Nursing

I used an herbal tea called Mother’s Milk. I actually lost my milk completely when ds was 2 months old, and it came back after drinking that tea for a day and a half! It doesn’t taste really bad, but I guess we’re willing to overlook something like that to nurse our babies!

Blessings,

Lindsey

I don’t know the details of your situation, but I wanted to reassure you that many other moms have successfully nursed their babies exclusively for the first six months on one side only.  In fact, I personally know two moms who have nursed many children with no milk at all in one breast.  I have also read about many other cases, and let’s not forget twins!  Two breasts, two babies, that is one for each baby LOL!  (Can you tell that I am a La Leche Leader LOL?)

As long as you are not seeing any danger signs in your baby, you shouldn’t assume that you are not making enough milk – danger signs are things like – not enough wet diapers – not meeting milestones – lethargy – dehydration.  Crying a lot and wanting to nurse a lot are not in themselves danger signs – they can be due to many other factors, including the baby’s personality.  

To increase milk production – keep yourself healthy, get plenty of rest and good nourishing food and drink to thirst PLUS  nurse frequently.  And RELAX – I know this is easier said than done, because your situation is worrying you.  Nurse on demand, and if your baby wants to go more than four hours between nursings, offer the breast more often, like every two hours or as often as is convenient.  Offer your “slacking” breast more often, in particular.  Production increases with demand.  Keep up night nursings as much as you can stand it – night nursing is often key to solving supply problems.  That Mother’s Milk tea Lindsey mentioned is good stuff, too.  ***The solution to most breastfeeding problems is to nurse more!***

Don’t worry about this summer – by then your baby will be of an age when you will be introducing solid food (as they show signs of readiness, of course).  The solid foods can be replacing the supplementer that you are using – not the superior breastmilk that you are providing.  So as she starts eating more, you can feel comfortable removing the supplementer and nursing without it.

Sorry this was so long!  You are doing a great thing by using the supplementer instead of a bottle.  You are avoiding so many potential problems!  If you have more specific questions that I could help you with and want to contact me privately, please PM me. 

Keep up the good work, Mamma!

Gem

Misty, I’m no longer drinking the tea, so not sure what the enclosed recommendation is. However, I remember drinking it after each meal and then before bed. I always added a little honey to mine :). I too have/had one side that didn’t produce as much milk – frustrating for sure. I agree with Gem and have to say you’re doing a great job!

I’ve nursed 5, all of them almost refuse my left side every time.  I’ve given up on some of them and done one side, and others, just pushed through it.  I’ve always used Alfalfa(just make sure you wean off it slowly or baby won’t like your milk anymore, I got mine at Walmart).  It has worked very well for me as well as the Mother’s Milk tea(which I dont’ like at all because I don’t like black licorice and it reminds me of that).  I drank the tea at least twice a day, more the first couple of weeks.  I also don’t know if you are exercising or not, I have to be really careful about aerobic exercise, it drastically reduces my milk supply.  Hope that helps!  Adrienne

My one hesitation with exercise is that you could overdo it, which does cut down on your milk supply.  I unfortunately made that mistake with my last 2.  I tried to do too much too soon (and that was not including exercise!), and my milk supply hurt for it.  In fact, with my 4th (a boy who loves to eat), I couldn’t keep up with him at all and had to supplement very early.  Of course, that killed nursing with a slow and emotionally-painful death.  If you are trying to up your supply, be very careful how much you’re doing.  Just light housework/cooking/teaching is more than enough, and from what I experienced, is even enough to cut down your supply.  There’s a reason women in the past, as long as they were nursing/pregnant, were told not to do too much.  Their husbands were probably over-worried, but there is good reason, too.

Sara  🙂