domperidone and milk supply

[MizZan]

has anyone had this drug prescribed to them to help increase milk supply (in the uk)? I need some help - am exclusively expressing for a preemie (ex-preemie, now equiv. to 6 week old babe) who is very hungry and I'm just not making enough for him. have tried pumping more often etc but not making any difference. I have seen a bunch of articles on domperidone and just wondered if others have experience using this and/or have been able to get their GP or private doctors to prescribe it for this use?

Mears has some good info about this and there is at least one MNetter who has used it. Hopefully someone will be along soon.

Have a look at some of the threads here .

yes i have used it.
have you tried putting baby back on the breast now? that may be the way to go!

i bought mine over the counter.. it's pretty expensive (£4.50 for 10 tablets)
I found it was VERY good at increasing my supply, but when i stopped taking it my supply decreased again

We use this in our unit. 10mg taken 3 times a day. You can buy it over the counter if you cannot get presciption. Other name is Motilium.

thank you very much everyone for the advice and suggestions.

mears - I am wondering about the dosage and also about you saying you use it on your unit? does this mean NHS has approved it for prescription for this use? in other words could I go to my GP and ask for it with a reasonable chance of getting a prescription? or do you have to go private to get it prescribed for this use?

re the dosage I had understood from several sources that the dosage was 30 mg 3 x a day or 20 mg 4 x a day. this is much higher than what you mention? I've bought some over the counter and have been taking the latter dose for the last 2 days. but I am going to find the cost prohibitive if I can't get a prescription, and also am finding the pharmacy very reluctant to sell it to me as I am "breastfeeding" and it can get into the milk (a real non-issue for us as my baby already has to take Domeperidone himself directly for gastro problems - and I have cut down his direct dose to reflect the fact that he's now getting a bit in my milk). Certainly they are not going to continue selling it to me long-term, I don't think, unless I come in with a prescription of some sort. I have found a couple of websites you can order it from where it is far cheaper than buying here in the UK, but worry that they may be selling fake versions of it.

MizZan - I don't know whether you have seen this website but it is for expressing mums and there is information about Domperidone here

You are quite right about the dosage we use. I am not sure why it is as low as it is but it seems to work. Any drug can be prescribed by a doctor which is for an alternative use for what it is intended. Perhaps it would be useful to print the information out for your GP so he/she will understand this alternative use for it.

What support are you getting from the hospital? Can a doctor there prescibe it for you? Have a look at the site and see if there are other tips which can boost your supply. Do you have a pump that allows you to 'double pump' ie express from both breasts at the same time?

Do you actually feed directly from the breast at all? Do you have your baby skin-to-skin whenever you can?

Hope you get help and support soon and hope the site helps.

mears - I have seen that site, thanks. it's really helpful and that's how I first heard about the domperidone.

good idea on printing out the info for our GP. I will try it. They know our situation so hopefully will be supportive. that is strange about the dosage - obviously I'd rather take less if it still has the same effect. will try with the higher dose first and then try to cut down, assuming the higher dose works.

The hospital has been completely useless btw and the doctors there have said they cannot even discuss anything with us now that both I and baby have been discharged. they would not even represcribe medications for baby once he was out (even though they said that he definitely needs them for his condition), so there's no way at all they would do it for me. they are very pro-breastfeeding but not at all geared up to help in situations where expressing is required. they did not have electric pumps available to use even for mums with babies on the NICU (where mine was for 2 weeks), let alone in special care (we had another 4 weeks there).

I am trying the various tips from this website and others and yes, I have a double pump, and am pumping about 6 times a day. unfortunately I'm just not able to rest/pump/do skin-to-skin as much as I would like since I have a pre-school child as well, and DH works very long hours. tried to start occasional (once or twice daily) direct breastfeeds a few weeks back, which went ok for a little while, but ended up with severe blocked ducts and my son screaming for more after feeding for an hour, which I assume was due to him not latching on properly. so in the interests of avoiding mastitis and related complications (my son has MRSA in his throat which is one of the reasons we're in this situation in the first place), we've gone back to expressing only for the moment.

thanks again for the helpful ideas.

I've just been prescribed this by my GP after presenting her with a letter from the hospital lactation consultant. Only been taking it two days so no results to speak of as yet. It's expensive to buy over the counter but you could try buing from a US company that has a UK site such as www.inhousepharmacy.co.uk where 100 motilium are about £17 inc p&p.

Hope this helps
Lisa

I had a problem with my ds's latch, and I used to try to latch him about 3 times (so he didn't get stressed) and then if that was unsuccessful, give him ebm by feeding cup or bottle later, then do the breastpump for around 20 minutes. This was roughly following a three hour routine day and night, although it must have altered after the first month or so - bit hazy.
I used Motillium to get things moving as well, and bought online, as I couldn't afford the pharmacy version, and it only lasted a couple of days.
The online stuff, looked authentic in every detail and worked, with no side-effects, so if it was fake, it wasn't an issue.
I'm wondering, if you are getting blocked milk ducts, surely you are producing more than enough milk? Or is that not logical?
It sounds a real slog, and I can really relate to that, do you have much support, to get a rest or to help you with getting feeding established?

The motilium seems to be kicking in for me. I started taking it on Wednesday and I've so far seen my supply quadruple (admittedly I was only getting about 5ml from 30 min expressing before, but every ml is precious to me so 20ml is a big improvement. The other day I was feeling ill and didn't express for about 12 hours and when I did eventually I got 40ml. I'm told by one of the mums on my post-natal thread that it peaks after 10 days use so I'm hoping it's only going to get better. Over the next couple of days I'm going to express every couple of hours to try and simulate a feed-a-thon in the hope that that'll help too. The doc prescribed it for me as a 10mg dose 3 times a day but from my reading I decided to go with 20mg 3 times a day so have ordered some online to supplement my prescription.

Mizzan, I expressed regularly for the first 3 months, then occasionally, I definately found there was a knack to it. Sometimes I had more joy with the isis pump in comparison with the dual lactaline at the hospital.
I found breast massage on each bood for a couple of minutes before expressing worked, then using breast compression whilst expressing was good as well.
I used to keep a bottle of water with me most of the time, so I could monitor how much I was drinking, as I am bad for forgetting to drink.
One thing you won't get when expressing is the kind of sore nipples you get when breasfeeding sometimes. So that's something.