Breastfeeding Question - Springfield,GA

Besides what everyone else said - eat a lot and drink a lot (of water - although I've heard a beer might help too :-)

Please Please Please do not equate what is in your breasts with what you pump. If you are allowing infant to nurse on the breast on demand when you are with him, and only pump when you are away - your supply is just fine!! Pumping gets less than 25% of what is actually in your breasts while the suckling baby gets 100%.

Fenugreek works best when paired with Blessed Thistle. They somehow make each other work super well whereas one on one they are ok.

Try to stay away from prescription meds unless really necessary.

Also make sure to keep hydrated (at least 64 ounces a day), eat well, cut back on sweets/fats/refined flour carbs and eat lots of fresh fruits, veggies and oatmeal!

Pamela Raven and Son is right....you usually pump less than what baby actually gets when he or she eats at the breast. Don't stress about this, it is totally normal. Stressing about it will for sure decrease your supply.

Eating garlic, onion and oatmeal (not together!) really seemed to help my supply. Also, drinking lots of water is helpful, but be careful not to overly hydrate, as that can cause problems as well.

What also helped to increase my supply was to pump for about 5-10 minutes immediately after baby had eaten from the breast. You may get little or no milk, but it tells your body to produce more.

Nothing increases supply as well as on demand, frequent nursing. That baby mouth stimulation is what your boobies need! Try to nurse more often at home when you are with baby.

So long as baby seems satisfied at the breast, I wouldn't worry! If you are pumping his or her food for when you are away, and you don't get enough to feed her all meals, supplement with a little formula if you must and feed her only the breast when you are with her. But it sounds as you probably have a little stash if you normally pump 5-6 ounces at at time.

Just know it is completely normal for your body to have some days where it pumps way less than it did a few days before. All should balance out.

In my personal experience supplementing with herbs and such was not nearly as effective as staying hydrated and increasing the demand. When I went back to work I had a really hard time keeping up with my son because I couldn't pump nearly as much as he would drink if he was nursing. On weekends/evenings/days off I would pump on one side while he was eating on the other to help get my supply up. I had to feed him a little bit more often, but not even very much. For me the pump just was not very efficient, so in order to get much I had to have a surplus.

Hey there. Sorry you are having so much trouble with your supply. I know the feeling, it is so frustrating. I had ALOT of luck with mothers milk tea. you can get it at Kroger or a health food store. I have a 3 year old and 1 year old. With my 3 year old i pumped after she nursed ALL the time and by 9 months old i was worn out and giving up. I tried this tea while i was waiting for some herbs to come in the mail. With in 2 days of drinking like 3-4 cups a day i had enough milk for my baby. I drank 3 cups a day for several months and never had an issue with my supply again, it was freaken awesome. With my 1 year old i had the same issue so i drank this tea starting at 3 months and it worked great again. We are done breastfeeding and i am soooo glad i don't have to drink anymore tea!!!! But it was well worth it! Good luck ;)

Make sure you increase your water intake as well!

Check out the Jack Newman www.drjacknewman.com for good supply increasing advice. Domperidone is more effective than metoclopramide without the depression side effect-- you can get more info about it on Dr Newman's site Best of luck.

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Yes I was put on it and the side effects made me feel like I was having a nervous breakdown. It was crazy. My breast milk did not increase either, but I was not on it very long. Then my lac consultant put me on something called domperidone (or something like that, I cannot remember the name exactly) and while it did not cause any side effects it also did not do much in helping me increase my breastmilk supply (maybe a tiny bit, it was hard to tell). I just want to say, I'm sorry you are having supply issues. It's heartbreaking. I went through this with both my kids. I wish they knew why some moms have issues...I really would have liked it to have gone better for me. Anyway, hang in there and good job with all you are doing!
I have to add, I also was not able to pump out much milk. I know that your child can nurse and get more milk than you can pump, but my babies were crying constantly and were very hungry after breastfeeding. I worked and worked at it doing EVERYTHING the LLL and lac consultants say to do and in the end the only thing that made my children full and satisfied was a bottle (of someone else's breastmilk or formula) after nursing (or during nursing using the supplemental feeders, which I also did for a long time).

Try Mothers milk tea from Traditional Medicines. It has great testimonials on Amazon.com. It tastes good too!

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0000821/

Like with any drug or medication, are the side effects and risks worth it? Only you can make that decision.