New Baby Girl

I guess I wonder why you think your body can't keep up? Is your baby losing weight or not having wet diapers? If not, you are making enough milk. Sometimes newborns want to nurse very frequently - that is not a sign that you're not making milk. Often, it's just because the baby has a strong suck reflex and that's how she self-soothes.

The reality is that the worst thing you can do for your supply is give formula between nursing feedings. The more you nurse, the more milk your body will make - it is totally a supply=demand system. If you give the baby formula in between nursing feedings, your body doesn't think the baby is eating much and so your supply goes down.

For some tips on getting started in the early days, you can read some of the articles on this website: http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/bf-links-concerns.html This might help you get started.

There are a lot of tips to increase your supply like pump after each feeding, eat oatmeal, and there are other natual supplements. But the best thing you can do to increase your supply is nurse nurse nurse.

Congratulations on your new baby and good for you for being committed to nursing!

try beer. it helps with the letdown

My daughter's pediatrician recommended Fenugreek when I felt like my milk supply was dipping.

You can increase your supply with oatmeal,oatmeal cookies,oatmeal snack cakes or however esle you like to eat oatmeal.It worked with me I began before I delivered & then after for a while then just as needed when my demand was high for baby.This was first recommened by the breastfeeding clinic then others such as Mothers Milk tea which I never had to try because the oatmeal really worked.
If you try beer it is the nonalcohol kind

A basket of flowers to Diane.
Do you have more info you can give us?

I agree with the beer suggestions (non-alcoholic). I was really struggling to keep up with nursing my twins, and they really began gaining weight after I started drinking beer. Miller sharp was the only kind that didn't make me gag. I also drank mother's milk tea every other day and about 100 oz of water a day(sometimes more) for 6 months, until they started solids. I successfully nursed them for almost a year.

Let me first say that I am 100% pro nursing. I tried fenugeek, mothers milk tes, la leche, lactation consultant, the whole works. also did the pumping after nursing and nurse on demand. stayed at home 4 months with dd, so we were together bonded and had time. still never made enough milk. with ds, used a supplemental nursing system. with both kids, my body quit making any milk at all at 4 months (and never made much-when I pumped after nursing, I was lucky to cover the bottom of the bottle with milk-not even a measureable amount). I never engorged, and did not go into labor naturally for either delivery (had to be induced at 9 an d10 days past my due date). I am low on those hormones! It IS possible to not be able to nurse successfully. I wish you the best of luck, of course. But it was not helpful to me to only hear that if I just worked harder at it it would happen, that everyone can, that it is natural, etc. Please, go with your instincts. My dd lost so much weight when I was on breast milk only, she looked like a little bird (I had to supplement to get her nutrition). visit your ped often to make sure baby is healthy. gl and congrats!

Why don't you think you are keeping up? do you mean your supply is low or you are short on time? I am in the same situation, I have a 3 month old and a 3 year old boy. It is very busy! My biggest solution is just being organized and plan ahead. I try to get everything my son will need before I start nursing or I start feeding my daughter before I know my son will have needs. make Sense? I pump just once a day, right away in the morning after my daughters first feed or I get up in the night if she's had a long sleep stretch. You produce the most milk while you sleep, so night or morning pumps are going to increase your milk supply the most.

It is so busy and some mornings feel impossible to get out of the house, but soon, your new baby will be more on a schedule and that part will get easier. I hope my advice helps!

A. V.

I struggled with this with my older daughter as well, and with my younger daughter, I had success with stretching the time between nursings a little bit, and trying to keep up with a daily routine. My body seemed to be able to keep up better that way, and my baby gained weight faster than her sister had. I'm not saying to deny your baby nursing when she is hungry - totally the opposite - but the idea is to make sure that when you nurse, she is actually hungry (as opposed to bored, tired, etc), and then to ensure that she really gets a big, full meal. If you can do that, then she will get the richer hind-milk, which will keep her full longer, and will encourage your body to produce more and richer milk. For us, the magic amount of time between feedings was 4 hours. She ate really well, slept really well, gained weight and was happy, and I felt a lot more successful with nursing. Of course when she hit growth spurts, I had to add an extra feeding during the day, but because my milk production was going well, it was fine.

Anyhow, I don't know if that helps, but it worked well for me.

2 things not mentioned that the lactation nurse suggested to me that helped was drinking Ovaltine and using warm compress to increase the flow. She also reccommended pumping right after feeding him. Also, like it was already mentioned, the more she eats, the more milk you will produce. The only indication she isn't getting enough is the lack of wet diapers and her losing weight.
Good luck and don't get discouraged - stress is also really bad on milk production!