What should I eat to ensure I have a good milk supply?

[littlebellsmum]

Hi
I'd appreciate some advice on what to eat to ensure I have a good milk supply - I've a history and not having enough milk for the dc's and want to ensure that I'm eating right this time.
Specifically, I was anaemic prior to her birth and my iron tablets have just run out ( 3 weeks later) - should I be asking for more or does this not affect milk?
Thank you!

No idea about iron I'm afraid. But I do know that your diet has really minimal impact on your milk supply unless you're properly malnourished. I've heard tell that oats are good for supply, which I took as an excuse to eat my bodyweight in chocolate hobnobs each week. The best things for supply are a good latch and frequent responsive feeding. And someone much, much more knowledgeable than me will be along soon to help you more, no doubt. Good luck!

Thank you - any excuse to eat Hobnobs is a good one!

Your milk supply, especially in the early days, is governed more by frequent stimulation of feeds by your baby.

Unless your anaemia is very severe or you have suffered a dramatic blood loss, then it is unlikely to affect your milk supply. Many many women in developing countries today are anaemic but still feed successfully. We are designed to breastfeed even when food supplies are meagre.

'Not enough milk' is usually down to infrequent stimulation of your milk supply. The more you allow your baby to feed, the more milk your body orders up. Lots of other cultural ideas and practices conspire against women feeding their babies as often as they like and lead women to distrust their body's ability to feed their babies.

I think that at the moment you would benefit by going to a good and active breastfeeding support group while you are pregnant. You will meet a lot of women at different stages of feeding who will be your support group when your baby gets here. Listening to them and the group facilitator interacting among themselves will address a lot of the surrounding issues you probably have. And best of all, if you find yourself doubting your body and your baby, you will already know where to turn for face to face support.

I'll find a couple links for you for you to read in your own time so that you can see what I am trying to get at in a round about fashion.

Oh, but if you are really wanting something to help with your milk supply, can I suggest chocolate cake?

Food should see you right.

foxytocin has said it all. In general terms diet, stress, sleep, hydration etc doesn't affect bfing. It will affect you though. If you're tired, hungry, poorly hydrated and stressed then you'll just feel rubbish. But a decent supply is largely reliant upon successful transference of milk to the baby's requirements and you feeling well supported and confident. Everything else is a matter of looking after you in order to allow you to commit to bfing ie sitting happily on the sofa with your feet up.

Get the numbers, the groups, the support in place before you start bfing and shout to get the help you need when you need it.

OhE is right, diet has little impact on milk supply, just eat a healthy diet to ensure you are feeling well.
You definitely need to make sure you have a good latch (ask for help if you get sore) breast feeding shouldn't hurt.
Lots of skin to skin contact with your baby and frequently latch him/her on, the more (s)he sucks the more milk you will make.
In the early days babies will want to feed very frequently this is not because you don't have enough milk, and later on just because your boobs feel empty it doesn't mean you have a low supply either, it's simply because your body has adapted.
Basically the more you feed the more milk your body will produce.

Try to get family and friends to help with daily chores so that you can get some quality time with your baby in the early days to help get feeding off to a good start.

I hope this helps, good luck and enjoy

starting out right by Dr Jack Newman is a good place to begin. Look at his fantastic videos of babies who are latched on well and feeding effectively. that will give you the idea of what to look for.

Getting Started by Kellymom.

Too slow foxytocin has it covered!

Another thing to consider is relaxing enough for the let-down reflex to happen - adrenalin inhibits oxytocin which is what you need and oxygen inhibits adrenalin. So breathe! Before you latch on push out all your breath and squeeze your tummy, this will stimulate a great big inbreath using your diaphragm. Do a few of these deep breaths to relax you as you feed. If expressing, try doing after a bath or if it's a manual pump, do it in the bath! The milk should just squirt out in jets - if it's just a trickle get your DP to massage your shoulders.

And as Foxytocin says, see a proper BF counsellor, not just a midwife. You don't have to be an NCT member to use theirs.

LLL is free to non-members too.

you can find groups here

Fab advice already on here.

I really hope you get the support you need in BF

All the BF organisations (BFN, NCT, ABM, LLL) will see you for free. I find this webpage has a pretty exhaustive list of support groups.

Thank you ladies - advice appreciated. DD 2 is 3 weeks old now and feeding pretty well - I just want to ensure that I have all bases covered. Will be seeing the NCT bf counsellors locally next wek and will look into La leche

Thanks again

In terms of food things that I ate I found that seeds like linseeds added to my porrige helped me feel less baby-brain affected and therefore bettr able to focus on feeding DS1 - i think it's the Oleic Acid or something like that. One book I read also recommended fish soup but i couldn't bring myself to have that :-)

Fennel tea was also recommended to me if you believe in that sort of thing...I think it tastes nice but DH would mock-gag and leave the room if I drank it...

You should eat chocolate, lots and lots of chocolate, nice fiddly expensive ones, preferably provided by someone else and brought with a cup of tea/coffee/wine. Cake is also good.

I don't know if it will help with your milk supply, but it will make you feel nice.

And definitely lots of chocolate :-) I think that Lindt are the best.....

Avoid sage, parsley and mint, they cut the milk supply, I was advise to drink Sage tea when I stop BF.
You can eat cumin, fennel, aniseed, thyme, melissa and nettle.
Here you can find a "lactation tea" with all those or some of those. Drink about one liter/d (hipps or milupa make some but it is awfully sugary), try health shops for real herbal tea. It is quite nice to drink.
You can add thess herbs to your dishes if you like them.
At the hospital the BF mums got a lot (I mean a LOT) of proteins (thinks atkins diet without the fat) cheese and ham for breakfast, a lot of yogurt and chicken, lean meat at every meal. Fishes are also good. Fruits and veg.

I swear by fruitcake!

I told my DH that chocolate was a known treatment for the baby blues. He bought me a bar every night for for the first month! It really did help though, when you're martyring away so hard and might feel you're getting so little back, to have that little reward with its chemical high.

But in general for keeping blood sugar/energy levels/mood swings stable, try to eat lots of low GI food eg porridge, granary bread, oatcakes, brown rice & pasta, hoummous, grains, beans. Make sure any white bread, pasta, rice etc has protein with it eg cheese, meat, to bring the glycaemic load down.

Thanks - just finished off a small bar of chocolate, small glass of red wine and piece of fruit cake - feel great!
Will look into the herbal tea

I had a poor milk supply with previous DCs. (Low blood sugar tests in hospital, top-ups from early on etc.) I was so determined to get things going right this time, I took Motilium from about day 3. My supply has been so much better and I have felt more relaxed and confident so probably a knock-on effect... worth considering as an extreme measure!

Thanks for the advice on motilium - I tried this with my last child and it didn't make any difference for me ( along with fenugreek and fennel seed).....

Dr Jack Newman says ...

"Domperidone must never be used as the first approach to correcting breastfeeding difficulties. Domperidone is not a cure for all things. It must not be used unless all other factors that may result in insufficient milk supply have been dealt with first."

Foxytocin's advice is definitely the best. A good healthy diet will make you feel better, but it won't make any different to your supply so I would ignore these dietary/supplement questions as they simply distract from what is really important.

I drank LOADS of fennel tea with my DD, first herbal tea bags and then using dried fennel seeds. In hindsight I think I had an overproduction problem (you could have stuck me in the garden and called me a water feature!) and this together with an imperfect latch led to problems later on, so be careful you don't over do it! I was also recommended to take Floridex, but it's foul taking and quite pricey and I was on iron tablets anyway 'cos I had a heamorage.