Diminishing Milk Supply

eatting a bowl of oatmeal every day and a nice glass of rootbeer really helped me! Good Luck! you can also try some mother's milk tea. there are a ton of things you could try.

Hi J.,
I went through the exact same thing this time last year! You are doing everything correctly. What is going on is your baby's 3rd growth spurt. Your milk supply is not diminishing, it's just your baby's appetite is growing, along with his nutritive needs. Just nurse him as much as possible and drink plenty of fluids. That is the only way to biuld your supply up to what he needs. There are also some herbal supplements you can try. One is Mother's Milk Tea, sold at GNC, and the other is called fenugreek. I tried the tea. It tastes awful, but it does help speed things along. I never got around to the fenugreek, but I've heard that it works.
Another thing that you need to add in is support. It is so difficult to thin that you aren't feeding enough so talk to someone, such as your doctor. Actually, whenI brought this up with my doctor, they weighed my daughter, had me feed her, then weighed her again. She ate 6 oz in 10 minutes. You can also call a breastfeeding helpline. The one I used was out of Pittsburgh. I belive the # is 1-###-###-####. The ladies there are certified lactation consultants. They are not militant about breastfeeding, which makes them more helpful.Sometimes just hearing that you are doing a good job helps a lot.
I hope that this helps you some.
Jenn

Out of curiosity, did you start a low dose birth control? That may explain the diminished milk supply. If that's the case, I would talk to your doctor about getting off the birth control and getting a prescription medicine to up your supply.

Contact your local Le Leche Group. You can email or call the leaders and they will have lots of suggestions for you. Plus it's free.

Supply and demand feeding your child is the best way to increase your milk supply but sometimes it takes a little bit. Make sure you are relax and taking good care of yourself. Stress can lower your milk supply.

Your baby is much more effective at getting milk from your breasts than your breastpump. So don't always measure how much milk you are making by how much the pump is getting. Is your baby having enough wet diapers? That is the best way to tell if he is getting enough. Babies can go through fussy periods and it might have nothing to do with nursing. Trust your instincts.

Your body might be trying to adjust to the bottle feeding in the daytime. So be patient until your body figures out the pattern.

Just to let you know, pediatricians are not required to take any breastfeeding classes so most of them I have encountered know nothing about breastfeeding. A lot of them will just tell you to supplement. Of course there are some out there who makes a point of learning the information on their own. So if you plan to talk to your doctor about this, make sure he or she has experience on breastfeeding topics.

Good luck.

Y.

You have a lot of good advice here so I won't reiterate it all, I did go through the same thing however and commend you for sticking with! It will get easier and you'll look back on this as just a hiccup. I am very, very grateful I got a great lactation consultant to coach me through some difficulties in the first 2 months, I was *not* getting good advice or support from my (now former) pediatrician and the LC really made the difference. My local NMAC chapter (www.nursingmoms.net) was also really warm, kind and helpful - and not scary militant in any way. After I went back to work and was pumping during the day I had some supply issues off and on and found that the fenugreek capsules worked like a charm - they also made me smell like maple syrup, but that's not all bad. :) Good luck and kudos for your hard work mama!!

the same thing happened to me although I never got 8 ounces 5-6 was my max, my ob gave me pills, you have to pump or breastfeed every 2 hrs and at least 1 time at night.The first day you take 1 pill the 1st day, 2 piils the next 3 pills day 3-10. I am only on day 1 and milk went from 2 ounces a pump to 3-5 ounces. pumping does not empty you as well as nursing does, I know going back to work definety lowered mine, I pump 2x a day at work. good luck the medicine is called reglan, they normally give it to woman that aren't producing milk right after birth, but my dr. told me to give it a try.good luck

Hi J.,
Please don't give up! Its so incredibly important for your baby (and you!) to continue breastfeeding, especially this early in his life. When you have a moment, please refer to the link below. The La Leche League supports all breastfeeding moms and offers lots of advice and free help to those seeking it. I am a first time mom of a 10 month old baby boy and have had a wonderful experience with them! Also, if you have the time, consider attending a League meeting, or contacting a League Leader for more advice. You don't have to join and support is free!

http://www.lalecheleague.org/FAQ/increase.html

Best of luck to you and your little one!
K.

You might want to speak to the Dr about it. But in the mean time make sure you get enough fluids, rest and nurse whenever you can. You will never be able to get as much milk when you pump as you can when the baby nurses. Good luck!

Contact your local La Leche League International leader. Look on the LLLI.org website for contact information. You can also call the lactation specialists at the hospital where you delivered. Their services are available for as long as you need them.

Are you eating well and drinking enough? Getting as much sleep as you can? Take care of the mama, too!

Hi J.!
I am a Lactation Consultant, nurse and mom to 3 breastfed children. Let's see if we can figure this out. If you could respond to these questions, I may be able to help you.

1) You are pumping during the day and nursing at night. Is this by choice or would you like to just breastfeed?

2) Did you start any contraception recently (the Pill, Nuvaring, patch, Depo)?

3) What kind of pump do you have?

You can also email me at ____@____.com

M. D.

Try increasing how much you drink especially water. Also I used to drink an herbal tea that I bought online that really helped, it has an herb called fenugreek that is supposed to help with milk supply and although it tasted kind of gross, it really did help, either because of the tea itself or sheerly the volume you drink of it. I got the tea from a website called www.breasttea.com. Good luck and try to relax, getting stressed out will only make things work. Trust me, I worked full time night shift and breastfed/pumped exclusively for 10 months, you'll be fine! Good luck =)

drink lots of water, that always helps me

At six weeks, there is a pretty normal growth spurt where babies often demand more breastmilk, which could explain your son's fussiness.
As for the milk supply, to establish and then keep up a good milk supply most moms need to feed and/or pump at least 8-10 times per 24 hours. You said you've been nursing 4 times a day but I'm not sure how often you have been pumping, but if it was fewer than 4 times you are below that magic 8 times per 24 hours. You may have unintenionally signaled your body that you didn't need all the milk it was producing if you haven't been feeding/pumping at least 8 times.
The best course of action is what you've already started, nurse as often as your son will take the breast and try to work more pumping into your daily routine (even pumping after he has nursed).
There are a number of other options to consider if you don't feel the added feedings/pumping is rebuilding your supply. You could talk to a lactation consultant about using a nursing supplementer to make sure your son gets enough nutrition while also stimulating your body to up the supply.
Good luck and stick with it--you're doing a great job and your son will enjoy all the benefits for the rest of his life!

You can also try pumping more to see what you are producing. If you are diminishing in your supply, there may be nothing more you can do to increase it. And the worst you want to do is to not nurish your child. Formula is a good substitute, if no milk is being produced. I had one breast stop producing, and was giving my son as much milk as I could, but supplementing the rest. He is almost 3 and has been sick twice, I feel I gave him good antibodies, while satisfying his growing needs both.

I had a lot of luck with milk thistle tea. I also tried fenugreek tea and red raspberry leaf tea, but they didn't work as well. I know people who have had great results with fenugreek supplements, which probably work better than the tea, but I hate taking pills so I didn't try them. The milk thistle did the job for me. If you sweeten it with honey, it's really not too bad--and it worked really fast. Anyway, that was my experience. You might want to call a lactation consultant before you try anything, just to be safe.

Good luck!

Are you drinking enough fluids? If you are, I'm not sure what's going on. I pumped for 6 weeks, but then dried up. The nurses and doc told me that if I pumped only (which I did because my son was a preemie and couldn't latch), that I would dry up in 6 weeks because a baby is much better at emptying a breast than a pump is. Try drinking more fluids and if that doesn't seem to help, I would call a lactation nurse.

Nursing more often is a good start. Make sure you are drinking tons of fluids - every time you nurse, have a big glass of water to help your body keep the fluids flowing. As others mentioned, he's probably going through a growth spurt around this time too so he's probably draining you faster than normal.

Here are a few local Pittsburgh resources for breastfeeding assistance:

http://www.breastfeedingcenterofpittsburgh.com/
(They are affiliated with my pediatrician, located in Squirrel Hill/Greenfield and near Century III Mall - I highly recommend them. If you call, leave a message, they will call you back.)

Magee Women's Hospital Lactation Center
300 Halket Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3180
Tel: ###-###-####
(They are a great resource if you are in the hospital and when you are at home. You do not need to have delivered a baby at the hosptial. Leave a message, they will call you back).

Pennsylvania Breastfeeding Referral Guide 2007 - a guide providing breastfeeding referral information for each county in Pennsylvania, an explanation of the professional groups and volunteer organizations.
www.pawic.com/breastfeeding-guide.pdf

You can Increase milk supply if you drink natural tea that`s Healthy Nursing Tea by secrets of tea..!!