Produce More Breastmilk

Drink tons of water. Pump after feeding until you are 'dry'. Take Fenugreek seed (can find at walmart.com). Eat enough (healthy) calories.

Nurse nurse nurse nurse as often as you can starting right after your child is born. The more often you nurse, the more milk you will make. Don't supplement especially in beginning when your supply is still being established. Some women worry their baby isn't getting enough milk, so they supplement with formula 'just a little until my milk comes in'. Then, because the baby got formula, he isn't as hungry and doesn't nurse as often or as vigorously. Since he's not nursing as much, your body thinks you don't need the milk so it makes less milk. Then the mom panics because her milk is decreasing and instead of nursing more (the real solution), she supplements a little more, but each time she supplements more it makes milk production go down even more. It's a vicious cycle, and then mom's milk is gone and she doesn't know why.

If you are worried you aren't making enough milk, your first step should be to call a lactation consultant to check the baby's latch (there are often knowledgable women at your local Le Leche League who can do this for free if you are worried about the expense of a lactation consultant, although my insurance did cover the LC). Do not supplement with formula unless the lactation consultant or your pediatrician tell you that you need to.

Here are some good tips: http://kellymom.com/bf/normal/newborn-nursing/

I would suggest figuring out why you didn't make enough. Were you simply not nursing enough? Or was there a bigger issue...with baby (bad latch, tongue-tie) or you (you have a hormone imbalance, hypoplasia, etc.) Get the book "The Breastfeeding Mother's Guide to Making More Milk" and see what sounds like the problem was. Then you can figure out what to do differently. Feel free to message me...I have low supply and spent a ton of time researching it. Sorry you are dealing with this. I know it's frustrating.

I have heard that eating oatmeal can help increase supply too. Check out kellymom.com and search there. It has lots of great ideas to help with breastfeeding.

Make sure that you're drinking enough water, take fenugreek (it will make you burp maple syrup tasting burps, but worked for me!), and make sure that you contact your doctor any time that you have an issue. The nurses can give you tons of advice.

I also had a very difficult time having enough milk. It took me quite awhile for it to come in fully (probably three-four weeks) and my child didn't latch well so I ended up pumping for over a year ultimately. I read almost everything about it. There is some prescribed meds you can take that may help so check with your doctor. Oatmeal is supposed to be good. Even a beer (particularly guinuess (don't know how to spell this) is supposed to help. For me I think relaxing was the most beneficial... I found I was so tense the let down just didn't happen. Also pumping in between feedings will cause your brain to believe it needs to make more milk to keep up with the baby. If you do pump make sure it is a good quality pump and that the phlanges you use are the right size and comfortable. Good luck to you.
-J

I agree with the drinking enough fluids - I used to always have a glass of something to drink every time my son nursed. Also, feed on demand, and ask your doctor. I had some nose drops that helped my milk come in.

I recommend asking around for a good lactation consultant to talk with now (even if you haven't had the baby yet). What you should do to be able to nurse longer the next time around strongly depends on understanding what went wrong the last time. I like the Nancy Mohrbacher's blog (she's an IBCLC) and her book with Kathleen Kendall-Tackett, "Breastfeeding Made Simple". It gives really good, realistic explanations of how breastfeeding works (and how it works differently for different mother/baby pairs) and might give you a basic idea of what derailed you the last time. And like Annie P said, sometimes you get derailed despite your best efforts, but it often feels better to know that you tried everything.

Feed your baby every 1.5-2 hours from the start of the last nursing. So if he takes 1 hour to eat, you literally need to feed him again in an hour.

I also recommend waking baby to nurse every 2 hours when they are just born. If you do this in the first day or two, your milk will come in strong. My milk came in in less than 1 day with my second because I kept waking him to feed him. I even put a wet wash cloth on his head to get him to eat.

Drink water and nurse as much as baby wants. Even let baby use you as a pacifier. :) You will feel like baby went from being attached at the umbilical cord to being attached at the nipple, but you will have loads of milk!

And remember, don't beat yourself up if it doesn't work!

Others moms had great suggestions. Drink tons of water, eat oatmeal, take a multivitimin for pregnant/breastfeeding moms. Get enough sleep! and nurse nurse nurse as much and often as you can.

I had the same problem. I thought I did everything right the first time (I knew ever Lactation Consultant by name!), but was determined to do "better" the second time around. I had the same issues all over again despite drowning myself with water and making my entire house smell of maple syrup (side-effect of fenugreek). I even took a prescription drug that made me CRAZY. Just like the first time, I made a ton of milk for 6 weeks and then produced very little after that (I nursed my first for a year, but at 4 months finally began supplementing so he would put on some weight and not need to nurse every 45 minutes around the clock!). #2 refused to eat at 6 weeks when my supply began to drop off. The LC were stumped both times--great latch and weight gain for 6 weeks...then, problems. I get my period back at 6 weeks so that's pretty unusual too :(.

What was better the second time around was I had more grace for myself and when I put my second on formula I felt okay about it. I will probably get hate mail for this post--but a happy momma=happy family and I was much more at peace the second time around...tears were still shed...I still felt kind of terrible...but not like a complete and utter failure.

The weird thing for me is that when my second son stopped nursing I never felt any engorgement despite exclusively breastfeeding. So after nursing nonstop for 6 weeks he stopped (okay more like screamed at my breast like I was killing him) and that was that. I think it's probably a sign that he wasn't getting much in the last week or so.