I am strictly breastfeeding, but it seems that my milk is not enough! How can I produce more milk?

Question

My son is 12 days old, and I am strictly breastfeeding. I feel as though my body is not keeping up with his eating schedule. I had a great amount of milk when it first came in but now it doesn't seem like enough. My son will drain both b*****s and still seem hungry! I had the thought of supplimenting him with formula, but then I am afraid that my milk supply will diminish even more. What do I do? Should I pump when he is not feeding even though nothing will come out? Should I wake him and feed him more often? Help!!!

Answer 1

A lot of people swear by FENUGREEK, which is a spice. It helps increase BM production in most women. Do a search on it, since you have access to the internet. You can buy it at Whole Foods or GNC or most health food stores. It may make you smell like maple syrup! Seriously, I'm not making upt some hippy mumbo jumbo, even our pediatrician mentioned it to my wife.

And like other said, demand increases supply. My wife was in the same boat as you, trying to feed twins. At some points she was in tears because she thought she couldn't feed our kids. But with BF and pumping, she made so much that we had to buy a freezer for the extras, and like I said, this is on top of feeding twins.

The more you drain your b***s, the more will come. It's OK to supplement with formula. The point here is to FEED THE BABY. If the baby drains both b***s and is still hungry, it will not affect your supply if you then top off with formula, since your b***s were already drained, and baby will be just as hungry at the next scheduled feeding. Don't be afraid to top off with formula, feeding baby is the top priority be it with BM or formula.

Don't sweat it at 12 days! It will come!

It's amazing too, at 4 days old, we were using a syringe to get a single drop of colostrum from breast to baby (each baby got one drop!) and from that...we have a freezer full (actually our refrigerator freezer is packed as well as the stand alone freezer!) Babies are 8.5 months old now and started solids...wow...time flies!

Answer 2

What exactly do you mean "seem hungry"?

How often does he nurse during the day?  How often at night?

How many poopy diapers is he having per day?  What colour is it?

A 12 day old should often nurse almost constantly.  However if a baby doesn't have a good latch then they will have a hard time getting enough milk as moms supply adjusts to a normal amount instead of the oversupply moms have the first weeks.

If your baby is pooping enough (3+ per day) then they are getting enough -end of story.  

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/enough...

DIRTY DIAPERS: 3 – 4+ dirty diapers per day (after day 4).

Stools should be yellow (no meconium) by day 5 and the size of a US quarter (2.5 cm) or larger. The normal stool of a breastfed baby is usually yellow and is loose (soft to watery, may be seedy or curdy). More on infant stooling.

http://www.llli.org//llleaderweb/LV/LVDe...

In answer to the question, "Is baby getting enough?" a second question could be posed, "Enough of which?" In the early weeks wet diaper counts give only part of the answer. Because the nursing newborn takes in plenty of foremilk before receiving the richer hindmilk, it would be difficult for an infant to produce several bowel movements per day without being adequately hydrated.

However, the opposite can easily occur. Since feeding practices, ineffective sucking or other problems may diminish the mother's milk supply or prevent the baby from receiving an adequate portion of hindmilk, it is possible for a baby to be adequately hydrated yet have an inadequate calorie intake. Frequent urination remains one valid indicator of adequate newborn hydration from foremilk intake. Multiple daily stooling is an indicator of adequate newborn calorie intake from hindmilk. Both factors are needed to fully assess neonatal breastfeeding.

Since a lack of daily stooling may be associated with inadequate newborn calorie intake, it is also a predictor of poor infant weight gain. Early detection of this symptom can be crucial for the baby's health and the continuation of breastfeeding. In severe cases, an infant's low calorie intake may lead to weaker sucking, diminished milk supply and critical dehydration. While less serious conditions may be improved at various stages of breastfeeding, it is much more effective to establish a generous milk supply and hearty weight gain in the early weeks than to have to work to achieve them in later months.

Stooling Patterns

There are many benefits to discussing normal stool patterns with each new mother. When a fully breastfed newborn baby is having several yellow or tan, seedy stools each day, Leaders can emphasize this is a reassuring sign that breastfeeding is off to a good start. What a wonderfully observable proof allaying a new mother's fear of inadequate milk supply!

While new parents often have difficulty deciding if a baby's diaper/nappy is truly wet, there's little doubt when one is soiled. For the mother who is worried—even without saying so—that frequent stooling is diarrhea, hearing the expected frequency and significance of the normal newborn pattern is again a great relief and confidence builder. Beginning a call with this positive interaction sets a supportive tone as the conversation moves on to other topics of interest to the mother.

http://www.todaysparent.com/article.jsp?...

Lactation consultant Diane Wiessinger of Ithaca, New York, agrees. “I once led a meeting where I told the mothers — all experienced breastfeeding mothers — that we were going to write the real baby book, one that told new mothers what they needed to know,” she recalls. “One woman said, ‘New mothers need to know that newborns will nurse every hour.’ Another mother spoke up and said, ‘Yeah, and the feedings will last an hour.’ Everyone laughed, and I think that laughter meant that this is a common experience. Babies don’t really nurse all the time, but it can sure feel that way — especially at first.”

[...]

Anthropologist Kathy Dettwyler from Texas A&M University says that nursing a lot is typical of babies around the world. She cites a study done in 2000 that looked at the feeding behaviour of infants aged three to four months in three different communities: families from Washington, DC, the Ba’Aka hunter-gatherers and the Ngandu farmers, both of the Central African Republic. They found that the Ba’Aka babies nursed 4.02 times per hour, the Ngandu babies nursed 2.01 times per hour and the American babies nursed 1.6 times per hour. Certainly the American babies nursed less often than the two African groups, but they nursed more frequently than many new parents expect.

Wiessinger reminds parents that babies are growing faster in the first year than they will at any other time in their lives, and asks, “How often would you eat if you were trying to double your weight in less than six months?” She adds that breastfeeding is more than a way of getting food into the baby. “A baby doesn’t necessarily nurse to eat,” she explains. “Breastfeeding offers so many other wonderful things — skin-to-skin contact, warmth, the reassuring sounds and smells of mom, suckling — the milk is just a bonus.”

http://www.breastfeed.com/articles/newbo...

The Formula Effect

In our culture, mothers have been accustomed to babies who are formula fed, who behave very differently from babies who eat naturally. Formula is an artificial food, and it causes babies to act in artificial ways. Babies who drink formula receive in very short order a large amount of liquid that is very difficult to digest. After a formula bottle and a few big burps, babies sleep for several hours before they feel hungry again. Hmm... This sounds very nice; Mom can get lots of things done. Perhaps.

However, inside, Baby is dealing with an unnatural food that is very hard to digest and takes a very long time to move out of his stomach. In any case, many new mothers have come to accept that this is the way their own baby will behave. Not so with breast milk.

Breast milk is natural and digests very quickly – usually within two hours. Therefore, breastfed babies eat often. In the early weeks, they may eat eight to 20 times a day – or more. It depends.

As a lactation consultant, I frequently hear moms say, "Well I tried to breastfeed my first child but they always wanted to eat, and my milk could never fill them up like formula did. They were always hungry." Get it? The formula makes them feel very full, but is that good for them? Not really. Formula is deficient in all immunological properties.

I then ask the mothers, "Before you changed to formula, was your baby gaining weight well and having plenty of wet diapers and bowel movements?"

"Oh, yes," they say. "That was going well." I have come to understand that the reason these moms quit is not that their baby is not growing well or that they did not have enough milk, but because they didn't want to feed as often as the baby needed to eat and felt that by switching to an artificial food, the baby would be "happier" and "more content." Their baby would behave more like TV babies. Their perception was that something was wrong because their babies ate often. Perhaps that feeling was reinforced by "helpful" friends or family members.

So I Nursed Him Every 45 Minutes

http://www.llli.org/NB/Law45com.html

"He Can't Be Hungry. He Just Ate!"  

http://www.normalfed.com/Continuing/hung...

Answer 3

The more you BF, the more milk your body will produce.  When you BF less, then your body will start to not make as much so keep BFing!  

Answer 4

if you are nursing on demand (when ever he wants it) then your body WILL make enough. he is still so young, your body is trying to make the right amount. if you start supplementing with formula, your body will make even less.  

Answer 5

Is your pediatrician watching his weight? I pumped and nursed and then supplemented with formula after nursing. He lost too much weight and for his health I had to start giving formula 1st. He was almost 10 lbs at birth. I guess he was really hungry.

Answer 6

Pump pump pump...even between feedings.  It'll make your body think that it needs to produce more.  

Answer 7

Your body will make what is needed for your baby. For the first few weeks you should nurse often, whenever baby is hungry, I don't suggest pumping on a regular basis, I did that with my daughter and ended up decreasing my milk supply and having to get a pill to pump it back up. Good luck! Your doing a great thing for your baby!

Answer 8

You have a normal baby, and you have plenty of milk.  It is completely normal to feel like you have a LOT of milk when the milk first comes in and you are engorged, and then to worry that your supply is dropping once the initial engorgement is past.

Do NOT supplement with formula, unless there is a clear problem. (Is he still losing weight?  Not wetting diapers?  Dehydrated? If not, he doesn't need supplements.)

It is normal for a baby this age to want to nurse almost constantly. It doesn't mean you don't have enough milk. It means that he is working to get your supply up, and learning to nurse well. It also means he enjoys sucking, and enjoys being at the breast.  Such simple pleasures for our babies!

If he is sleeping more than 2 hours during the day, or more than about 4 hours at night, DO wake him for a feed (you should be averaging about 10-12 feeds in 24 hours), but otherwise, just let him nurse when he wants to.  In a week or two things should start to settle down and you will become more confident in your ability to provide for him.

(If baby is nursing often and well, I wouldn't bother to pump. Better for you to be sleeping when baby sleeps.)

Answer 9

LEAVE THAT FORMULA ALONE!

Your body is adjusting.  You probably don't feel that horrible engorgement anymore because your b***s are learning how much to make for your baby.  Just because he "seems" hungry doesn't mean he is.  Babies cry for tons of reasons.  Your milk is the perfect food for him!  The only way you "wouldn't have enough" is if you were malnourished and dehydrated.  You put on weight during the pregnancy in order to MAKE this milk!  

Moms need to trust their bodies.  All you hear these days is how so-and-so didn't make enough milk so they had to use formula.  As long as your son is pooping/peeing 5-6 times a day he will be okay.  Trust me, your milk is fine!

Answer 10

don't supplement with formula unless you have to or the dr tells you to.  Because our bodies produce on demand.  So if he is still hungry let him continue to nurse you body will get the picture and supply more.  

Answer 11

Does he cry because he is hungry or because he is 12 days old and new to the world?  Many newborns just want to suck for hours on end.  Let them.  They don't necessarily want milk.  Your milk supply hasn't even been established yet.  The more you stimulate your nipples (especially with your son sucking) the more milk you will make.  

2nd best option is pumping to stimulate milk production.  You really can't get anything out when you pump?  Try pumping halfway between his feedings.  If he drains you at a feeding and you are pumping right after, of course you wont get anything.  Do you feel your letdown reflex when you pump?  Maybe it would help to think about the baby or have him right next to you so you can hear him/smell him etc.  Even if nothing comes out, the stimulation helps increase milk production.

I have also heard a bit about Mother's milk tea...found at Whole Foods type stores.  Not sure how reliable that is though.  Make sure you are well hydrated and eating healthful well balanced meals (even though you barely have time with a 12 day old!)

good luck.  If the baby has lost weight or not gained what was lost in the first day or two, the pediatrician may have you supplement anyway.  You should be going to a 2-week appt. soon right?  Some women just can't breastfeed.