Are You Losing Your Supply?

[meme]

wishing you lots of luck and milky blessings perth pony.
get yourself a breastfeeding support team by contacting your local ABA group if you have one. or even just entrust friends or family especially your hub ( if you have one) to be your cheer squad. along with all of us here of course!

breastfeeding is important for babies( and mums too), so it's great that you are doing what you can to get it happenning.
it is also just one small part of mothering, so enjoy all the other parts too and look for the positive steps, be easy on yourself however it goes.

[JoJoMart]

This thread brings back lots of memories of those early weeks. When Liam was born by emergency caesarian my milk supply appeared low and he lost 450g in hospital. Looking back I don't think I offered him the boob enough because he was a very sleepy baby.......would sleep 5 hour stretches at a time if he could so I had to wake him for a feed (he doesn't do this now!)......by the end of my hospital stay I had very cracked nipples and was expressing every 3-4 hours plus he had to be topped up with formula because of his weight loss.

Once home I tried pretty hard to get BF going......hired a lactation consultant etc but in the end my milk supply didn't seem enough and I was exhausted from trying to BF (usually took 45 mins offering both boobs), top up with formula then express. Keep in mind I was recovering from a caesar too.

Looking back I would have done some things differently and some advice I got wasn't the best........but you do the best you can at the time. Now Liam is totally formula fed but was partly BF for nearly 3 months so I feel I've done the best for him.

I envy those who have been able to BF successfully and sometimes feel like a failure but I'm over this now because it's not worth beating myself up about it anymore

I think anyone who wants to keep persevering with BF should and I wish them all the best..........it will be worth the hard work in the end, but if it all gets too hard and it's distressing then don't feel bad if you can't BF or fully BF.

P.S. I agree that fenergreek tabs work. These actually appeared to help increase my supply for a while.

[Mum&bubs]

Great thread Niki

In the early stages of breastfeeding Summer when I first started I thought I was losing my supply too! Because I couldn't express a drop, boobs weren't leaking, feeding constantly well pretty much nearly everything you mentioned!

It's good this thread is here for people to read before they make any decisions!

[Seekrit]

Hooray Pony!
Keep going, you're doing a great job!

[allysophia]

You CAN do this!

Good luck!

[shed]

Perth_Pony: A big thumbs up and keep up the good work you bloody legend. I know how much this means to you and I wish you all the luck in the world!!

[prideNJoy]

I just remembered something my Dr. told me when DD was born and i was worried about my milk supply because it was summer and i always felt dehydrated.

Anyway, i was told it was safe to have one or two drinks of Lite Beer (meaning bottles) as this would help increase my supply. I cant quite remember but i think it had something to do with the yeast in the beer.

Im not really a drinker in general so i tried it a couple of times but it wasnt for me, to be honest i dont know if it was the best advice a Dr could give. But then again im not the professional...

[squiglet]

Yep it's the yeast in the beer that you whant, not the alcahol.

I have also been having a rough couple of weeks bf my dd.
I've come out the other side of it now and I think that the list of lactation boosting tips the midwife gave me helped.

Also the lactation consultant told me to try cutting out the soy milk I was drinking as that can make your milk unpleasant. (I'm pretty sure it wasn't that though as I could express and she would drink it all up but still refuse the breast )

Anyway the Yeast can be bought in tablet form as well as in sachets (for making beer).
Or you can drink non alcaholic beer (I haven't been able to find theses)

But I think fenigueek (no idea how to spell it) has helped me out tons.

[~Alicia]

Great thread! Thanks Nikki.

I want to get as much information together as I possibly can. I'm aiming to b/f for as long as bubs wants to. Be that 1 year or 4.

[lukaelmo]

Regarding your supply, have you looked into Fenugreek (herbal supplement) I took it when my supply was quite low (due to working and getting the flu) and within a day my boobs felt SO engorged and I was doubling my pumping again!
There's also a great cookie recipe here which really does work! Click Here!! They really do work and they are yummy!

I have been sick a lot recently too, and have also lost a bit of weight... still have lots of milk, but maybe the cookies could serve the double purpose of keeping the calories up and ensuring my milk supply remains healthy... what is it in them that makes them work?

And the fenugreek, did you drink the tea or take the vitamins?