Milk Drying Up

if you give a bottle and miss a nursing feeding your milk will dry up, keep nursing and don't subsitute. Stay hydrated and see your doctor, sometimes taking reglan can help increase your milk supply. or they might have other options.

As your daughter ages and she gets more and more of her nutrition from sources other than milk, your milk supply will decrease with her infrequency of nursing. So, with that said, are you drinking enough water? You said you felt dehydrated, so you need to keep your fluid intake up in order to provide fluids for your daughter.

You can nurse her on the airplane. However if you feel more comfortable giving her a bottle, then do so. But it's necessary to help equalize the pressure in her ears during the flight. She will be extremely uncomfortable if you don't. Taking a red eye will help as well, as the cabin will be dark, she's more apt to sleep and if you want to nurse, you'll have a little privacy.

Have a great time!

C., now that your daughter is a year and probably eating solid food, your milk will start to decrease. It is all about supply and demand. The more and longer you have her at the breast the more regular you supply should be. But don't think of it as drying up, it's not, its just regulating to the demand that is being asked of it. Make sure you are drinking plenty of water and getting enough rest. Stay on with the mothers tea and herbs, they do work. Also you may try Hefewizen beer, I know I spelled that wrong, the hops in it is very nutritious in the production of milk.
I nursed both of my children for two years each, and so from experiance I know that the supply does change over time. And from a professional stance, doula, yoga, lactation, you should be just fine, try not to over analyse and trust in yourself.
Best of luck!

Are you sure you're not pregnant? Before taking anything, you might want to check - a new pregnancy can have a big effect on milk production.

Fenugreek gave me and my baby horrible GI discomfort. Her pediatrician gave me domeridone and it worked like a charm....as others have suggested, drink more water than you think you need to to stay hydrated. Get some rest too, as I'm sure you know by now, stress will reduce supply too.

S.

I did use fenugreek and it does make you feel like you are a bit dehydrated ---the simple answer is that with taking any supplement and/or medication to increase your milk supply is DRINK LOTS OF WATER. I went through the whole thing with fenugreek and medication to keep my milk at about 4-5 months while nursing my son and I wasn't the greatest at keeping my water intake high enough.
I did supplement when I flew with him the premix formula bottles. He was just a little guy but he ate often when we flew. It is a bit more expensive and you will probably have to order it directly from the company if you wanted to use it, but I had the 3 oz bottles of premix Enfamil that you just shake the bottle, open the top and put a nipple on it, then throw the bottle out.
I was glad to have had them with me. There was no fuss with powder mix, needing water to mix with, and how long it would be good for.
Three out of our four legs of flights were delayed so even though I had tried to work his feeding schedule into waiting until we got on the plane, air traffic isn't always on time so he ended up eating in the terminal before take off and I didn't have anything left when we boarded so the premix bottle helped to get him into the air. Luckily he slept on the way down but by then my supply was back up.
My milk did not dry up but simply substituting/subsidizing during this brief period. He continued to nurse through 21 months and only stopped then at my decision.
I found that I was stressing about my milk supply which was simply making it worse. When I MADE myself relax and just "go with the flow" of it and be prepared so that if my milk did dry up, then it was a lot better. I really worried for a bit as my son wouldn't take a bottle but when he was hungry and the changes in his little world from the flight, he was more than happy to suck on the premix formula (oh yeah, that was the only formula he would ever drink - even when I tried to use powder, he wouldn't have it and the only brand he would drink was Enfamil).

Hope this helps some. Simply, I would suggest that you drink lots more water, take bottle back ups for airport delays, and relax (the hardest part for me).

I drank a lot of mother's milk tea, but it really didn't do a whole lot. I never did produce much. I would take a sippy cup on the plane, though, rather than a bottle as most doctor's and dentists recommend your baby be off the bottle by one year old to prevent tooth decay. I know, it's difficult to do sometimes!

Another small tip. My best friend has a sever drop in her milk supply a couple of days before her period starts. If your cycle hasn't returned yet, it might be coming any day. Her supply goes back to normal within a couple of days. Just make sure that you keep nursing her whether there's milk or not. Good luck

Try the tea and also drink LOTS of water. Another thing is that if you miss nursing sessions, your body will adjust and make less milk, so it may sound counter-intuitive, but to make more, you need to nurse more :-)

I had some problems with insufficient supply earlier on (at around 4 months). The fenugreek didn't help, but More Milk Plus (has fenugreek plus some other stuff in it!) helped right away. I was able to tell within 24 hours if I stopped taking it. Good luck!

I nursed until my son was 3.5 because I wanted him to self wean. At one point my milk started to lessen and my midwife told me it was likely that the baby was actually drinking less. Still the same length of nursing but with less effort. she recommended pumping a few times a day as the milk supply is responsive to the supply/demand needs. With the increased expectation for milk production your body should kick up production. Take in extra nutrients and lots of water. This worked great for me and its worth a shot.

Hi C.,
Yes, I did everything right, too....took the fenugreek, drank the tea, drank water to the point I was going to the bathroom every half-hour or so and I still lost my milk. I'd let my son nurse initially, then he's get mad becuase he was not getting enough milk, and then I'd make him a bottle. I just think some women can't produce enough or for very long. I had trouble with both my children going past 8 -10 months. I strggled this last time to get my son to eight months old with some breast milk, but by the time he was 8 months, I was taking SO MUCH fenugreek, just to get the littel amount of mile I was making. So I just decided to stop. Good luck! ~A.

HI C.,

I might suggest letting your daughter nurse as often as she can initially, then try the fenugreek with LOTS of water, and lastly, a temporary fix is a beer, as the hops, we believe helps you produce more milk.

You might also make sure that you are drinking an 8 oz glass of water each time she nurses.

Best of luck,

T. Nelson CD (DONA)

My daughter went through this and it ended up she was drinking to much and suffered from (I think it is called) Water Toxicity. Please check with a Dr., Nurse, or lactate specialist.