How do i get more milk to flow ?

Question

my son is 5 months old i been breast feeding him mostly my self but time to time i give him formula,and ive gone away for two weekends i pumped while i was away but i seem to have problems doing this only an ounce or two , i dont seem to produce much milk when i feed him myself ,i have to top up on a bottle or two a day .is there any thing i can do apart from pumping between feeds , i really dont want to stop breastfeeding just yet , any ideas

Answer 1

hot showers before nursing..massaging the b*****s before nursing and nurse/pump more often..also be sure not to cut the nursings early....I went through 2 days of rushing our nursing periods and it cut my milk supply low...so from then on I promised that while I nurse....I won't worry about anything else that needs to get done! Best of luck.

Answer 2

just give him formula

Answer 3

my midwife swears by fennal tea.. you can get it from sainsbury's if you are in the uk..

also drink plenty of water.. we should be drinking 2litres a day!!

good luck

Answer 4

pump often...you can save the milk and everything but yea do that all the time and have your son pump as often as possible  

Answer 5

Drink tons & tons of water!! Also take prenatal vitamins. The way your breast milk works is that it takes the nutrients from you just like the baby does when your pregnant. The breast milk will always have the same Quality in nutrients. That means if you don't have enough vitamins & minerals, you'll just makes less milk, not less nutritional milk. Keep extracting too. The more you need, the more your body wants to make. So even if you are not geeting much from pumping, by just demanding it from your body, you'll get more next time.

Answer 6

I have struggled with a low milk supply with all my children.  I too have to top off with formula from time to time, but I've gone from giving 12 oz. of formula a day at 2 months to 4-6 oz of formula a day at 3 months.  I've been able to increase my milk supply some by taking Fenugreek, drinking lots of water and eating oatmeal (cookies, I can't stomach the cereal).

Good luck and keep at it!  Remember, some breast milk is better than none at all.

Answer 7

I was never able to express too much and if we left our little boy overnight with my mum even though I felt like I needed, which we only did a couple of times at this age it took a few days for the milk supply to settle down again. If you don't feed him, like when you go away do your b*****s feel very full and get hard bits so you feel you need to express, if you do you're milk supply should settle down by giving him frequent feeds, if you don't feel like they're full when you're seperated from him for 24 hours and you're getting enough water, food and rest, maybe your supply is just starting to dry up, I know this can happen. Talk to your health visitor and see what she says, maybe it is getting near time for him to start solids. I fed my son for 14 months but once he started solids his milk intake cut down a lot.

Answer 8

I started having similar problems when my daughter was about 5 1/2 months old. I tried a lot of things, and I'm not sure what did it but I got my milk back, so here are the things i did.

*I started pumping every 2 hours (and fed my baby either from a combined bottle that I pumped, or nursed her at her feedings)

*Drink alot of water

*When you are pumping, once the pump is no longer pumping anything, and you seem to be "dry" continue pumping another 10 or 15 minutes, I seem to get a second "whim" and went from pumping 1/2-1 ounce per session to 3 or 4 ounces per session by waiting it out and pumping for a minimum of like 20 minutes per side (or as long as it took or as long as I had to pump).

*Make sure you are eating enough, when visiting my nutritionist They had me show them my food diary (I used to have some health problems and have kept one for a few years now) and found out I was only eating roughly 1400 calories a day, with breastfeeding you need a minimum of 1700 a day, and I am a runner, so with running 3-5 miles a day she said I should be eating AT LEAST 2000-2500 a day. With not consuming enough calories the first thing to happen is your milk supply decreases. You have to be eating enough for your body to have the energy to make enough milk. Try eating an axtra apple and yogurt, or handful of raw nuts or something each day to up your calories by an extra 100 or 200.

*Let your son breast feed, or just be latched on as often as he is willing, the sucking stimulation will help increase your milk supply.

Hopefully something will help you, I know how stressful it is, my daughter is now 8 months old, My milk supply is stil not what it was for the first few months, but I am definitley making enough milk for her. If all else fails, give him the formula, you are doing the best you can, and that is what makes you a great mom :)   Don't feel like you're not a good mom because you aren't making very much milk, or don't be dissapointed in yourself, try everything you can, and just know that you are feeding your son and keeping him safe and healthy no matter what kind of food it is you have to feed him.

Good luck,

Toni Lynne  :)

Answer 9

Don't beat yourself over this. I had the same problems, and more or less dried up at six months, no matter what I did. My son -- my first -- was born in an army hospital. I was taking in all the liquids I thought I needed, and eating healthy from the army cafeteria. One of the other new moms, however, turned her nose up at almost every kind of available food as something she didn't like, eating almost nothing, yet her b*****s flowed like a fountain.

Do the best you can, but don't kick yourself when you do dry up.

Answer 10

i asked my health nurse how to increase my supply as it isnt satisfiing my 4 mth old and i dont want to stop either, She said to make sure i have 8 glasses of water a day, have at least 1 sleep when bub does and cut out caffiene, This was on Thursday so I have cut of all caffeine ( bloody hard to do and horrid headaches) and started water and sometimes i dont get a sleep and my milk has increased a bit. So who knows she may be on to something.

Thought i would share this with you

Hope it works good luck