Infant Breastfeeding - Saint Petersburg, FL

Yoga for relaxation and taking Fenugreek, a herbal supplement will help, also discontinue all over the counter drugs.
good luck

How long ago did she have the baby? Did she have a c-section? I had a c-section and it took me a while to get a good milk supply? Sometimes when necessary I would supplement with formula, as little as possible, and I would feed more frequently. It took a good month but I caught up and my baby is about to be 13 months and still breast feeding like a champ. Supposedly it is very rare to have a problem where you will never produce enough milk, but it does happen. I would just tell her to breast feed as frequently as possible and pump if she isn't feeding and it will catch up.

I just went back to work and have been pumping but noticed my milk supply decreasing so I just started drinking Yogi tea for Breastfeeding mothers - I'm not sure yet if it is working but other mom's swear it doubled their production...

My lactation nurse also said heat can stimulate production so she may want to curl up with a hot water bottle or heating pad. Most importantly, tell her to try not to stress - her body will kick in. Good luck to her.

Drink plenty of water, eat regularly (and I remember oatmeal being suggested), and nurse! nurse! nurse! The best way to increase production is to stimulate production.

If your friend is worried that she isn't producing enough milk, recommend that she talk with a lactation specialist (The hospital should be able to put her in touch with one) or her local La Leche League. I used to attend groups where we did things like weighing the baby before and after nursing, which gave a truer read on actually how much milk the baby was getting.

There are also times in the baby's growth when it feels like we're not making enough milk... they nurse and nurse and nurse, and it seems like they're always hungry and never satisfied. But the increased nursing is Mother Nature's way of baby naturally stimulating more milk production to keep up with baby's growing needs.

For some quick info, I *loved* www.kellymom.com and www.askdrsears.com

Best wishes!

If you drink Healthy Nursing Tea by secrets of tea you will produce enough breast milk supply for your baby.....
Take care of your baby;)good luck!!!!

First of all, how does she not know she is producing enough? Is the baby gaining well? I had a problem with my baby not gaining enough and the pediatrician told me to supplement. This is a sure way to decrease your supply even more.
First of all she should see a lactation consultant (if she gave birth in the hospital they usually have one or more on staff that can help even afterwards, or she could call a La Leche League leader) to determine if her baby's latch is correct. Correcting the latch really helps with supply.
Eating oatmeal, drinking lots of water, taking fenugreek or a mother's milk tea all help with supply. I also ended up taking a drug called domperidone, but it is hard to get in the U.S. My daughter had tongue tie with affected supply and I had a doctor clip it, and then put me on domperidone.
She should also look at www.kellymom.com there is a whole page on there about milk supply.

i had the same problem. i took fenugreek, it is an herbal supplement and it take about 3-5 days to kick in, but it works.

OK first off how old is the baby??? secondly, how does she know for sure she is not producing enough??

If she is using the freguency of feedings as a judge to not making enough milk, then she probably is. Babies for the first 2 wks to 1 month will feed very freguently. specially bfed babies, as bm is soo easially absorbed. Feedings every 1-1.5 hr are normal for newborn babies. They will also stay at the breast up to 45 mins durign feedings. ALso, at 2 wks and again at 4 wks they go through small growth spurts. they will nurse more often to boost the supply. Usually these cluster feedings dont' last long. The only way to tell for sure her baby is getting enough is diaper counts and weight gain. a newborn, specially, should have 5-6 wet diapers a day adn at least 1 poopy for every day of life after all the first poop is gone. Or they should have at least 1 substantial poopy every day. now, after the 1st month the poopies may change. a bf baby can go up to 15 days without a bowel movement. This is mainly cause the breastmilk is sooo easily and compeletly absorbed that there is not much waste left behind. But then again, some babies will poop at every single feeding. Weight gain is another biggie. at age 7 days they should be at least gaining,even if it is slowly, some of the weight they lost after birth. by 2 wks of age, they should be back up to birth weight. A good way to judge how much milk is actually going in the baby is to weigh them prior to a feeding (naked or in a clean diaper only) and then weigh after a feeding. If they increase an oz, or more, then they got a good solid feeding. If they donnot increase, then they didn't get any milk. ALso, prolonged nursing sessions is another sign of not getting enough. What i mean by prolonged nursing sessions, those are where the baby stays at the boob for more than 1.5 hrs at each nursing session. Prolonged feedings can cause infants to get very tired, and very frustrated and not nurse as good, and get enough milk. Also, some babies like to use you as their pacifier, so that's another reason for prolonged nursing. The main ways to tell if she is not producing enough is diaper counts and weight gain.

Now things she can do to boost her supply

Fenugreek (Herb)
Brewer's yeast (Herb)
Mother milk tea
oatmeal
pumping in between nursings.
Reglan (prescription drug)

Now, if she does pump be sure to tell her that the pump is not a way to guage how much milk she is producing. Babies pull off alot more than teh pump does. And some women never respond to pumping at all

Now if she is determined to have a true low supply issue (I myself had this problem) then she may need to take the reglan, and she may have to supplement some feedings with formula. It is ok to do that. As long as she nurses first at each feeding and supplements afterward, her body will still make milk. I would also advise she get in touch with a good lactation consultant as well. Sometimes low supply can be caused by a poor latch or some other problem that can be fixed.

HTH
B.

Hi there,

The prior suggestions are good ones. I had the same worry, but remember if there are enough wet/dirty diapers in a day, then the baby overall is getting enough to eat. I think it's minimum 6 wet diapers per day and for an infant maybe 1-2 dirty ones per day? Can't recall exactly... check kellymom.com and I'm sure it's there.

Also - when my babe was very small, she nursed nonstop. At least 6-7 hours straight every afternoon, up to 12-13 hours straight some days into nights. It was incredibly hard and lasted for weeks, but we made it.

I also thought I had supply issues, but I didn't. I had problems with the rate that milk arrived. She wanted big meals of milk, and I could only deliver it in drops at a time. Overall, though, she would get enough, but one feeding just continued into the next one. Your friend may be having this problem if the babe is getting enough overall, but isn't ever seemingly satisfied. This lasted for the first 5 weeks, and then tapered off slowly over the next several weeks.

My best suggestion - get all the sleep you can. Figure out how to nurse side-lying while you sleep. Your babe should be able to eat & sleep at the same time fairly easily, but I took some time getting adapted to this.

Hope this helps!

She can also have her Dr prescribe I believe it is called Reglan the Dr should know what it is. I had that problem with my so but by the time I got enough supply he wasn’t interested:( I don’t have personal experience with it but she can also take Domperidone good luck

Fenugreek and/or Red Raspberry leaf tea.
If you are in the Clearwater area Morton Plant Hospital has a wonderful lactation consultant. She hosts a weekly breastfeeding mommies support group that meets weekly. It is a question and answer group that is a wealth of knowledge. (Morton Plant Hospital 300 Pinellas St. Clearwater, FL 33756
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The more she supplements with formula the less milk she will produce. Think of the babies tummy as an empty sink with a faucet that drips. Eventually the sink will fill with water, just be patient, relax and get SUPPORT...La Leche Leauge also has weekly meetings with experienced breast feeding mothers who have seen it all... http://www.lllflorida.com/groups/sw/index.html
Good Luck

Hi J.! If she looks on the Baby Center website and clicks on the store, there is a product called more milk plus that is all natural to help improve the milk supply.

A. S.