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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Original poster

Increasing supply of breast milk

39 replies

floops · 17/03/2006 14:33

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?

OP posts:

Piggiesmum · 19/03/2006 08:28

Hi floops. I can sympathise. The last few weeks I've struggled to feed ds, he was constantly emptying both breasts each feed and several times i resorted to formula for his afternoon feed cos i was worried i was starving him. At the last weigh-in he had started dropping down the centiles and the hv suggested i started thinking about weaning. Ds is 5 months so i don't want to do it just yet. I started thinking i would rather top him up with more formula until then but didn't want to do that either.

On Monday the formula ran out and I resisted buying any more, ds needed feeding alot more frequently and the afternoon (when he usually had formula) was especially difficult. I've had to avoid going to the shops cos I knew I'd give in a buy formula because I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere but suddenly yesterday I realised my boobs were feeling alot fuller, ds was feeding longer and better on each one and I started leaking again, has to be the first time I've been happy to leak lol.

Anyway what I'm trying to say is try and persevere with the advice that people are giving about the supply and demand thing. It may take a few days of feeling that it's not working but eventually it should. It has taken most of the week for us and it has been hard work but it's worth it.

Piggiesmum · 19/03/2006 08:31

oops our posts crossed (had to go and change smelly nappy half way through lol)

tiktok · 19/03/2006 10:00

Oh dear.....sorry, coming on here again to correct some opinions/expertien ces masquerading as fact :)

Stress does not affect your milk. It can affect let down, very temporarily, if you are very stressed and/or in pain. It does not affect it beyond that. This is well-researched.

Food intake does certainly not effect the quality of the milk. We know this from research too. I am afraid, floops, that looking at your milk after a period of eating well and judging that it looks richer does not counter this research.

The quality (ie the presence of cream) of breastmilk is unrelated to the mother's diet. It is related to the amount of milk in the breast. Lots of milk = proportionately less cream. Less milk = proportionately more cream. Zero to do with the mother's diet - truly.

I am puzzled as to how you can check there is 'no more milk'???? The breasts are never totally empty. You might not be able to get more out by squeezing/expressing, but there is milk stored in there, for sure.

If you feel your baby is hungry, then put her back on the other side , or try breast compression. OTOH, you have got good supply if your baby is on the 98th centile, and I wonder if your baby is showing you by her behaviour not that she is hungry but she just luuuurrrrrrrves being on the breast and resists being put down.

Top ups will not help your situation at all, sorry.

nothercules · 19/03/2006 10:33

I wonder if part of the issue is the lack of knowledge hvs have. Mine for both kids were telling me stuff I knew to be untrue as I had done my research. OTherwise, I would have accepted what they said to be true and told others the same.

Original poster

floops · 19/03/2006 17:59

Looking at what everyone has written here and tiktok's response to mine I would probably agree with you. It's a shame when they are there to support us all. Meaning you sound like you know what you are talking about tiktok.

OP posts:

hunkermunker · 19/03/2006 18:07

Floops, Tiktok is an NCT breastfeeding counsellor and is very, very wise and kind. You will do very well if you listen to her, I'm sure.

nicoloola · 19/03/2006 20:18

Floops - I had to eventually give up breastfeeding my ds at 8 months, having been supplementing for a couple of months. The reasons were that he started sleeping through 12 hours at 7 weeks, and when I went back to work, expressing just didn't seem to stimulate me and I gradually expressed less each day. I'm pretty sure it's about demand, but certainly wasn't going to get wake us both up at night. No matter how much he fed during the day I just couldn't manage to increase my supply. Anyway - don't think expressing helped me. How much does your babe feed during the night?
PS I found my NCT breastfeeding councellor completely lacking - but did find La Leche League really helpful

wabbitintheheadlamps · 19/03/2006 20:29

Then I've just got a really crap milk supply then

Nikkinoo · 19/03/2006 20:48

Hey Wabbit, how you doing.

Dont worry about it it takes me ages to eek out a little bit of booby juice (as its called in our casa).

personally from an anecdotal point of view sorting my diet helped, But Charlotte never ever has had that really fulfilled kind of buddah like state when baby has had a good feed and they are all content and they smell milky.

So maybe my supply isnt as good as it was. I wonder if it depreciates with age of the mother and number of children that have ben fed?

Nikkinoo · 19/03/2006 20:48

Hey Wabbit, how you doing.

Dont worry about it it takes me ages to eek out a little bit of booby juice (as its called in our casa).

So maybe my supply isnt as good as it was. I wonder if it depreciates with age of the mother and number of children that have ben fed?

wabbitintheheadlamps · 19/03/2006 21:22

I don't know Nikkinoo - you sound as though you had great experiences with your first two but now with C things are different... I didn't bf N for long - pressures from Mum and Midwife, so I've got no past performance to go by. Only know since my emotional state's been under strain ds has failed to gain...

nothercules · 20/03/2006 16:23

It doesnt depreciate with age or the number of children you have. My neighbour breastfed her triplets for a year. I bf ds for 4 years and now am feeding dd at 2 and a half.

As I said earlier - what you can express is not an indication of how much milk is there and you'd have to be seriously malnourished before it affects your supply.

Sometimes I was unable to express nothing yet was able to feed dd fine.

koolkat · 20/03/2006 16:29

nothercules - totally agree. I tried expressing a few times after DS had turned 1, but only got a few drops and decided to sell my pumps !

However, at 21 months he is still bf and I can hear him swallow whole mouth-fulls of bm, so there must be something there otherwise he wouldn't have bothered for so long

beansprout · 20/03/2006 16:49

I don't think that how much you can express is necessarily indicative of your milk supply and, crucially, what is available to your baby or child. I know women who fed for ages but could never express that much.

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