What's the single most important thing to keeping up supply?

SeaSoul · July 2009

(Besides regular BFing/pumping.) Fluids? Food? Sleep?

My supply has tanked in the last 18 hours. I was not able to pump yesterday afternoon at work b/c I forgot to bring a bottle. I only nursed DS once last night before he fell asleep. Normally I don't pump in the evening but since we had no BM for today, I pumped the opposite side after he was in bed and only got 2 oz! It had been 8 hours since he'd eaten on that side. Normally I can get 3-5 oz after just a few hours. (Got nothing from the side he nursed on, b/c he emptied it.) Then this morning before work, I tried again. Got 1 oz from the side where it had been about 5 hours since he nursed, and 0 from the side he'd just nursed on.

Luckily, DH had the day off and brought DS here to nurse around 11:00. I purposely didn't pump before b/c I wanted to have enough for him when they came. After they left I pumped the side he hadn't nursed, and only got 1 oz again.

I'm 8-10 days away from AF and do usually have less of a supply before or during AF. I didn't eat much this morning, but that wouldn't explain the low volume last night. I don't think the fact that I didn't pump yesterday afternoon could have screwed things up too much...after all, I don't pump on weekends and still have plenty. I hope this is temporary or we have a big problem.

kmmancil · July 2009

I don't think there's one specific thing, but outside of the regular pumping/nursing, food and liquids are huge. Something I didn't realize was that some medications like sudafed can lower your supply, so if you're under the weather or taking anything out of the norm you may want to see if that could affect your supply.