Breastfeeding - Phoenix,AZ

I used a product named mothers milk tea,you can get ti at the health food store,I also put my breastmilk in my babies first cereal.With weaning my milk wasnt enough so i switched to formula and started feeding him avacados.Eventually my milk dried up.

I don't see this here so I will be the one to say it. I am on birth control- the pill- so I get my period once a month. The hormones that cause your period cause a decrease in milk. I always get this once a month for the duration of my period. It is completely normal. Once your period stops, your milk will go back to normal within a day. I always wake up engorged the next day in fact. So don't worry because periods cause this. :) And your baby will still get enough. I know that cause i've had periods since two months after birth and my baby grows like a weed. I didn't start solids until 4 1/2 months so I know the period-low-milk time didn't hurt her at all.

And I don't mix my cereal with milk because it is too hard to express by hand. I just mix with water. My baby doesn't care. If your baby doesn't seem to like rice cereal- a lot don't- mix it with some fruit. They say "ooo they will develop a sweet tooth" but they won't. Mine eats everything and I started her on that from the beginning when I finally gav e her cereal because she wouldn't eat any other way. If you don't want to risk the sweet tooth, start her on vegetables instead. I did that because it was recommended to try veges then fruit. So she ate them and it didn't hurt her to eat them before the "6-8 months thing". If you notice a food allergy, you can back off. But carrots and sweet potatoes and squash tend to be the favorites because they are sweeter. So if the cereal plain doesn't work, those are suggestions to try.

Hi N.

I would talk to the Doctor about starting solids. Start by mixing some rice cereal with breast milk or formula. Give her a taste and see if she if ready for more, if not try again the next day and keep trying everyday. It should be too long before she is wanting to try new things. Fruit is sweet, so of course that goes over better than veggies. Of course still breast feed. in between. After awhile you can add some applesause or yogurt. All my kids (3) were eating the solid by 5 months and they were off the baby food and eating regular food at 12 to 14 months, they usually have some teeth and can gum their food by this time. You just be careful that it is soft and that they don't choke. Hope this helps.

L. Smith

Hi N.,

As you slowly wean your little one, you can slowly start substituting another baby formula to her diet. For now, to help her sleep longer at night, you can express your breast milk into a container and add baby cereal to it, but make it soupy. Use a baby bottle with a nipple that has a larger hole...(I used to sterilze a paperclip and while it was still hot make the hole large enough so that when tipped upside down the milk could drip out. This should satisfiy her.

As for keeping your supply going...when you take your showers, just massage them, and that will stimulate them to keep making milk.

Hope this helps...
Mom of three...
Cath

My lactation consultant recommended fenugreek to increase milk supply. Didn't work for me, but I have seen a lot of other mothers it has worked for. If you wanted to introduce cereal, it is up to you. I started when my boys were quite young and no harm. I would mix it with some breast milk. If you've made it too thick just wait a minute or two. Breast milk will break it down to a gruel, just watch. If you little girl still does the tongue thrust, put the cereal in a bottle, if not, try spooning it to her. Also, if you are going to wean her off the breast; pump to retain your supply after she has been fed. It will be difficult, but worth it. I am one of those mothers with low to non-exisitent milk supply. Also I have to agree with one of the other mothers that your baby sleeping may not be a symptom of an empty stomach. Try the ceral and extra feeding if that doesn't work you may have to find another cause.

Make sure you're eating enough and then if you want to continue to breast-feed, pump every chance you get. When there's demand, supply should follow. Since you're a working mom (I am, too, of a 5 month boy) supply usually lowers because we're away from our babies during the day and a pump just doesn't cut it. Also remember that breast-fed babies eat more often than formula fed babies. My son still eats about every 1 1/2 to 2 hours with me, as well. I just introduced rice cereal to my little guy a few weeks ago, and if you read the side of the box of cereal, it usually tells you how to feed your baby for the first time: mix 1 Tbsp with 4-5 Tbsp of breastmilk, formula or luke warm water and feed to baby, or something like that. You can thicken it up as the weeks go on. Also, I don't know if you're on the pill or anything, but they can also lower milk supply. If you want to dry out completley, I've heard from a few lactation consultants that if you take some cabbage leaves, roll them with a rolling pin, and then place them around your breast (not nipples) and leave them there for as many hours a day as possible, it will dry up your milk pretty quickly.
Whatever you decide, know that you're baby will be okay and you're doing well!

First, about your supply, there are medicines/herbs that help you produce more! Also, if you can pump in between feedings, this should help!

Second, introducing cereal/solids, most pediatricians say to wait until 6 months, but I started my daughter on cereal and solids at 3 and 4 months! Mommy knows best! If your daughter follows your spoon/fork to your mouth, she is ready, if not, try pumping and adding a small amount of cereal to the bottle! bottles work for baby food too! You just have to be sure the slit in the nipple is big enough for her to suck the food out, but not too big that she chokes!

Third and final, to wean w/o your supply leaving too, well, I am not too sure on this one, as I nursed until my daughter was a year and then put her on a sippy cup! She had sippy cups from 6 months and up, so she was used to them! I hope you get better advise on this last one!

Good Luck, and I hope you figure out what is right for you and your daughter!

Hi N.,
I also breasfeed my daughter until she was nine months and what I noticed is that the more you let her eat out your breast the more milk you will produce. Also remember that at four months she needs to start eating cerial because breast milk is digested by babies easier than formula, that is why she gets hungry every two hours. I strated giving my daughter cereal with a spoon with breast milk. Just put in a plate some cerial and mix it with brest milk. she will love it. At firs it is a little hard because she is not going to know how to eat out of a spoon but after a few tries she will get the hang of it. I also noticed when I was breasfeeding that I needed to drink extremely a lot of water and you cannot be in a diet when you are breastfeeding because your baby needs all of the nutrients that come from the food you eat.
I hope that this can help you with your baby, I know how it feels whet you don't know what to do and you feel like if you were experimenting with you baby, but everithing will be great, because you daughter has a wonderfull mom that loves her.

Enjoy your baby's new stage,
Y.

Well, you could try drinking a beer or increase your water. They say that sometimes helps, otherwise you might just be running low and when it stops it stops. I have a couple friends that couldn't breastfeed for more than 6 months because there milk supply would end. I luckily never had that problem, but I am surprised that you haven't started her on any kind of solids yet. Usually your doctor recommends that you atleast start cereal at 4 months becuase their appetites increase. Definitely, get her started on cereals and start introducing solids as well. That should help her from getting hungry so fast. They say this doesn't help, but I did it with my daughter and I swear it helped. I would put a small amount of cereal in her milk at night to keep her full. It might not work, but it did for us. I had to work at nights so I pumped during the day and my husband would combine the milk with a small amount of cereal. If you would like to try and start weaning her when you skip a feeding with her pump instead of feeding her so your milk supply doesn't diminish before you have her completelt weaned. She probably won't like the cereal the first couple of times you give it to her because of the texture, but keep trying to feed it to her. My nephew would never eat cereal, so my sister put him on poi(you can buy it at Safeway). AN it is really good for babies and adults. They eat in in Hawaii versus cereal. It is pronounced soy with a P, instead of an S. Getting her on solids and cereal should help her sleep better because she will be full ad she could be waking up at night out of habit now that she's getting older and feeding her soothes her back to sleep. Hope some of this helps!

I think you are going to get a bunch of different responses to this. I would ask your pediatrician about starting your child on solids foods. My pediatrician does not recommend starting solid foods until 6 months and recommends that breastmilk (or formula if the milk supply is low) remain the main food source until 8 to 9 months. He says that solid foods and getting a full has little to do with how well your baby sleeps. I am also a working mom and I noticed that after returning to work my milk decreased with both of my children. With my first child I ended up nursing more at night. He never took a bottle and was satisfied with eating every three hours at night until he was 9 1/2 months. By that point he was really eating solids and nursing only in the morning and at night. With my second child, he is a better sleeper thankfully, and I am pumping after all my day time feedings and also pumping once in the moring to keep my supply up. I have also heard that your OB/GYN can prescribe something to keep your milk supply up. Our hospital also has lacatation consultant, and if you have access to one I would recommend meeting with them. Another source of information on your milk supply issue is you local La Leche group.

Well, you seem to be saying two things. You both want to increase your supply, but want to wean. If you start weaning, your supply goes down. It's the most natural law of supply and demand.

If you want to increase your supply, nurse her more. Her recent increase in nursing means she's going through a growth spurt and if you follow her lead, your supply will go up. You can definitely continue to supply what your daughter needs at 5 1/2 months. There are just time when a baby needs to nurse more. Set nursing chedules don't allow for that. Follow his lead as he is telling you what he needs.

Try some herbs and good eating and drinking. Now just nurse more for a spell to let your body do what it naturally will for your baby!