What are some things I can eat or drink to help milk production? For some reason I think my production is low, well I worry about it anyways. I wish I had a baby scale so I could weigh this little nugget all the time. Im a freak.
Go to theple LLL website, they have tons of suggestions on there. Drink a ton of water all throughout the day, you can take feungreek (sp?) supplements, or you can try Mother's Milk tea.
I have an 8 week old and MM tea, while not tasting great worked wonders for me.
You can tell input by output. If baby has a lot of wet and messy diapers, he's fine. Really.
Kellymom.com is a good site/resource.
You can drink water, eat oatmeal (I did cookies) and drink things like Mother's Milk Tea. I only drank to thirst, but I did well with it.
Drinking enough water-about a gallon a day-is very important. If you're dehydrated, your milk production will suffer. Otherwise, just eat healthy, no drastic cutting of calories or dieting. As long as your little one is satisfied after nursing and is gaining weight, they're getting enough milk, so don't worry about it. Stress does effect production also. Good luck!
Mother's Milk Tea will help with your production, also make sure your staying hydrated. The best way to tell if your producing enough is by watching your baby. If he/she is happy and content after a feeding then you are. Relax and enjoy this, its hard not to worry about everything but I'm sure your doing just fine.
If you are nursing on demand... the chances of your milk supply being low is very minimal.
Oatmeal, healthy regular diet with an extra 400-600 calories, Guiness or stouts on occasion, keep hydrated and sleep as much as possible.
My doctor told me to weight my kid on the produce scale at the grocery store. LOL I did and it helped me keep my sanity.
To help increase my milk production I drank a glass of red wine or a (one) beer before going to bed. This helped me out a ton.
Feed on demand and pump. I always pumped right after first morning feeding and at night before I went to bed. Drinks lot of water and I mean more than 32 oz. I ate a bowl of oatmeal every morning and ate a diet of REAL food. There is an herb fenugreek that will help boost your production if you still feel you are not producing enough.
If your baby is feeding every 2-3 hours and content then you should be making more than enough milk.
Don't forget to enjoy this time. I am sure so many people are telling you that but really do. Cherish the time you have feeding your precious little baby. I know you are exhausted but you are gonna want it back.
Good luck!
You can take a supplement called Fenugreek. It can be found at GNC or Vitamin shoppes. I took two pills once a day but my doc had told me to start off with two pills three times a day to get started and then I slowly tapered off to once a day. You will definitely notice a difference. I think I took it for about six months because for some reason this time I couldn't seem to keep up with my dd :). Good luck!
The best thing you can do for your milk production is to drink lots of water and healthy fluids. If your baby is satisfied after nursing then you should not have a concern. Your doctor will weigh the baby at every visit, but if you have real concerns such as few wet diapers or no bowel movements, then seek your doctor right away. The great thing about nursing is that your body gets its production levels from the baby. They work as a team. It is when they don't that the signs will show in your baby's diaper. :)
Good luck, and try not to worry so much just breath and enjoy!
Try Breastea from http://www.breastea.com. Just drink it daily and breastfeed or pump as usual. I watched my milk supply increase from 1/2 ounce per pumping to over 5 ounces. Hope this helps!
The only thing that has increased my milk supply has been herbs tea called healthy nursing tea. You have to use it daily and give it time to work. Make sure to breastfeed or pump often.
When I was nursing my twins, I wanted to exclusively nurse and not have to follow up with formula. I found that my twins weren't emptying me out when they finished eating the first time I would nurse for the day. So, subsequently the following feedings I would produce less and by evening, they would be upset because I wouldn't have enough to satisfy them and I'd have to give them formula. So I learned to promptly pump everytime after nursing. It seemed like a pain to pump and only get 1oz. out each time, but then I found that I was producing more milk at the next feeding and they were getting satisfied more. I also drank tons of water.
I agree with feeding on demand because there will be times when they are going through a growth spurt and they will nurse more often in a weeks time so that you will naturally build up your milk supply to provide more for them per feeding as they grow.
I was able to exclusively nurse until they were a year old and then weaned them totally off to cow's milk at 14 months. For me, it was a great accomplishment and think of the money we saved from not having to buy formula. : )
