Breastfeeding supply- domperidone

[Loobylou66]

Following a traumatic birth, significant blood loss and my lo being diagnosed with tongue tie, my milk supply is left wanting. My lactation consultant has recommended domperidone and wondered if anyone has taken it, if they had problems getting a prescription and if and how quickly it affected supply?

There are restrictions on this due to evidence about domperidone causing heart issues. I'm prescribed it for other reasons, by a gastroenterologist and my surgery are very fussy about it.

I had an emcs with twins at 31 weeks. Long story short got prescribed domperidone after a massive battle with GP. Didn't make a jot of difference.

DTs are now 4.5 and I believe the rules on prescribing have got tighter. If you do get it, the dosage to be successful is massive so you need a really understanding prescriber and a sheaf of nice notes ime.

Can your LC give you a letter to take to your gp?

I took it for a few months. It had a slight positive effect on my supply. It also made me completely ravenous!

I was prescribed it for similar reasons. It made a slight difference but not massive. I took it for 6 weeks but the GP was reluctant to prescribe beyond that due to the potential side effects.

Thanks all. BishyBishyBarnabee when were you taking it as I know GPs have clamped down in the last 18 months?

DS is 11months so 9/10 months ago. I had a lactation consultant who recommended it and the GP was happy to give it a go for a while on that recommendation.

May be worth mentioning, a few months later we discovered my thyroid was very underactive and there's a good chance that was impacting on my dwindling supply.

Fenugreek instead but your milk might taste of curry.

I tried it, I could o my 3 tablets a day and they recommend you take 3 times that! Did nothing for me apart gave me uhm, shall we say digestive problems that were very unpleasant!

I took fenugreek for months and it made me smell very strongly of curry. Again, it did nothing.

It all works differently for everyone so could be worth a try.

try fenugreek. it didn't make much difference but it has definitely improved my supply.

I tried both donperidone and fenugreek, at midwives suggestion....I just asked the gp and she said here you go no issue and no mention of side effects! but I wasn't convinced it did anything. Fenugreek tablets helped I thought but gave my dd explosive poos....I stopped after a while because of this and all of a sudden had a massive over supply! Whether it was the fenugreek who knows! I smelt like maple syrup too.....worse things to smell like I suppose!

Your situation sounds similar to mine with my first child. I struggled BFing for months and only got domperidone prescribed thanks to seeing a different HV to usual who liaised with my GP. DS was about 4 months old by then and we were mix feeding. The domperidone did help initially - I woke to do a night feed and for the first time ever had milk squirt from my boobs while I was lifting DS from his Moses basket to feed him! But the effect levelled off and I didn't see a big difference in what I could pump either. I think it helped us BF longer and we continued to mix feed until just shy of a year. I know not all GPs are happy to prescribe it though. A friend had similar BFing issues and her GP Dad advised her not to take domperidone...
Dr Jack Newman's US-based website has good domperidone info: www.breastfeedinginc.ca/content.php?pagename=doc-DGS