Hello,
I had all kinds of milk production issues, from my milk taking forever to come in, to low production. I basically did everything I could to make production good, and past that you just learn to accept what you must. If frustration is getting you down, and you want to vent let me know, I've been through about every milk related struggle possible.
There are however lots of things you can do to ensure the best milk possible so;
1) Local Le Leche League leaders have lots of good ideas and there website may have what I will list and more. I know a local group meets at First Baptist Church 1 or twice a month, it's come when you can kind of thing, probably other groups around, ?
2) Good nutrition for you, plenty of calories spread throughout the day and good hydration. Calorie intake should probably be more than 2000 a day, and in good calories, not pure sugar and fat. Good rule is stay away from refined sugars and processed food as much as possible. For hydration drink water as much as possible. Tea is a dieretic which will drain the body of fliud and cafine also dries the mucus membranes of the body, hard on the sinuses and throat.
There are also great supplements availible to help with production, I highly recommend trying them, I did take them and saw noticable difference;
B vitimins, this is why it is commonly suggested to take forms of bakers yeast, or drink beer. B complex vitimins could be deficient in your diet.
Fenugreek, blessed thistle,the main two also known to increase production. There is a great local company MotherLove that makes a mix(tincture) of the two above plus a few others, they call it mothers milk plus, and I highly recommend taking the blend as opposed to the fenugreek alone
You can get this and most supplements known to help at Sunflower market, Drake and Lemay, and I think MotherLove company has a website, they are out of LaPorte. If not, I know several maternatity / children's stores cary it. Let me know if you need help getting ahold of some.
I WOULD SUGGEST STARTING THE SUPPLEMENTS RIGHT AWAY.
Also, I used accupucture, I really believe in accupuncture treatment for many fertility / mommy related issues. Great accupuncturist in town, specializing in treating fertility and womens issues, Rachel Blunk, Aspen wellness center, practically next door to Sunflower market.
3) Breastfeed whenever possible first, then pump. If you want the body to produce or increase production it is best to breastfeed or pump every 2-3 hours. When situation allows follow the breastfeeding with 10 minutes minimum per side of pumping, 20 min may be better for some.
4) Nightime...If baby sleeps through the night you should allow yourself 5-6 hours of sleep, then get up to pump. I know, cruel, but going a long time without demand through the night can affect production. Just take a look at how long you go without demand on the body and try to work it out so that you give the body as much demand as your sanity will allow.
5) Ultimately the baby nursing is the best production trigger there is. A good pump is crucial if you are going to rely on it. You may want to look into a stronger pump, renting a commercial grade as used in the hospital.
A doctor can write a persription calling for the use of commercial grade pump which some insurance plans will recognize and cover or give monthly allowance toward. Renting one of these good Medela double electric commercial grade pumps could really help.??
6) If you must supplement consider supplemental nursing system. This allows you to feed pumped milk or supplement to the baby at the breast. This ensures baby is getting enough and gives the body the needed stimulation to help production.
7) Have you had any latch issues? Baby just may not be triggering the body well.?
8) May want to consider introducing a sippy cup around 6/7 months...not to replace nursing, but to offer additional milk. If production goes, and baby must get milk / supplement this is a good option to begin training them on.
I struggled with production always, relying on the supplemental nursing system to ensure she got enough.
Then at about 5 1/2 months she outright refused a bottle, so I could not leave her briefly with Dad or anyone to take care of myself, appointments, etc. Luckily I am stay at home mom, so we could deal.
I gave her a sippy cup, playtex level 1 trainer cup at 6 months with supplement in it and continued the normal 2-3 hour nursing schedule. It was probably a month or so of just sort of playing around with the cup before she began drinking any volume from the cup.
I continued to nurse her with supplement until she was able to really drink well consistantly from the cup, about 10 months and then continued to breastfeed throughout the day without supplemental feeding system, and offerd her the sippy cup at all meals.
We slowly weened more to the cup and now she only nurses for occasional comfort, to go down for naps. The transition has been pretty smooth.
Hope some of this is useful, helpful, and hopefully you can apply something that would work in your situation. Don't be too quick to give up, my little one is now 14 mths and even if I couldn't give her lots of breastmilk, what she got was the best I could give her.
She has been very healthy, gets sick next to never (only once actually) and is very happy kiddo.
Best of luck,
M.