How do I prevent my milk from drying up?

[mylittleman]

I am currently getting over a nasty case of quinsy's and as a result of my medication I have had to stop breastfeeding for the duration of the antibiotics course. I am desperately pumping but I'm concerned as I am not getting that much milk. Any tips on how I can increase my milk supply to ensure I can go back to breastfeeding?

You can normally still breastfeed while you are on antibiotics! They do come through in the milk, but it's still best to keep breastfeeding. I think there are online resources to check specific drugs - which antibiotic are you on?

And how old is your baby?

If you're still not bf but just pumping then the only thing you can do is pump as often as possible - every 2-3 hours and once during the night. The length of the pumping session is not important - 10-15 min is fine. As long as you are still producing some milk when you express then as soon as you go back to bf your milk supply will go back to normal - it may take up to a week but you should be fine.

how long are we talking?

If you really can't feed, then you need to just keep expressing regularly. You may find your supply diminishes, but you'll be able to build it back up when you're feeding him again. not being able to express much is quite common - I never could.

I'm on Metronidazole and i am meant to take them til sunday. DS is 9 months

When did you stop breastfeeding? At 9 months, breastfeeding should be well established - did you bf exclusively for a while at the start? Is your supply pretty good?

I looked up your drug, and the BFN says it's fine - I quote:

Metronidazole (Flagyl) has been said to impart an unpleasant taste to the milk and cause the baby to reject it. It has not been possible to trace the original research which suggested this or who tasted the milk and made this conclusion. Babies do not appear to be concerned by the frequent variation in the taste of breastmilk which occurs naturally. Occasionally it can alter the colour of the milk. In the US single doses of 2g are used and breastfeeding is temporarily interrupted. In the UK doses of 200-400mg three times a day are used and breastfeeding can continue. Intra-venous use does not appear to pose any difficulties in lactation.

The concentration in milk following an oral dose 400mg three times daily produced milk levels of 15.52 µg/ml and 200mg three times a day an equivalent dose to the infant of 3mg/kg/day compared to the dose of 22.5mg/kg/day given therapeutically to children.

• end quote - (from here )

What daily dose are you on? I would just bf, to be honest.

Metronidazole

Metronidazole (Flagyl) has been said to impart an unpleasant taste to the milk and cause the baby to reject it. It has not been possible to trace the original research which suggested this or who tasted the milk and made this conclusion. Babies do not appear to be concerned by the frequent variation in the taste of breastmilk which occurs naturally. Occasionally it can alter the colour of the milk. In the US single doses of 2g are used and breastfeeding is temporarily interrupted. In the UK doses of 200-400mg three times a day are used and breastfeeding can continue. Intra-venous use does not appear to pose any difficulties in lactation.

The concentration in milk following an oral dose 400mg three times daily produced milk levels of 15.52 µg/ml and 200mg three times a day an equivalent dose to the infant of 3mg/kg/day compared to the dose of 22.5mg/kg/day given therapeutically to children.

From the BFNetwork information page, www.breastfeedingnetwork.org/supporterline/antibiotics.php

Sounds to me like you could keep feeding, but if you're not happy with that then just keep expressing! If your baby is nine months, your supply will be well enough established that it will build back up again in a few days once you start feeding again.

You see, I just can't type fast enough . . .
Sorry NQC.

I think the official advice is something like, express 8-10 times a day for 10-15 mins. This should include at least one during the night.

Don't worry too much about how much you actually express, it's to do with the amount of sucking motions your breast experience.

When you start to feed lo again, put them on the breast as much as possible for a couple of days and your supply will kick back to its previous form.

I'm on 400mg - maybe i should just continue breastfeeding. DS is also unwell at the moment, guess I don't want to make him more unwell but that quote makes it sound like its ok. THanks so much for that, that's brill

At 400mg 3x a day, it looks like he'd be on 6mg/kg/day, which is much less than the therapeutic dose. (I suspect that dosage is based on exclusively breastfed children, anyway, which I doubt your DS is. So his real dosage would probably be less.)

I was prescribed Metronidazole (400mg) by my GP and told to stop feeding. I looked into it and discovered the same advice given by FromGirders and NQC. I phoned GP back and she reluctantly agreed to carry on with the bf. As a compromise we agreed that I should break the tablets in half and just take a 200Mg dose instead. Baby was fine and didn't appear to be bothered by the taste. And the infection did clear up.

If I had to take it again, I'd stick to the 400Mg dose as it does seem that doctors are being overly cautious about this.

Pump twice at night. And lots and lots throughout the day. And a proper breast pump like SCBUs in hospitals have.. you can loan then from the NCT or similar.

I got my milk back when it was all but gone (when DS was in SCBU and we'd tried demand feeding but he was too poorly to suck much..)

Doctor also put me on Maxilon (anti sickness drug with side affect of stimulating breast milk).