Increasing supply of breast milk

[floops]

Hi - has anyone any suggestions of how to increase my breastmilk. I don't have enough for my hungry baby and am having to top up on formula. I used to express at the end of every feed to keep my supply up but dd is emptying everything I have now. Are there any other tricks apart from rest that might increase my supply?

[snugglebug]

Gina Ford's Contented Little Baby Book has a 'plan for increased milk suppy'. It involves expressing and breastfeeding at certain times- I found it very helpful. It is also important that you are eating and drinking well and that you get enough rest.

[throckenholt]

you shouldn't need to top up - just feed when she wants to - the more she feeds the more milk you make (that is how women manage to feed twins ).

You can take fenugreek or domperidone (I think).

What makes you think you are not making enough for her ? How old is she ?

[WigWamBam]

Gina Ford knows about as much about breast-feeding as I know about car maintenance ... not a lot.

Feeding only at certain times won't help increase supply, and neither will expressing. Topping up with formula doesn't help either and is probably making things worse, because when you feed her you "order in" supplies for the next feed - feeding with formula doesn't do that.

Feeding on demand should be all it needs, but if you can take the time to do it, I've seen it recommended that you take to your bed for the day! Go to bed, take the baby with you, rest and relax, and let her feed on demand. It might be just the kick-start you need to get him started again.

[tiktok]

Eating, drinking and resting will make no difference to most women's supply - why should it??? What drives the supply is frequent stimulation by an effectively feeding baby.

Resting is only useful in that it allows you to feed more often (as opposed to rushing round doing something else).

If you are already sure your baby is feeding effectively, and you are doing it often, then try breast compression (check archives) and breast switching when the baby has stopped actively feeding, to encourage him to feed more.

But on the other hand, your may be making enough anyway - how old is your baby and what makes you think you don't have enough? Hope you'll post again and hope this helps :)

[TuttiFrutti]

I disagree Wigwambam, I found Gina Ford's advice on breastfeeding really useful. I used the "increased milk supply plan" which Snugglebug mentions and it worked for me. The plan centres around expressing milk after most feeds - a breast pump mimics a baby's sucking action so will stimulate your supply. I'm no scientist but it made sense to me, and within a couple of days I was producing a lot more.

[WigWamBam]

But why bother with a breast pump to mimic the sucking action when you have a baby who can do that perfectly well, and who knows its own natural feeding rhythm better than a book does? I'm glad it worked for you, but it makes no sense to me to suggest that expressing to a timetable works better than feeding your own baby when she or he needs it.

[TuttiFrutti]

I understand what you're saying, but it's just a question of timing. The theory is that using a breast pump helps you to cope with the baby's growth spurts.

During a growth spurt, the baby will suddenly decide it needs more milk, and when that milk isn't instantly available it will scream, leading to a very stressed-out mother with sore nipples from being sucked dry. Mother nature is effective but cruel (a bit like childbirth!): the baby's increased sucking will increase your milk supply, but only after a couple of days and those days can be hellish for the mother. If you do the pumping, you are always producing slightly more milk than the baby needs, so can cope with growth spurts straight away.

[nothercules]

You cant be sucked dry...

Nature has designed our bodies to cope with growth spurts. I wonder how women survived before avent introduced plastic pumps.

[nothercules]

You cant be sucked dry...

Nature has designed our bodies to cope with growth spurts. I wonder how women survived before avent introduced plastic pumps.

[nothercules]

You cant be sucked dry...

Nature has designed our bodies to cope with growth spurts. I wonder how women survived before avent introduced plastic pumps.

[Nikkinoo]

Hiyah Foops with my 3rd baby my milk still isnt as much as it was with other two.

Are you getting enough rest and drinking at the time of bfing

how is your diet? you really have to eat loads, I found that as i was just running around all day and only eating at 5.00 pm with kids my milk was only good the next day. my night time milk was rubbish because I was getting such little nutrients.

I got that advice from my HV and eating better did help me, Good Luck anyway

[nothercules]

Just to repeat tiktoks post - eating, drinking and rest make no difference.....

[Nikkinoo]

Well it did for me, could have been psychosomatic I suppose.

Food does have a direct impact on breastmilk production that is why mothers who are hungry cannot feed their babies

[moondog]

TF,sorry but you are inaccurate in what you say.
Nikki,mothers on the brink of starvation can continue to fee their children.
In the affluent West,this is rarely a problem.

Floops...THE MORE YOU FEED THE MORE YOU PRODUCE

Simple as that.

THE MORE FORMULA YOU FEED YOUR BABY THE LESS DEMAND YOUR PLACE ON YOUR MILK PRODUCTION AND IT WILL TAIL OFF

IF YOU WANT TO CARRY ON,YOU NEED TO CENCENTRATE ON RELAXING AND FEEDING YOUR BABE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.


The rest will do you good too.

[moondog]

Read Wigwam's post of 6:58 pm last night again carefully too.

[nothercules]

That is simply not true that mothers who are hungry cant feed their babies.

[koolkat]

floops - Gina Ford has no children (nothing wrong with that) however as far as I am concerned a woman who has NEVER breastfed is pretty much disqulaified from giving advice on bf.

All professional bf advisers are required to have bf for at least 6 months, otherwise they can't become advisers.

There is research on women on the verge of starvation in Africa who had ENOUGH bm to feed their baby. That is the beauty of nature and the reason the human race has been able to survive thro' famines, etc throughout history.

Totally agree with the sensible advice given by others. Bf is to do with SUPPLY and DEMAND. The more baby demands, the more you supply !

If you top up with formula because you think baby is not getting enough, you will decrease your supply.

How old is your baby ?

[Nikkinoo]

I did breastfeed 3 children and am still breastfeeding my 3rd.

I got my advice from a heath visitor.

What happened to people being able to have an opinion.

Sorting out my diet helped me that is all i am saying for goodness sake there is no need to put people down.

Breastfeeding mothers are required to increase their calorific intake.

Its like being up at a headteachers office this site sometimes..Theres no need to bully and put others down because they have different opinions from yours.

All im saying is what worked for me

[fastasleep]

Well I know from experience, and from being able to see the amounts that I produce, drinking is a big factor (for me) if I don't drink very much I don't get much milk no matter how long or how much I expressed (I'm an exclusive expresser). SO THERE!

And how did women survive without plastic breastpumps? Have you never heard of natural selection? Sad but true fact is 'in the wild' the young who were unable to suckle properly would die, full stop.

People have been 'topping up' with feeder cups for thousands of years. Why would they if it was a pointless exercise?

My children couldn't breastfeed at all, not a jot, they had not pallate problems to speak of but just couldn't get the hang of it no matter how many months I tried.

You have to stop jumping on people about this feeding thing girls!

[fastasleep]

Expressing can help increase supply, I'm sorry but this is a proven fact...

Your hormone levels shoot up late at night and in the early morning, if your baby is not feeding then, expressing at these times will help to stimulate your breasts into making more milk, although they make the milk at the times you have been pumping, so you would have to feed it to your child artificially.

[snafu]

It's not really jumping on someone to try and give them correct information, though.

Other people have said this already but it needs reiterating (imo). Increasing the amount of food you eat will NOT increase your milk supply. It might make you feel better - and some women do find they get thirsty when bf'ing - and it is just general good sense to have a good and healthy diet when your body is recovering from childbirth etc. But milk production is controlled by hormones and supply is increased by stimulus to the breast. It has nothing to do with diet. To produce milk you need a fully-functioning pituitary gland, not a big dinner

As for expressing. The best way to remove milk from the breast is by using a baby. A breast pump is adequate but still second best. It can't fully recreate the sucking action of a baby, mainly because a breast pump doesn't have a soft palate or a tongue.

If you want to express, do so, but the best way to increase your milk supply is to feed your baby more, straight from the nork. It really is as simple as that.

I hope no-one takes this as bullying or not allowing anyone to have an opinion. It's just the facts, ma'am.

[Nikkinoo]

I hope that you are able to work through your problem floops

[tiktok]

There is nothng wrong with relating personal experience or saying 'what my health visitor told me'.

There is everything wrong with presenting this as advice for others or as if it is a statement of fact.

That's why replies to these experiences can sound a bit tetchy!!

There is plenty of decent evidence that eating well does not help a mother produce more milk and no evidence that it should. 'Natural selection' is no argument at all, fastasleep - in fact, you could argue the opposite way: the human beings who can produce plenty of breastmilk even in times of scarcity (which most of the human race has had to live with for most of our existence on earth) are likely to survive the best. Nature tends to look after the next generation, too (lots of examples of this, not always feeding related).

Experience also tells the same story: except in times of severe restriction of food, mothers produce sufficient breastmilk.

The way we tend to breastfeed in western society - feeding about 8-10 times a day tops, with babies sleeping and resting outside their mother's arms - is simply not good for milk production. Many mothers do manage a supply despite this, of course - shows how adaptable the human body is.

Gina Ford's theory of expressing in order to have enough milk when the baby really needs it, is just crackers. For some women, expressing twice a day more than the baby feeds/needs is a recipe for over-supply that can make them feel very uncomfortable. It's just not necessary.

[wabbitintheheadlamps]

I think stress can affect your milk production however frequently baby latches on and feeds,I did loads of sitting feeding and two hourly feeding and two babymoons to help ds gain but only managed to maintain his weight.

Are you under any undue stress floops?

[floops]

Hi everyone,

wow - overwhelmed with the response. Sorry I have not replied sooner.

Alot of mixed responses there.

Gina Ford - I thought she stated that if you had not followed her plan for expressing right from day one then it would not ensure that you have enough milk for baby during growth spurts. I did not follow Gina's plan as I am a feed on demand girl. I did express at the end of the feed to keep the supply if dd did not drink it all. I have a hungry baby now. Weight is proving that she is up on the 98th centile now too. If I give formula to top her up I always attempt to express to check there is no more milk and also in an attempt to stimulate. This is not really making much difference.

Eating properly does affect your milk. Not the quantity but the quality. This happened with my 2nd baby. When expressing you can see how rich your milk is. I am eating well. My milk is rich.This is taking into account the foremilk and the hindmilk mixed together.

I go to bed at 9pm. I'm not getting much rest during the day as this si baby no.3.

Thank you all for your messages. Reading them reassures me that I probably am doing everything I can.

The stress - no I'm not stressed. I'm quite laid back as a person generally and motherhood does not change that. We do not have any other factors causing any stress.

I forgot to say she is 12wks old.

Thank you again.