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I had my daughter at 29 weeks. The first couple of weeks i was producing a ton of milk. Now shes almost 5 weeks old and im barely producing any milk. ive been trying to take fenugreek and drink mothers milk and trying to relax. but it hard relaxing when driving an hour to the hospital every day to see her. i dont know wat else to do to help produce more milk.
How much fenugreek have you been taking ?
i take 3 tablets, 3 times a day i was taking 5 tablets, 3 times a day for 3 days
My lactation consultant said to take 12 a day until you start to have a good supply, but not to go longer than about two weeks.
I also had some problems with my milk supply so i did everything i could think of at the same time to increase my supply. I made sure I ate oatmeal everyday, increased my fluids (water especially), took vitamin B12, did not miss a pump session, and hand expressed after each pumping. Oh and I had a beer every other day for a couple of weeks ! It's not harmful to baby and the yeast is supposed to help boost the milk supply. One of the nurses in my NICU swears by Brewer's Yeast but I never had to try another method. You can also try a medication called Regulan to boost your supply (it has to be given by a doctor). Do you have a lactation consultant available to you ?
ya ive talked to a few different ones. Ive been told to do all these different things but none of them helped. how many tablets of the fenugreek did u take 12 times? i think ill try that. and i read about the beer online but wasnt sure if it was really true.
I took 4 tablets 3 times a day for a total of 12 a day. If you have already tried the more natural methods you may want to find out about the regulan. It is supposed to help increase supply by 70-100% but has to obtained through prescription.
My supply diminished around the 6 week mark as well..this is very common. Sometimes without a baby, nothing seems to work. The herbs helped a little, but not enough. I take Domperidone, a GI medication with a side effect of increasing prolactin which is the hormone that tells your body to make milk. It has less side effects than Reglan and is the only thing that works for me. You can check out kellymom.com for the info. You have to order it on-line over seas. Inhouse pharmacy is where I get mine. I was willing to do what ever it takes and still am. I pumped for 3.5 months while she was in the NICU....now she breastfeeds and I only have to pump 3 times a day because I make more than she drinks...good luck!
domperidone has helped me out tremendously... and oatmeal has helped too... i also have ben told there's nothing wrong with a small glass of red wine to calm you after a stressful day at the hospital.. it actually helps milk production.. emotionally some ppl suggested looking at pics of my baby but that just stressed me out as i got thinking: i have to provide milk for her-- added pressure!!!!!
Seeing an acupuncturist also helped me.
I took reglen with no side effects. It helped for a while.
How many times a day are you pumping and are you using a hospital-grade pump? Oatmeal, almonds, Domperidone, Mother's Milk Tea, Regalan, Fenugreek along with Blessed Thistle are all galactagogues that help boost milk production, but the most important thing is to make sure you are pumping often enough and using a hospital-grade pump. Your breasts have to be emptied frequently to signal your body to produce more milk. Make sure you are drinking enough water, too.
About your drive to the hospital -- another woman I know pumped while driving with a hands-free attachement and a car adapter attachment. You may want to look into this to make good use of your travel time. :-)
Good luck to you.
At one point, after my supply dropped, I was told, choose sleep over one session of night pumping. I found that did the trick for me. Sounds strange, but I needed the sleep really badly and found those 6 to 8 hours uninterrupted really helped.
Also, dark lager is the type of beer I was told to drink. That worked too.
Hang in there. We're here to support you, you're not alone.
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