Hi ladies,

I am visiting this board for the first time from the Due in April board. my ds is 4 weeks today and was born 5 weeks premature so he spent a week in NICU. I nursed him about half the time during that week (other times he fell asleep or was crying already when it was time to eat) and pumped religiously. Since coming home from the hospital, his interest in nursing has gone up and down but now is pretty good when I try. The problem now is my milk supply, I only pump 10 ml every 2-3 hours and my baby eats 70! I called an LC who told me I needed to rent a hospital-grade pump and pump every 2 hours when awake, every 4 when asleep. I have been doing that and have increased to about 15 ml per pumping session. I also started taking Fenugreek, Blessed Thistle, and I eat at least 1 cup of oatmeal a day. And of course I drink plenty of water, about 80-100 ounces per day.

Does anyone else have any suggestions for what I can do to increase my supply? Any idea of how long it takes these things to work, should I see my slight 5 ml increase in a week as progress? I feel like we have worked through our other issues and could be successful with BF if I could work through this low supply problem. I would really greatly appreciate any words of advice anyone has to offer. TIA!

Are you nursing him? I would discontinue the bottle if you can, and just nurse, nurse, nurse. Nothing brings up a milk supply like nursing religiously. If you must supplement with your own milk, I would look into getting a lact-aid system and put your own milk in the system and you're still keeping the baby to the breast for ALL feeding sessions.

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I also hasten to point out that if your baby is nursing well, you're not likely to be seeing a lot of pump output because your baby is taking most of it. In that case I would just discontinue the pumping and let your baby dictate to your body directly how much milk he needs. Your body will get the picture quickly.

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Well, I have successfully BF two babies and I have never, ever been able to pump much at all. Honestly, if you would look at what I can pump, you would think I have supply issues, but there is no way that is true.

You need to go by weight gain, wet/poopy diapers, etc. and not by what you can or cannot pump in a given session. Does he seem happy and satisified after nursing?

Also, a baby can and will drink a lot from a bottle b/c it is so much easier to drink from a bottle than to nurse from mom.

Newborns nurse often, very often. Their tummies are the size of walnuts when they are born. Think of how little they will hold and how often you would want to eat if that is all the room you had for your food.

Hang in there, you can do this. Just put him to the breast often, even if he is wanting to nurse every 30 minutes. The first few months can be tough, but once he comes aware of the world and you have the nursing pattern down, it does become so easy and fun.

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Nancy

Well said, Nancy. It's important to point out that pump output is NOT a reliable indicator of supply.

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Pumping output is definitely not an accurate indicator, the amount of wet/stool diapers your baby has is much better.

I'm also taking Fenugreek, Blessed Thistle and Domperidone due to a breast reduction surgery I had several years ago. I really wanted to make sure my supply was up.

I know they also recommend eating high protein diet, if you are strapped for cooking, try cheese strings, yogurt, rolled up turkey sandwich meat slices, etc..

When I pumped at first I could get maybe 1 oz, now I'm getting around 2 oz's after several weeks on the herbs and 1 week on the Domperidone. When I pump, my left breast does not output as much as the right side, yet when Paiton nurses - she is always gulping on that side so although I can't feel the letdown, I know it's there and she is getting plenty.

Another thing we have been doing is nursing all morning. Rather than supplement, when she first wakes up, I bring her into bed and let her nurse on and off until we get up. Sometimes it's from 4/5am until 10am off and on, even if she's just comfort nursing I think it has helped tremendously.

Hope some of these tips help.

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WHether you nurse or pump it is a supply/ demand situtation. I got my supply up by pumping religously every 3 hours. I also got a prescription for Regulan ? All that stuff you are taking might be cancelling each other out. Call a certified LC and get advice.

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Sweet Baby Max, Nov 3, 27 lbs and 31.5 inches at 1 year

I was a BF baby for 5 months