Reduced Milk Supply

I was able to increase my milk supply by eating oatmeal for breakfast every day. I know others have mentioned that, but just wanted to chime in.

I am trying More Milk, a mix of herbs. Call a lactation consultant (the ones at Prentice Women's are helpful) or La Leche League.

Oatmeal, one to two times a day, will help increase milk supply. I know it sounds crazy, but women in my breastfeeding group swear by the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies from Meijer store. I would recommend eating oatmeal for breakfast every day. It really helped me. If you want to try a supplement, I tried Fenugreek. The only side effect is that you will start to smell like maple syrup when you sweat and when you pee. It isn't that bad :) Also, there is a tea called "Mother's Milk" that you can find at most stores in the tea section. This is really helpful for boosing supply. I actually tried the fenugreek and marshmallow capsules (only available at the herb stores) and it worked great, but cost a lot. If you decide on fenugreek, you have to take two to three capsules three times a day.
I hope this helps!
A.

Cereal 3x/day at 5 months is quite a lot. She's probably feeling quite full from that, which is why she's nursing less.

I would probably scale back on how much solids you're feeding her at this point so that she ups her nursing. Also, always nurse her BEFORE you offer her any solid food. Remember - she is not really getting any nutritional value from rice cereal - she is just "practicing" eating. So you want to make sure she has not decreased her breastmilk intake since this is still her primary source of nutrition, and will continue to be so for her first year of life.

To get your milk back up I would:
- Always nurse before meals
- Scale back to 2 solid meals per day (you can go back up to 3 meals per day in another month or two - and when you do, make sure she's eating a variety of foods, not just cereal)
- Pump if you skip a nursing session
- Pump for 10 minutes AFTER you nurse her
- Eat and drink plenty

Also consider taking a weekend and not feeding her ANY solid foods - just nurse her on demand all weekend (this may be every couple hours, since your supply is down a bit. Just dedicate the weekend to it). Usually 2-3 days of all nursing all the time will really help jumpstart things.

If you're still having trouble after doing all this, consider taking some supplements.

Definitely nurse before giving any solid foods. Nursing should be still her primary source of nutrition so this shoudl be considered her meal, the cereal or solids are the snack. 3 times a day at 5 months is alot of solids. I would start with just once a day, and then gradually add a second meal, and then a third, esp since 5 months is a little early to be starting it anyway.

The tea everyone mentions is just the same thing as taking the herbs and you have to take ALOT of the tea for it to do anything. The Blessed Thistle mostly helps with letdown. I am not aware of any problem in taking this with nursing.....they probably just put that on the bottle as a disclaimer so that if anything were to happen, they couldn't get sued (this is the case with most meds that say that about nursing.....often no proven reason not to take it, they just want to cover their butts). Fenugreek actually can have some side effects...it reduces your blood sugar and this is the other reason it is taken as an herb. So if you are diabetic or have hypoglycemia you want to be careful. I think this herb along with lots of water is the most effective way to increase supply (other than nursing and pumping more often), but you have to make sure you are taking enough of it. You want your sweat to smell like maple syrup or you are not taking enough. Here is a GREAT informational sheet on it. http://www.kellymom.com/herbal/milksupply/fenugreek.html

If you have trouble with letdown, the blessed thistle will help or there is something called rescue remedy that can help stimulate the hormone that helps with letdown. http://www.rescueremedy.com/

**** Just wanted to add...if you want to continue nursing DO NOT take what you make and add it to formula and give it in a sippy. It is true that every child has their own time table for things, but doing that is sabotaging your nursing rleationship. Anytime you replace nursing with any other kind of nutrition you are decreasing your milk supply....and if you are nursing exclusively BM should be your child's main source of nutrition up until they are about a year old. Solids are just practice until this time. This really just sound like a case of too much solids too fast. You have gotten lots of other good suggestions though.

I think it is common for a lot of women to start having a decrease in milk at this time but it is possible to overcome with a little will on your part. I would suggest trying to nurse your daughter 2 different ways for a few days and see if either method helps (I did both at different times of my milk decrease). First nurse your daughter and pump immediately following. THis will signal to your body that it is not done and needs to keep producing. Also, try pumping first and then nursing your daughter - this should give your body the same signals.

I also used Fenugreek in a pill form. It made me slightly sick to my stomach and I didn't find that it helped too much with the supply. What worked better for me was 1 bottle of beer a day. The malt in the beer will help increase supply as well. I found this to be much more effective.

And nurse as often as you can. I commend you for making it this far and love to hear that moms are still trying to nurse their little ones even when they become more active. I am the mom to a beautiful 12 month girld who still nurses 3-4 times a day. I own and operate my own business and lead a pretty busy life but nothing has been more rewarding than breastfeeding my little one. Our bond became even greater the older she got and continued to nurse. I wouldn't exchange this experience for anything. You can get through it. Keep a positive attitude and your efforts will be rewarded. Good luck!

Make sure you nurse BEFORE all solid feedings. I didn't do this and my supply suffered. I eventually supplemented just once a day to make up for it. I wouldn't do that since you daughter is so young, my son was 10 months. Try nursing more and see how it works.

Hi A., though these are not the herbs I normally suggest to patients for increasing milk production - there is another food trick that works wonders. Take 1 cup of adzuki beans and cook them in five cups of water for an hour or so, after they've been soaked overnight of course. Drink the water and you will increase your milk supply. Drink 3 cups per day. Also, you could try acupuncture which helps for the same. I'm a Doctor of Oriental Medicine and Licensed Acupunturist, as well as a nutritionist. You could find an acupuncturist near you (or come see me) at: www.therhythmwithin.com or www.acufinder.com

Many blessings,

K. Bader OMD, L.Ac

I ate oatmeal each morning and drank water right before and after each feeding. The oatmeal worked becuase when I pumped for 3 months when I was off. I saved almost over 150 bags of 8oz milk.... The oatmeal did it for me... good luck.

A.:

You could also change pumps.. some mothers find renting a hospital grade pump makes a huge difference.

Herbs can help/ milk removal is what stimulates a milk supply.

P., RLC, IBCLC, CST
Lactation and Parenting Solutions
www.lactationsupportgroup.com

A.,

The only thing that will increase your milk supply is more nursing (and pumping). It is the law of supply and demand. Once you start reducing that, by supplementing with formula, offering solids (which she does not need, she needs your milk!), etc., you start reducing your supply.

If you plan on continuing with breastmilk, you should also make sure you get enough salt. If your tongue is light colored you are probably dehydrated; you need to drink enough water and get enough salt to retain the water to make milk. This is the most important supplement. The other herbs (there is a tea called mothers milk which is safe) will help, but they are minor compared to: nursing/pumping more, not supplementing with solids or formula and getting enough salt.

I strongly recommend stopping solids. She doesn't need it and she is not getting ANY nutritional value from it. It is actually doing more harm (since she is not nursing) than good. Don't worry about solids for now. I didn't give my 3 year old anything until he could feed himself, around 9 months. It worked really well. I have never fed him. He feeds himself. (if you have more questions on this method, let me know. it worked really well, and it was easy!)

I am still nursing my 3 year old and nursed my 5 year old for 18 months. We were lucky to have a pro-breastfeeding, super knowledgeable doctor to guide us and support us.

If you have any more questions, I'm happy to offer what I know.

Good luck,

M.

There is an herb that I am currently using called Fenugreek, it's available at GNC and was recommened by my dr. My little one has been a slow weight gainer, she was not getting enough milk while nursing. It has really really helped.

You should always nurse before feeding solids to the baby. Even at her age. Your milk is a "complete food," whereas the other things you feed her are supplemental, experimental and really just an introduction to solid foods, since your milk should be her primary source of nutrition.

I have a low milk supply problem too and take alfalfa supplements, which help support your system to make more milk, and More Milk Plus (liquid form). I get it thru my lact. cons. in Naperville (Janet Talmadge, ###-###-####, www.lactinv.com). You should also make sure you're eating an extra 500 calories per day to ensure you have enough energy to make your baby's milk. Protein is a very important part of your diet inmaking milk. I can't remember how many grams, but it's a lot. Like when you were pregnant, you should eat between 80-100g/day. It's a lot, but will help you.

I also have found that doing some upper-body exercise helps increase blood flow to yr upper body and gets milk to come down faster (re your slow let-down notes, esp when pumping). Something as little as doing full-arm circles -- 10 forward, then 10 backward, a few minutes before you pump or nurse. I've found this to be very helpful!

Hope this helps. I run a weekly breastfeeding support group in Naperville on Mondays, 10:30-11:30, at Wheatland Salem Church (entrance 3, room 125, toddler playroom, so bring big kids, too!). All breastfeeding moms are welcome. Janet Talmadge, IBCLC, joins us regularly and offers excellent advice.

Jen Stahl, Naperville
(mom to 3yo Mitchell and Nicolette, 7.5mos)

I suggest you nurse her before you feed her the cereal. That way she will fill up mostly on breastmilk (which is the preferred source of nutrients) and supplement with the cereal. This process may take a couple of weeks for your supply to increase, so don't get discouraged! Hope this helps! K. --mother of 3 breastfed babies :)

At Whole Foods in the healthcare section you can find Nursing Mother's Tea - when I was nursing I drank only that and water all day long and I noticed an increase in my milk supply.

Good luck -

A. That is normal. take what you do produce and add it to fomula. That is you childs way of telling you that it's time that he starts using a sippy cup. some childrem do thing faster then others. I have 5 Children and they all did thing at there own pace. I hav one on a sippy cup at 4months and then another at 9 months they tell you when there ready.
Good luck and if you ever need andy thing let me know. Good luck
G. W.

When I spoke to a lactation consultant regarding the same issue, she recommended I try fenugreek, but said that the side effect is that you might start to smell like maple. Seemed odd to me, but I guess there are worse things you can smell like. I ended up using her other recommendation, which was Mother's Love More Milk Plus (you can buy at Whole Foods) and it was AMAZING! I went from pumping lke an ounce total per session to like 2-3 oz in the first week. Then after the second week went to like 4 or 5 ounces! I did not notice any side effects with this medication. Hope this helps!

I have used Fenugreek in the past. It works ok but I noticed that when I would sweat it smelled like molasses! Sort of a weird side effect I guess. I had more luck with Domperidone. This was recommended to me by a lactation consultant and it required a prescription from my ob. Don't know if that has changed in the last 4 years. It was not covered by my insurance at the time and it was very expensive, however it worked miracles. I had more milk than I knew what to do with. Best of luck.

Fenugreek will help your milk supply and you can get it OTC. The negatives are that you'll smell like maple syrup and you also have to take up to 9 pills a day. My lactaion specialist told me that you can call your OB and have him prescribe you Reglan (used for reflux). It's been shown to increase also and without the negatives I listed. Just make sure you pump, get up in the middle of the night and pump too. Good luck!

When I was nursing, I had some supply issues and sought advice from a lactation consultant. She suggested I either take the More Milk Plus or the fenugreek and blessed thistle together. I also had to pump a lot to try to increase the supply. Good luck.

For increasing milk supply I would suggest you natural tea called Healthy Nursing Tea by secrets of tea.

If you can, keep up your pumping schedule just as you would if you were nursing. Since my triplets spent almost 6 weeks in NICU, it was impossible for me to breast feed them. First it was because of the NG tube they had and then we also had some latching-on issues and honestly, I couldn't be at three mouths at once. Still, I really wanted them to get as much breast milk at possible. I rented a hospital grade medela pump and pumped and pumped and pumped. Initially I started every 2 hrs (which is a lot I know,) but eventually I got into a routing of every 4 hours. I never actually pumped enough for three babies so I did have to supplement with formula but my point is that with regular pumping, I managed to breast-pump milk for all them for a full year. I was also big on Mother's Milk Tea. It also seemed to help boost my supply.

Petersen's Pharmacy in Oak Park carries hospital grade pumps and they're very reasonably priced. Also, if you rent for an extended period of time, the price goes down a little bit.

Good luck!

A. there is a tea you can drink that will help called mothers milk. that can help supply.also if she is nursing from you she will bring your milk in more than pumping alone.i never get as much from pumping alone.when you pump it only emptys whay is there but actual nursing will let down more.p.s. my doctor told me to drink one good heavy beer once in a while.

I don't know anything about taking the supplements, but I do know that you cannot get nearly as much milk from pumping than from them nursing. If you nurse her more often, at this point, your milk should come back more. You also need to drink a lot, as you already know. The books say that you need to eat 500 more calories a day. Maybe it's even more than that, I'm not sure anymore.
I would just concentrate on eating, drinking & nursing more and I think your problem will be solved.

"More Milk Plus" is the herbal supplement I use. It was recommeded to me by a lactation consultant and you can buy it at Whole Foods. I have never had any problems with side effects (And I'm pretty sure it was developed exclusively for nursing moms). The lactation consultant also told me to use as much as I needed (even if it was more than recommended on the label), and I have done so without any problems

Also, I'm assuming you are still pumping 3 times a day at work. On the days when you are home with her, be sure to pump in between feedings. For example, I'll nurse my son before his morning nap at around 9am and then I'll pump at 10:30 because he's not due to nurse again until 1pm.

I would agree with Jennifer that nursing before solid meals is probably a good idea. I was nursing my son before breakfast, but lately, he seems to rather wait for breakfast than nurse. (same with his mid-afternoon snack) However, he is almost 11 months old and probably starting to ween himself.

First, I'm sorry your doctor didn't inform you of this, but you should always offer the breast at meals BEFORE solids instead of after. There is almost no nutrients in cereal and so she needs to be getting it all from you. For anyone reading this who formula feeds, the same goes for you. Cereal is to teach babies to eat solids, not to give them sustinance. Hopefully you haven't seen much of a change in her weight gain but it can happen when babies cut back on nursing to eat solids.
So, try changing your schedule around so that she doesn't get her solids (you've probably started others by now?) until after she's gotten her fill of BM (including bottle feeding at day care - they too, should have known better).
Also, she's old enough that she may be getting enough out of those 5-10 minute sessions! They become VERY effecient eaters after a few months of life. Remember that she's probably much better at getting milk out than the pump and if you are stressed about it each time you pump, it just makes it that much worse.

As for the funugreek. I have never heard of any side effects with one execption: some women claim that they smell like maple syrup! Now, there are worse things to smell like, I know, but it probably gets annoying after a while. I never had this problem and I used it for quite a while. You want to get capsules and take 2-3 three times a day (with each meal). I don't have any idea why the label says don't take it. You find it at Wild Oats on a lactation shelf! I forget what brand I bought, the one you mentioned didn't sound familiar.

I'd also get a good-sized water bottle and make sure you alway have water near by. I have a 32 oz. bottle I use and I know that if I fill it twice each day I have gotten enough. You can also get "Mother's Milk" tea from Traditional Medicinals which has fenugreek in it. Caffine also dehydrates you, so cut back on any intake like coffee and go for the tea instead.

If fenugreek doesn't work, there is a prescription you can take which works for most women, but I think it's kinda a last resort before formula supplimenting.

I hope that's helpful:) Good Luck!

We had to supplement with my week-old daugher since she kept dropping weight. Once she got the bottle, she stopped nursing. I pumped and gave her the expressed milk, but the supply kept dropping. I met a wonderful lactation consultant at Dundee Pharmacy. With a consult and 2 weeks of "More Milk" in pill form, she was back nursing and I hadmore milk than ever before. I didn't noyice any side effects at all. You can contact Gail Macklin at www.newmothernewbaby.com.

Hello A.! Iam a labor doula and also nursed my 3 kids as well, so I have professional experience with this and personal experience. I had to take Fenugeek for a little bit to get my milk supply back up and it works great and no, there are no side affects that I know of. Another thing that really works great is oatmeal. Eat a bowl a day and that should help you alot. And also, when you pump, do you have a picture of your baby to look at, and even maybe her blanket that smells like her and all? That really helps with the let down and helps you get more milk. I hope these things help.

S. Bailey CLD
Aurora
www.tendermomentsdoula.com

I took Fenugreek when I went back to nursing. I stopped for a week and wanted to start again so I pumped like crazy. I took that and Mothers Milk tea. They both bumped up my milk supply. But I do have to warn you, unless you like tea, you need a lot of sweetner with this stuff. It's nasty, but I really wanted to go back to breastfeeding. I had to stop cause my family doctor told me I was too fat to breastfeed. I'm a plus size, but I'm not obese. But yeah, I'd say Fenugreek and Mothers Milk tea both work. I got them both at GNC.

I just had my son's 6 month appointment today and was told to add cereal to his diet once a day and after a week or two add another and then introduce an "orange" veggie after 2-3 weeks. After that I could add new orange and then green veggies every week. Once he's tried the veggies, I can then add fruits. She STRESSED numerous times that the solids do not replace the milk and that breastmilk and/or formula is most important and that the solid is just meant to fill him up a little more and get him use to eating. She told me to nurse him before his meal and wait for an hour or so and then feed cereal. I'm surprised your ped didn't tell you that. I think if you nursed first and then fed your daughter the cereal, your supply will increase. I also agree with the oatmeal increasing the milk supply. Good Luck and Best Wishes!

I didn't find that any of the supplements worked. the only real thing that worked was increasing nursing. I never got so much from pumping. Even at the best of times, I would only get 4 -6 ozs. I also talked with my doc about what the additional benefit was from slightly more breast milk was and he reassured me that given I had exclusively breast fed for 5 months that the difference from what you describe (morning and evening) to a little more than that was not much. So if you find that nothing really works, remember you did much better than most