I just don't produce any milk!! Help!

Re: I just don't produce any milk!! Help!

• found_the_1

  April 2009

  I had major supply issues after using a nipple shield. I recommend seeing an LC to make sure your latch is good. I also recommend reading Dr. Jack Newman's BF book (he discusses a medicine you can take to stimulate supply, which works for adoptive moms). Here are some other suggestions that my aunt sent me (she's been an LLL leader for 30+ years), which I followed and definitely helped me with my supply. I am happy to report that my baby is FINALLY gaining weight appropriately and I am now only supplementing him with 1/2 ounce every other feeding (and should be able to stop altogether by early next week).

  #1 You need to be drinking at least 4 quarts of fluid a day. Water, milk, fruit juice, herbal teas, a little coffee or tea, soups, gatorade or powerade.

   

  #2 To build milk supply, it is more important to nurse frequently than for a long period of time. If he quits after five minutes on one breast, burp him, change him (to wake him up) and put him on the second breast. After another five minutes, if he is losing interest, switch him again, perhaps using a different position so he will drain different ducts in the breast. In five more minutes, switch him again. Most babies will get 95% of the milk in the breast in about 8 minutes on each side. The "switch" nursing encourages the body to keep letting milk down. Later on, once the milk supply is established, we would not continue the switching as it is important for him to get more of the richer "hind" milk. For now, let's just try to increase supply at each feeding.

   

  #3 Most newborns need to nurse 10 to 12 times a day to get the milk supply established. For now, I would recommend going back to that frequency for four or five days. Keep on with the fenugreek, blessed thistle. Also try Mother's Milk Tea (Health food store and Kroger) and Brewer's Yeast. The yeast has a nasty taste, but you can buy capsules of it so you don't have to taste it. Your body needs to be well nourished to make milk. 500 extra calories a day over your regular intake with a concentration of whole grains, fruits, vegetables and protein. Eat lots of nutritious foods, especially foods high in B Vitamins (mostly whole grains such as oatmeal, breads, brown rice, etc.) and try to increase your protein intake, up to around 80 gm per day. Tunafish, eggs, milk, turkey, cheese, protein supplements or bars, I'm sure you know the drill.

   

  #4 The supplemental nursing system is a great tool for the moment. He is still young enough that he doesn't realize where the milk is coming from and it is much better than using a bottle which sometimes leads to babies not wanting to make the effort to nurse. Don't worry about using it for now. How much supplement was recommended? The one problem with supplement (breast milk or formula) is that sometimes too much is given, so the baby sleeps longer, through the next feeding. For the next seven days, I would suggest that he not go more than three hours without nursing (day or night) and preferably closer to two hours. The key to building milk supply is frequency, not duration. (Did I say that already? It bears repeating.) So if you need to supplement, nurse first (without the SNS), then give him no more than one ounce at a time. If he lasts 45 minutes, nurse him again before supplementing. It only takes your body about 40 minutes to make more milk; it may not be a full feeding's worth, but it is better to go ahead and nurse him.

   

  #5 Are you wearing him? Sometimes, total body contact in the sling helps get them more interested. So you might try wearing him in the sling several hours a day, whenever you aren't holding him. There is no reason he can't nap in the sling--you won't spoil him.

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• massagegirly

  April 2009

  found_the_1:

  I had major supply issues after using a nipple shield. I recommend seeing an LC to make sure your latch is good. I also recommend reading Dr. Jack Newman's BF book (he discusses a medicine you can take to stimulate supply, which works for adoptive moms). Here are some other suggestions that my aunt sent me (she's been an LLL leader for 30+ years), which I followed and definitely helped me with my supply. I am happy to report that my baby is FINALLY gaining weight appropriately and I am now only supplementing him with 1/2 ounce every other feeding (and should be able to stop altogether by early next week).

  #1 You need to be drinking at least 4 quarts of fluid a day. Water, milk, fruit juice, herbal teas, a little coffee or tea, soups, gatorade or powerade.

   

  #2 To build milk supply, it is more important to nurse frequently than for a long period of time. If he quits after five minutes on one breast, burp him, change him (to wake him up) and put him on the second breast. After another five minutes, if he is losing interest, switch him again, perhaps using a different position so he will drain different ducts in the breast. In five more minutes, switch him again. Most babies will get 95% of the milk in the breast in about 8 minutes on each side. The "switch" nursing encourages the body to keep letting milk down. Later on, once the milk supply is established, we would not continue the switching as it is important for him to get more of the richer "hind" milk. For now, let's just try to increase supply at each feeding.

   

  #3 Most newborns need to nurse 10 to 12 times a day to get the milk supply established. For now, I would recommend going back to that frequency for four or five days. Keep on with the fenugreek, blessed thistle. Also try Mother's Milk Tea (Health food store and Kroger) and Brewer's Yeast. The yeast has a nasty taste, but you can buy capsules of it so you don't have to taste it. Your body needs to be well nourished to make milk. 500 extra calories a day over your regular intake with a concentration of whole grains, fruits, vegetables and protein. Eat lots of nutritious foods, especially foods high in B Vitamins (mostly whole grains such as oatmeal, breads, brown rice, etc.) and try to increase your protein intake, up to around 80 gm per day. Tunafish, eggs, milk, turkey, cheese, protein supplements or bars, I'm sure you know the drill.

   

  #4 The supplemental nursing system is a great tool for the moment. He is still young enough that he doesn't realize where the milk is coming from and it is much better than using a bottle which sometimes leads to babies not wanting to make the effort to nurse. Don't worry about using it for now. How much supplement was recommended? The one problem with supplement (breast milk or formula) is that sometimes too much is given, so the baby sleeps longer, through the next feeding. For the next seven days, I would suggest that he not go more than three hours without nursing (day or night) and preferably closer to two hours. The key to building milk supply is frequency, not duration. (Did I say that already? It bears repeating.) So if you need to supplement, nurse first (without the SNS), then give him no more than one ounce at a time. If he lasts 45 minutes, nurse him again before supplementing. It only takes your body about 40 minutes to make more milk; it may not be a full feeding's worth, but it is better to go ahead and nurse him.

   

  #5 Are you wearing him? Sometimes, total body contact in the sling helps get them more interested. So you might try wearing him in the sling several hours a day, whenever you aren't holding him. There is no reason he can't nap in the sling--you won't spoil him.

  Great information! Thanks

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• marrymemylove member

  April 2009

  I encourage you to try again. You know why. Its the best start they can get.

  My suggestions:

  1. don't pump AT ALL in the first 4 weeks. The baby feeding is a very very different letdown/production/extraction system. It can bugger up your supply to pump too early.

  2. even if you did this before, make sure you feed on demand even if its round the clock.

  3. don't judge your supply by how your breasts feel, or how often they eat, or anything else. Just by number of wet diapers and weight gain. Nothing else matters. Not saying you did but many judge it by what they get out of a pump after a feed, or how often or how easily the baby is feeding. DS was grumpy for a year but it wasn't hunger, though I might have thought that if I hadn't been told otherwise.

  4. don't mess with the herbal rubbish. Studies have shown they're no better or worse than a placebo. Get a Rx for domperidone or reglan if you can't get domperidone. It increases the production of prolactin hormone by the brain which increases supply. Its known, safe and widely used. Domperidone is widely used everywhere else in the civilised world like Canada, Australia ,UK etc but is hard to get in the US, but it is legal and I know Drs who prescribe it, though it must be off-label.

   GL! 

   

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• nova@spamcop.net

  April 2009

  Great info.  Thanks!
  

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