Does fenugreek really work?

[Lollyheart]

ds3 has been I'll recently so wasn't feeding much.
I was mix feeding him bf and ebm in a bottle, whilst he was I'll he refused the bottle so I stopped expressing for a few days to make sure there was milk in my boobs to feed him with, now he's better he taking the bottle again but my supply has reduced loads. I used to get on advage 25 to 30oz a day, yesterday I managed 12 I'm thinking of buying fenugreek aswell as pumping every 3 hours.
If you've taken it did it increase supply?

I take it (just finishing my first pack)

At first i found it definitely increased my supply (OH had given too many breast milk bottles when I needed sleep, and i went from pumping 2 pints a day to about 4oz )

My supply has increased and did within 3 days but i now only get 8 - 12oz a day (plenty for the 1 bottle my baby has + a bit extra for scbu) (as well as taking fenugreek i started pumping more often including during the night to get supply back)

Over Xmas i have not been taking it so regularly as i did in the beginning and my supply seems the same regardless of whether I have had all the doses, or 1 or 0. Even so i have ordered some more

lollyheart, sorry you have had a bad time.

Stopping expressing does not mean you are 'saving' the milk for the baby - it reduces your supply, just as you have found. This is because it is removal of milk that drives production, and if the baby is not removing it, then the expressing has to do the job instead, in order to maintain production.

The easiest and most effective thing to do now is to massively increase the no. of times you feed and/or express. To 'rescue' your supply (which should be possible as you clearly still have some milk) you can express/feed both breasts every time (at least both breasts....if you can, do each breast twice :) ) many times in 24 hrs, day and night....start with 12 times. You won't have to do it forever.

Hope this helps.

Sorry - about the fenugreek :)

Won't do any good unless you do the basic thing of making sure milk is removed often, but may well enhance things (a bit).

You may find this article from Analytical Armadillo interesting lollyheart.

Fenugreek worked for me but it wouldn't have worked if I wasn't expressing 12c times a day and attempting to bf every few hours to, as TikTok rightly says it won't do a darn thing if you aren't taking milk out very frequently too.

There are some contra-indications too so please look into it before taking it as it's not just a herb especially in the amounts needed to increase lactation. The article crikeybadger linked to is very good so do look into.

Good luck.

Def worked for me but don't get into the trap of taking it for too long as it gets darn expensive! Probably only a couple of weeks. I think you'll know pretty quickly if it's worked and it certainly won't do any harm.

How old is your ds?

He's 14 weeks.
I'm going to get some, fingers crossed they work, I am a little about it, I've got some frozen milk stored thankfully to use while I get my supply up again.

Oh another question, if they work and I stop taking them my supply won't drop again will it?

I couldn't guarantee it but if you keep removing the milk, you should keep making it, regardless of how the increase in supply came about.

I found it worked in 48 hours which I believe is about average though it can take longer to work for some women.

I was paranoid about stopping taking them so I took them for about 3 months - when I eventually stopped my supply didn't drop and I thought I probably could have stopped ages before! It took about 24 hours for me, I could smell it in my milk (like maple syrup or tinned corn or something) for a couple of days. Best of luck! Make sure you stay well hydrated and try to do skin-to-skin if feasible though DS probably a bit wriggly now at 14 weeks. Get plenty of rest and eat plenty too! Good excuse for cake... :)

It worked for me. I exclusively expressed for 10 months for my DS and I took fenugreek in the early weeks and I definitely noticed a difference. I stopped taking it after about 2/3 months and didn't notice a difference at all. I guess by then my supply was well established. I pumped regulalrly, and at night for the first few months too.