increasing supply

W

wandasmart

New member
im looking to buy some supplements to help

a) increase my milk supply
b) increase the supply in a faster period.. ie if my baby feeds in 2-3 hour intervals how can i make milk faster so its there for her?

i know fennelgreek is one?

thanks!
 
Try eating papaya and fish soup. The mothers in my ward had people bring them fish soup to help breastfeeding. You have to fry the fish with ginger and wine before boiling them. You can boil soup with fish and papaya and ginger. Buy sea water fish since fresh water fish contains mercury and possibly the now famous harmful chemical. If this is too much work, just eat papaya.
 
I had serious stomach ache in the first few months of my pregnancy, and ate papaya to alleviate the problem. I noticed my breasts just grew. Then after I stopped eating papaya, they shrank.
 
mammalicious,

fenugreek worked for me. used to be able to pump 6-8oz at a time. also don't forget to drink lots of water. you can also try Mother's Milk Tea which is available at Healthgate in Central.

Rani
 
Hello mammalicious, I drink lots of milk, soya milk and water. I also drank papaya and fish soup in the first month after delivery. You can also check this website for information about increasing supply: www.lalecheleague.org.
 
Why do you want to increase your milk supply? Usually if a mother has breastfed for three months her supply is just right for her baby. If your baby isn?t growing well I would suggest getting help from someone who can help with breastfeeding either a lactation consultant or a LLL leader.

The way the breast ways is that the emptier it is the faster it makes milk. So a full breast makes milk slowly and a breast which is nearly empty (it can never be totally empty) makes milk quickly.

The breast works like a factory manufacturing soft toys. There is a factory and the warehouse. Usually the factory makes the toys at a similar rate to the order coming in and the factory is not working too fast or too slow. Likewise the breast usually makes the milk in line with the speed of the feeds ? not too fast so you get engorged or too slow so the baby has to work hard.

If lots of orders come in suddenly and the warehouse starts to empty the manager increases the speed of production to meet the demand from the orders. Likewise if the baby suddenly has a growth spurt and starts to drink a lot the breasts increases production and increases the speed of milk production.

As the warehouse fills up with no new orders the manager slows down the production and eventually stops it altogether until the next order comes. The breast is like that as it fills the production slows down and then stops until the baby feeds again.

So a baby feeding often is not a problem for the breast but skipping feeds and giving supplements or formula top up is. Because the breast being empty means you?ll make more milk but the breast being full means the production stops.

The other thing to take into account when you are trying to pump milk is your breast capacity. Some mothers have a small breast capacity ? say 3 oz. Thus this mother will need to feed her baby 10 times in 24 hours to give him the 30 oz he requires.

Other mothers have a larger breast capacity ? say 6 oz. This mother will need to feed her baby only 5 times in 24 hours to give him the 30 oz he requires. That is assuming the baby can manage 6 oz at once ? most can?t.

Usually a breastfed baby will feed between 8 and 14 times in 24 hours ?no matter what the mother?s breast capacity is. If, however, you are exclusively pumping to provide milk the size of your breast capacity makes a difference to the number of times you have to pump. The first mother with capacity of 3 oz will have to pump 10 times and the second mother, with capacity of 6 oz, will only have to pump 5 times.

Best wishes,
Barb
 
i seemed to have milk before but now i feel my breasts are always empty and not producing fast enough.. i have to top up with expressed milk from my freezer storage (thankfully i have some but running out fast!) after feeding 20min each side. i can feel it is empty the breasts are very very soft. also i cannot pump very much out anymore. Baby is going through her 12 week growth spurt as well. i have hired Mrs Chee now and she's recommended i take a whole bunch of stuff.. i just hope that it will boost it up again quckly!! i really prefer to stay away from having to go to formula but i can't let her starve either. i prefer to even not top up with formula if i can.

but i just called my pediatrician and he recommends i think about going formula... why do they so easily just tell patients to go formula even when the mom is so willing to go so many extra miles to get breastmilk for her baby? :tantrum:
 
hi,

becos HK paeditricians like their babies FAT FAT FAT! I went through exactly the same situation when my son was 2 and a half months - he gained weight very well in the first 6-8 weeks (50th percentile baby) but dropped back significantly after that (to about 25th percentile weight wise, still is now)......the minute baby's weight dropped 2 paeditricians advised going on formula asap - granted I didn't manage my supply well enough in the early days (too inexperienced, lack of knowledge etc) but I worked hard for 2-3 months to ensure baby got enough WITHOUT resorting to formula (lots of direct feeds, expressing to encourgage boy to produce, lots of rest, nutricious and calorific diet, fenugreek capsules, fish soup etc) - bfeeding is HARD HARD work, I didn't go through blocked ducts/engorgement/crack and sore nipples/ sleep deprivation to feed my precious one cow's milk. Do not let "professionals" dictate to you what you should be giving your baby or let them undermine your confidence and hard work, a bfed baby's weight does fluctuate, as long as they are putting on weight in general, meeting their milestones, are reasonably happy and settled and no major sleeping problems, you mustn't get overly stressed.
At about 4.5 to 5 months you can slowly introduce solids which will bump baby's weight up a bit!

HANG IN THERE!!!!! :gl:
 
Dear Mammalicious,

It is normal for your breasts to no longer have the full feeling of the first weeks as the baby grows older. A normal lactating breast is soft not hard. This doesn?t mean that you don?t have milk it means that your body has adjusted to breastfeeding.

Babies don?t always feed for 20 minutes each side. Some like a few long feeds and others like lots of short feeds. One of my babies would feed for between 5 and 10 minutes every 40 to 60 minutes. He grew well and had lots of wet nappies so this wasn?t a problem.

It is also normal for the amount of milk you can pump to decrease unless you manage to pump often.

Rather than see specialists who are looking for problems I suggest calling a la Leche League Leader. Leaders are mothers who have breastfed their own children and been trained to help mothers breastfeed. They know what is normal and what is a problem. If they think you have a problem they won?t say everything is fine but encourage you to see the doctor. But if the problems are more management than medical they often have more solutions than medical professionals.

There are five leaders in Hong Kong:
Sarah ? 2548 7636
Maggie ? 2817 7475
Rochelle ? 2947 7147
Louisa ? 2987 4042
Maggie ? 9048 1701 (Chinese)

Best wishes,
Barb
 
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