Milk has all but gone after being ill

[yojojo]

Has anyone else experienced this and what did you do?
I had really bad flu a few days ago,still recovering now, and stopped producing milk. I can do maybe 1 or 2 feeds now but not much improvement.
I have a 7 month old who is showing very little interest in weaning and really doesn't want a bottle but there's nothing i can do except try to feed him myself then give him a bottle when it fails.
He messes round when he's on breast or bottle and is very restless at night meaning i'm not getting much sleep. Hate having to go downstairs in the night to make up a bottle!
Can anyone help at all? If its happened to you did u persevere with breastfeeding?
Thanks

I'm afraid the only person I know in this situation was not good news...although she had been mixed-feeding for a while and I guess her supply was dwindling anyway. She had a stomach bug for a couple of days, and her milk totally dried up. The hv seemed bemused and clueless as to what to do. She was planning on giving up some time anyway, so I don't think she was too gutted.

I did have the same bug though and carried on feeding on demand... dd seemed to take ages to feed, so I guess my supply had been affected, (or perhaps she was getting the antibodies??) but afterwards it went back to normal and was fine. I had been unable to take fluids for 24 hours so was worried, but NHS direct said it should be fine if I continued to feed on demand. It was tiring though.

Sorry to not be much help

there are some things you can try to do as it is likely that your supply can be built up again

putting your LO to the breast as much as he wants and maybe pumping too?

some women swear by natural remedies such as fenugreek to help boost supply

it might take a few days to get things going again , but if the breasts are being stimulated/fed from/pumped/getting signals to make more milk then it should be ok

have you phoned any of the helplines usch as LLL or NCT?

thank you both,
i suppose there's not an easy solution is there, i'll keep feeding as often as i can and cross my fingers that it goes back to normal!
I havn't tried the NCT or LLL yet but may well do if there isn't any improvement,
thanks again

I've just posted something similar to this on another thread (breastfeeding advice, baby in hospital), but is it possible to express on the other side at the same time that you bfeed him? 'Double evacuation' is supposed to be good for helping stimulate milk production.

My milk didnt go due to illness but due to baby being put on 'special formula' for a wk. I was told he would be on it a while so stopped feeding only a week later his levels were well again so i re-introduced breastfeeding.
Im not sure if its same or not??
My milk virtually dried up on day 4/5 of not feeding him and on day 6 when i wanted to start again i just fed fed fed expressed when could and fed some more!!! It was hard work but in 24/48hrs i was back to where i was, it was really frustrating for him and poor thing was hungry (he was 6.5mth just started weaning) but i just offered boob ALL day!.
Hope you get it back.
I was told cos fed for so long exclusively it would come back and it did.

I've just been through this as had a stomach bug on Sunday, in bed on Monday as washed out and still not eating much, and I really felt my milk was low then. My DD is 7.5 months and doesn't eat much (doing BLW) and has never taken a bottle so I just kept feeding her and she just kept going and going even though she was hardly ever swallowing and I felt no letdown a lot of the time. Was a bit worried and certainly tired (took Tuesday very easy too) but it has paid off as I reckon today it's almost back to normal. I really didn't want to stop breastfeeding, it didn't occur to me that this would be a lasting problem, carry on as much as you can

thanks everyone!
I have just carried on feeding and feeding and feeding and there's been a huge improvement. The past 2 nights he has a had a small amount of formula from a bottle just for his last feed before bed but i think I should be okay without tonight.
Ithaca - its good to hear from someone else whose 7 month old doesn't eat much either.He's just not interested in being spoon fed puree so I think BLW is the way forward.