a stay at home mom, just nurse, nurse, nurse, and pump when possible, too. Your should notice your milk supply going up in a day or two, mine always increases pretty quick. I know it sounds like a pain, but is has been so worth it for me!
As for diet...I read a lot of responses to your post, women talking about supplements to help your milk...everything I've read kind of debunks all those myths, like having a glass of wine/beer. You just need to make sure you're eating a good variety of food and not trying to lose weight too fast, which I know can be tempting, but losing weight too fast will decrease your milk supply and when your body burns fat toxins are released (which is perfectly normal, many toxins are fat soluble and thus stored in the fat)--too much fat burnt means more toxins in your breast milk and this is obviously not good for your baby. The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding suggests that you can lose about a pound a week w/o interfering with breastfeeding and harming your baby. So tailor your diet to achieve that--it took me a few weeks, but I ended up eating approx. 2400 calories a day while breastfeeding and losing ALL of my baby weight, and then some (nature's perfect diet, right?!).
As for caffeine--I quit drinking coffee and soda while I was pregnant, but a couple months after my son was born, I took up one cup of coffee again in the morning, and it never seemed to bother my son. But some babies are more sensitive--I know when I ate raw cabbage and broccoli my son was miserable (more gas, I think)! And I had a breastfeeding friend who couldn't eat strawberries w/o giving her son diaper rash! So every baby responds to their mother's diet differently.
Ok, I think I've talk enough about this! Good luck! Breastfeeding takes some perseverence, but think of the rewards for your baby!

breastmilk is a supply and demand operation. the more you let out, the more your body will make. if you are worried he isn't getting enough, pump in between feedings. you can freeze your breastmilk for months. and it will in turn cause you to make more milk, then if a feeding does not fill him up, you can give him some of what you pumped.

Hi J.,
Lots of great comments to help you through this. Here is my two bits. I recently stayed home with my daughter for 6 months and breast fed. I tried not to supplement, however at times did so. I noticed my supply go down when I went back to work...and then it would go up. I THINK there are many factors that come into play. Stress levels is one, how comfortable are you when you nurse. At first we follow all the rules according the all the pamphlets we have read and we sit in our rockers and put our feet up, drink lots of water, and nurse every 2 hours like clockwork. After about 4 months, the babies feeding & sleeping schedule change some, we try to take on a little more, leave the house more often, maybe go back to work and so on. I think all of that does have an effect on us. As well, I think we do need to keep ourselves hydrated, we can't drain mommy and expect to still produce. If nothing else, cafein dehydrates us, so I stayed away from it. Further I think once we have it in our heads we are going to nurse, formula is the ENEMY. I loved my days off so that I could nurse the baby because I felt like she had a more healthy day then the daycare days when she had formula all day. In reality, I think she is just fine with her mix of BM and formula.

You are probably right, your supply may have decreased, but it can still change and come back through like it used to. I learned that when I was pumping while at work and I could see that the amount (ounces) fluctuated.

Good luck to you and keep nursing if that is what you choose to do, everything will be fine.

great job on choosing to breastfeed!
just hang in there! :)
the more you nurse (or pump) the more milk you will make.
it could be that you are producing less after a couple of the growth spurts are over. but your baby will get what he needs. and if he isn't he'll let you know and you just nurse him more. if you feed on demand (nurse whenever baby lets you know that he's hungry, even if you just nursed him 10 minutes ago) you should not have any lack of milk.
but if you start with formula, you will produce less milk.

relax. make sure you're eating and drinking enough. and if you really feel like you are not producing enough for baby, spend a couple of days in bed or relaxing in front of the tv and just cuddle and nurse all day.

hope this helps!

Hi J.,

I successfully breastfed both my babies until 15 months of age. I know this is a sensitive subject with many women, but how are your fat stores? If you are fairly thin, you may have exhausted your fat stores that you accumulated during your pregnancy. I know breastfeeding requires a tremendous amount of calories to maintain a good milk supply, even with adequate fat stores. If you think this may be part of the problem, try upping your caloric intake with nutrient dense foods like avocadoes and peanut butter, nuts, and if you use animal products, yougurt made with whole milk, and whole milk to drink are also some good things to try. Things like this will have an impact on your supply. If you've tried all these suggestions you've gotten in response to your question, then maybe you should contact your Doctor, or a lactation specialist. Good luck! Feeding my babies, and making sure they received enough milk during those crucial first months was such a huge stress on me! I understand what you're going through. But keep up the good work! Breastfeeding takes a major commitment, and you're awesome for doing it.

K.

I think we'd need some more information to better advise you. Is your baby still having enough wet and dirty diapers? Is he meeting his developmental milestones? There are a lot of things to look at to find out whether or not your son is getting enough milk. If HE seems fine, then you are making enough. If you just think that your milk supply is diminishing because you don't feel full, then be reassured that this is normal. Your body is now going into supply/demand mode for milk production whereas for up to the first few months, it was mostly hormonally driven. Your body isn't going to make all the extra milk it probably was in the beginning, and is now going to make just what it needs to in order to feed your son. If HE seems fine, then YOU are fine. If, however, he isn't meeting his milestones or not having enough wet diapers each day, then you may want to look to galactagogues like oatmeal or fenugreek, and talk to a lactation consultant. Don't immediately rely on formula, as that could seriously damage your supply to the point of not being able to nurse at all. You're doing a great job so far, keep it up!

I would say that as long as your little one is growing that it may just seem like you don't have the supply you used to, and now your body is making just what it needs to. Have you recently started him on solids? If so, when you do that he will nurse less thus your body won't make as much milk. If you think you need to increase your supply I would suggest nursing more often, and yes water always helps. There are also herbal teas on the market that you can drink to help increase supply.
J.

Drinking more water always helps with my milk flow. If your dehydrated you can't make milk. Caffine will dehydrate you and it will keep your baby up, so I keep my caffine consumption to morning so it doesn't affect his sleep. Whenever I have it past lunch time he doesn't sleep as long at night. Does your baby seam hungry? By the fourth month most women's bodies have figured out how much milk the baby needs and doesn't make too much and leak all over the place. If your baby is happy your probably doing just fine. Don't give up if you want to keep breastfeeding. Some babies bennefit from starting foods at 4 months. Good luck. ~V.

Hi J.,
I nursed all my kids, and my last one I did nothing but drink a few soda's and water and she is ok, she is actually a straight A student, it doesn't seem to have any effect on her, it did keep me up and her up at night while trying to sleep, she did toss and turn alot, but now she drinks nothing but water and juice, mostly water, and nothing but vegetables, no meat, at least not alot of it, she loves salad's and fruit, as for the breast feeding, I was told I had to eat regular meals to keep my milk in, other wise it would not stay for my daughter to nurse. so eating 3-4 times a day with heatlhy snacks in between, like nuts and salads, and bottles water helped alot, other than that not sure what else to say,I also kept taking my vitamins to help as well. hope things get better. D.
D.

Hi J.,

Sometimes milk can dry up unexpectedly - it's not happened to me but to people I know and there was no reason they knew of for it to happen. However, increasing your fluid intake could help, but I've also read, strangely enough, that too many fluids could dry up your milk too. Also you could try pumping in between feedings to increase milk supply.

J.,
Hi and congrats on your little one. Over time your body will not engorge up as much as it did in the begining, and seem like you don't have as much. look to clues from baby too, is the baby not satified or crys after feedings ? And the wet diapers are a good sign too. There is an herb called fengreek that is used to increase supply can take at least a week to notice a difference, reasearch it and see if it is something you want to do. Some ladies will pump more to increase supply and that can take a day or two to kick in as well. If you have a good scale you can weight you and baby before and after a feeding. If it is not too much trouble you can ask your doc or just ask the nurse if you can get baby weighed before and after a nursing session. Just keep drinking water too.

I know i worried w/ my son after 4 mos he stoped gaining regularly but doc wasn't concerined and baby was healthy so we just kept at it until he was 11 mos and didn't want mommas milk anymore.
Good luck

Have you tried pumping in between feedings? My guess is that it may be that your 4 month olds appetite has changed and that the less he is eating the less your breasts produce. There is also a perscription that can be taken to help milk supply, and herbs. You could ask your MD.

i'm going to say sorry right now for bad spelling. i had a really hard time breastfeeding my son and had to go to formula becuase i lost my milk. i do know that there is a prescription that you can talk to your dr about taking that could 3x your milk. i was also working with a lactation consoltant, ( don't know your size) but if you are very large in the breast she told me to place a rolled up wash cloth under my breast to help drain the ducks under my breast better. you can also try brewers yeast, or drink one beer a night, i will help up your milk. another herb to try is blessed thisel. both were recomened by my dr. hope this helps

Hi J.
Congrats on the wee one. I'm not a lactation consultant but, I am breastfeeding my 3 month old and we've been through some rough times as far as nursing is concerned so I read everything I can about it. Is he fussy when he nurses? Does he still seem to be hungry? Maybe he's going through a growth spurt. If so, Let him nurse more to up your milk supply, see if that helps. Water doesn't help milk production but it will help you. I think one caffenated drink a day is okay. Usually a baby will act fussy if he's had too much caffiene. Try visiting the La Leche League website. They have very helpful info. Good luck!

J.,

Breastfeeding is very much about supply and demand. You have to make sure the demand is there to continue to have a supply. Around 4 months, typically you lose the hormonal surge you had when your baby was born but that doesn't necessarily mean you'll lose your supply - as long as you are nursing and/or pumping enough to continue stimulating your supply. I'm not sure what you mean by your milk isn't coming through like it used to? Does that mean you aren't getting engorged? That is pretty normal as your supply evens out to the demand of the baby. It doesn't mean your supply is low, it means your supply is where it should be. Babies also tend to go through a growth spurt at around 4 months so they want to nurse constantly - which naturally ups your supply. So if your babe wants to nurse alot, let him. It certainly doesn't hurt to drink more water and make sure that your diet is good. You are still eating for two! I know for me, I have to eat plenty of protein and fat to produce well (and I pump quite a bit because I work full time so I know exactly where my supply is at). I don't think caffiene is necessarily harmful to a baby as long as you aren't drinking huge amounts of it. It can make some babies fussy so you want to watch for that. If your are drinking 1-2 sodas a day or 1-2 cups of coffee, that should be fine. If you are drinking more than that, you might want to cut back. Caffiene is a diuretic so if you are drinking a bunch of it you may be dehydrated so that could effect your supply, especially if you aren't drinking enough water. Sugar? Well, I don't think it would necessarily effect your milk or your baby but it can certainly effect you if you are eating too much. It can obviously make you gain weight but it can also fill you up so you aren't eating healthier foods that your body needs to make milk. So, overall, it is really important to make sure that you are eating a reasonably healthy diet.

If you could give me some more details of what is going on with you, I could try to be more specific with the advice. But in general, there is almost never any real reason to wean and switch to formula at 4 months.

T.
mama to Cole 9-11-03 (pumped at work to 16 months, nursed to 23 months)
and Wyatt 10-14-06 (currently pumping for work and nursing)

J.,
firstly, is marcus still growing and peeing and pooping like normal? do you have any signs that he is not getting enough or do you just feel unsure about how much milk you are making. babies are amazing and being able to get what they need. :-)

i know that i have had a very similar experience. my daughter, aurelia, is five mo. and right about the same time i had a drop in milk production. i used to be able to pump three ounces or so on a side in one sitting and now, i have to pump four or five times just to get one four ounce bottle!
part of that is that she is stretching out her feedings, even though only a little. instead of eating every 90 min/ 2 hr. she'll go up to three and half hours these days.
also, now that i am working more (sometimes four shifts per week) i am pumping more and feeding less. the less marcus eats, the less signal your body gets to make milk.
and yes! water intake has a great deal to do with how capable your body is in making food for the baby.
i had a terrible time when i first went back to work because i would get busy and not drink ANYTHING for like four hours. keep yourself hydrated and nurse, nurse, nurse. it's amazing how your body will adapt!
best of luck! follow your gut- you know better than anyone what your baby needs.

Healthy nursing tea is the best remedy to increase breast milk supply naturally.