How to increase milk supply?

Any advice on increasing breastmilk supply please 🥺

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Make sure you're hydrated (so important!) and your calorie intake is good. Also perhaps look at a breastfeeding supplement.

Stick your baby to the boob as much as possible / increase number of pumping sessions. Supply increases with demand but it can take 3 days for the supply to increase.

If you are pumping you can try a power pump. Eg pump 20 mins, 10 min break , pump 10 min , 10 min break and pump 10 min again

Try feed or pump in the early hours of the night 1-4 when your prolactin is highest for making milk

Put your baby on the boob as much as u can. They are so much better at increasing ur supply than them pumps. But u can try pumping as well if u really want to. My LO is 7 weeks I EBF and I’ve never pumped cause I feel like the more she feds the more milk I produce. I’ll only pump if I ever need to go somewhere and can’t take her with me which hasn’t happened so far. Stay hydrated and eat well, your body needs extra calories when ur breastfeeding. Also, a multivitamin can help ( my midwife told me to just keep taking the same one I was taking while pregnant but there is specific ones for breastfeeding). It’s also worth mentioning that once ur supply is established your body knows exactly how much it needs to produce, as long as ur baby looks satisfied and happy after feeds and is putting on weight then u have nothing to worry abt. Sometimes you’ll think it has dropped but it hasn’t, ur body is just not overproducing anymore xx

Lots of skin to skin. X

Pump more often, drink water and electrolytes, eat oats also protein shakes help 😊

Is it not too late? My girl is 10 weeks, I've had quite a journey with breastfeeding (she dropped 12% on day 5 so was told to supplement with formula), and every time I think we might be able to go off formula top ups, she always seems hungry and I cave. It's such a vicious circle. And then some days she only gets very little (I know because she sucks but doesn't swallow), we are in this phase now. Last week she almost exclusively breastfed, but this week it's like my supply is gone...

Thank you so much ladies! I will try everything suggested xx

for me I’m still being able to pump and breastfeed but I just want to increase my supply to be able to freeze some milk! I’m sorry to hear it’d as if your supply has almost gone. Breastfeeding is quite difficult

in our community

Baby clothes

Just out of curiosity, why do parents love zipper onesies?

Don’t get me wrong, I tried zipper ones it’s easy to zip in and out when putting it on the first time and taking it out, but I find it difficult when changing diapers especially when baby is asleep.

I prefer those kimono style buttons where it’s easy to button or too down button with crotch snaps.

Is everyone thinking the same or different? Lol

At this point I’m not enjoying motherhood

My 22 month old is horrendous at the moment🫣 biting, hitting, pushing, pulling and shoving not only adults but children he also wants what other children have and will just snatch it away from them.

We repeat ‘nice hands’ ‘be gentle’ ‘let’s share’ etc

But how do I make him understand what he’s doing isn’t very nice? At the end of the day I feel like I’ve just been saying his name all day and nothing else.

What can I do?

This might rattle some people

Ok, this might get a bit long, and a bit bumpy, so get comfy and buckle up.

So about a week or 2 ago, there was a post on here regarding sleepovers. Not letting their child go to them as you can't trust who'll be at the house etc.

Now, given recent incidents in nurseries and schools, plus my own experience back in the 90s, I am more concerned about sending my child to nursery and later school than I am to a friend's house for a sleep over.

The other day a man was jailed for abusing children at the nursery he worked at. A woman has been arrested for sleeping with an underage boy and then getting pregnant by a different underage boy while on bail for the first offence.

Young girls and boys get sexually harassed and bullied when at school, not all of them. But more than you think. And not just by other kids, but by adults who we as parents are trusting to look after our kids.

A sleepover, is a more controlled environment, with only a handful of people coming into contact with your child. A school, a club etc there can be 100s of people coming into contact with your child.

I was targeted at 7 years old by the owner of a prominent private school. Thankfully, I wasn't SA'd. In year 5 of primary school, I started to develop early, I was harassed by the boys and teachers made remarks about how my uniform didn't fit right, always "adjusting it" around my chest and legs.

Years 7-9 of secondary school were hell. But it was all under the guise of "we're just messing around". A teacher twanging my exposed bra strap (none uniform day) is not "messing around".

Boys pinning me down trying to rip open my shirt to see my breasts.

I fear for my daughter. I hope she takes after my father's family, flat chested.

We need to educate all our children, what is acceptable behaviour. And to come to us, as their parents should ANYTHING happen.

Dummy

My baby has had a dummy since about 2 weeks old (now 5 months) and over the course of the last month we weaned her off it during the day only for naps and night (which was fine) and then 5 days took it completely away during the day.

The first day no dummy was fine, the second bit rougher. But now it feels impossible she just moans and cries all the time it takes ages for her to go down to sleep (she’s always been an amazing sleeper)

I thought it was meant to get better as time went on not worse. I’m at my wits end I dunno what to do.

Currently typing this as she screams uncontrollably in the car and I cry with her cos I can’t do anything.

How to help my husband understand why I'd like to breastfeed

My husband is very supportive, but he is also someone who wants to make things as easy and as stress free as possible.

With our first child, I tried to breastfeed, but due to my own medical issues postpartum, baby and I were separated a lot and my milk dried up so quickly. We introduced formula around 2 weeks PP, and I tried pumping as much as I could, but it just lead to nothing. It was heartbreaking. It definitely ruined a lot of those early weeks for me, I was wrecked with guilt and sadness. I cried every day and felt like such a failure.

Now my son is a healthy, happy 2 year old and I eventually came to terms with formula feeding him. He was quite content with the first formula we tried, never had feeding or gas issues etc, so it felt like a much easier option.

Obviously my husband witnessed all of this and now we're expecting our second baby, he sort of assumed we'd just go straight to formula.

I told him pretty early that I'd like to try breastfeeding again, and although I won't be putting so much pressure on myself this time, I've also done more research and I'm more prepared for the hard times that might come up in the early days/weeks, and I'm trying to prepare for any complications.

He's very supportive and says it's totally up to me and hasn't tried to sway me either way, but I do get a feeling the moment things get difficult PP he will automatically be buying formula. And he won't mean it in a bad way, he'll just be trying to make things easier for me and take off the pressure. He won't understand that it's unhelpful.

His thinking is that as long as baby is fed that's all that matters, and I agree mostly! But I also understand how beneficial breastfeeding can be and want to give it all my effort if I'm able!

So I guess I'm asking, are there any good resources I could send him to read? Preferably nothing too long/wordy, but something that explains the benefits and how to best support me during this time too? (Also something preferably from the UK as I know guidance can differ depending on country)

Help

My LO every feed. Drs don’t seem to think it’s a problem the whole Muslim cloth gets soaked so much I’m using towels now. I’ve tried size O teats he gets really frustrated and still spills it out :(