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My little girl is 6 weeks old, & in her first 4 weeks of life she was EBF until I noticed that she wasn't gaining weight. I took her for her Dr's checkup & found out that she was below her birth weight!! Doctor said that I probably have a low milk supply & that I should give her formula. It frustrates me because I was breastfeeding on demand, I thought I was doing a great job. So now I pump every 2-3 hours for 20 min & I'm only able to get about an ounce & a half from both breasts combined :/ My question is, is there any ways to boost my supply? I recently bought 610mg Fenugreek, but I don't know how much I should be taking to see a difference. Please, any help would be appreciated! I really don't want to give up!
Fenugreek is good, especially when taken with Blessed Thistle. Also - yeasty things and oatmeal. Google Tiger's Milk and also Lactation Cookies. All good things to look into!
Also try pumping whilst either holding your daughter or looking at a photo of her, that helps with letdown.
Talk to a lactation specialist to see if you have the best pump for you, including the right size "cup" for you.
Also try to pump really early in the morning, like at 3am. Randomly that's a good time for milk for some women!
Thank you. I have a midwife visit me & she suggested the same things, but I don't know, I just feel so overwhelmed! I try not to stress out but it's hard.
Also remember you're not a failure if you give formula or decide to mix feed. Breastfeeding can be so hard, and any breastmilk bub gets is beneficial but equally she'll be fine on formula. What she needs most is her mom!
I've had a similar experience. I was convinced I was going to lose my supply by 3 months, but here I am still nursing my son at 16 months. This is what worked for me:
More milk plus by Motherlove can be bought at health food stores or online (amazon)
Lactation cookies, I ordered the brewers yeast online. They are not the tastiest of cookies but they seemed to work well.
Power pumping. I pumped so much that I despise it now but it worked and would do it again if I had to.
Lots of water. I noticed a difference in output when I didn't drink a ton.
The above is what helped the most but these things might have helped as well:
I ate lots of Oatmeal and cashews
I drank several cups a day of Mother's Milk tea
I took Brewer's yeast and fenugreek tablets.
For pumping, if you can't hold your baby, try to smell something of hers while pumping. That helps with letdown as well and try to relax.
If you have access to a lactation specialist they can help alot.
And yes, there is no shame in formula feeding, your baby needs the right nutrition to thrive and either way is perfectly fine. And bottle feeding can be a bonding experience as well.
I literally tried everything Kristina suggested... While it would temporarily help a tiny bit, it wasn't enough for me.
This should be last resort, and hopefully all mentioned suggestions works like a charm for you... But the only thing that increased with a noticeable difference (0.5/2oz total boosted to 4oz+) was domperidone. I discovered this reading through the WhatToExpect breastfeeding forum. Again, medication is meant for last resorts. Best of luck!!!
Oh and other things Gatorade and a lactation support group! I went to one at the hospital I delivered at when I was struggling with latch. They will weigh baby before then you nurse with the group of moms and talk about your concerns with a lactation consultant. Then after baby is nursing, they weigh baby to see just how much they're getting. Because they say pumping doesn't produce as much milk as babe can get out. But my son nursed the longest in the session (45 mins!!) and only got ABOUT. A half ounce. That's when I started obsessively trying all the milk boosting tricks.
I have PCOS and it causes me to have a lower milk supply and with all the things posted by the ladies above I also found that a warm cloth sitting on the breast 10 minutes before pumping helped a lot also light massage around the outer breast while pumping helped a lot. Another thing is while pumping take a small five minute break and put another warm cloth on the breast, massage the areas you cannot get to while the pump is on you and then pump again for a few minutes.
Something I learned from my lactation consultant was that you very well can be turning your pump up too high for what your body needs and it can cause your body to not letdown the milk. For example I would start at a low setting to stimulate my letdown and than I would turn the pump up to a higher setting that was too high for my body and the milk would only drip slowly and then stop soon after. Now that I found the proper pump setting my letdown will stray and once letdown is over I will drip faster and longer than I did on higher settings. Before I was only getting maybe 1.5-2.5 oz total from both breast now I get between 4-6oz from both each pumping session.
The last thing is say to consider that my lactation consultant pointed out to me was that going back and forth pumping and actually nursing can cause you to have less milk. It can be confusing for your body. A mothers body has to adjust to her baby's latch and suck. Adding a pump into your breastfeeding schedule is adding a new type of latch and suck. If baby isn't getting enough while nursing try pumping exclusively to allow your body to adjust to that latch and suck without causing confusion. I know it is hard because breastfeeding is such a precious and special bonding moment but allowing your baby to get the benefits from breast milk is also very important.
I found out I have PCOS earlier this year when I was TTCing for the babe I'm pregnant with now. I forgot I recently heard about PCOS affecting supply. Thank you for mentioning it!!!!!
Violet- I'm under the impression that nursing her as much as she wants should eventually get your body producing the amount she's suckling for.
I don't know if this is what you're doing or not, but this is what the LC told me to do when we noticed my son was 7lbs3oz (born 8lbs12oz) after the nursing session of getting half an ounce out... Nurse your daughter then pump after, offer her the milk you end up pumping. There will be a delay of 15-20mins in between, so she will be cranky AF, but if you start noticing you're always producing the same amount after a nursing session, you can start pre planning bottles.
Doctor said that I probably have a low milk supply & that I should give her formula. It frustrates me because I was breastfeeding on demand, I thought I was doing a great job. So now I pump every 2-3 hours for 20 min & I'm only able to get about an ounce & a half from both breasts combined :/ My question is, is there any ways to boost my supply? I recently bought 610mg Fenugreek, but I don't know how much I should be taking to see a difference. Please, any help would be appreciated! I really don't want to give up!
