Is breastmilk still possible to increase?

[Gladdyheng]

Hi mummies, I am a new mum to an 11weeks boyboy.
I have been trying to increase my milk supply but so far I am only able to pump 20-30ml. On lucky days maybe I get 40ml. I am doing mixed feeding as milk supply not enough. Usually latch on in the day, then bottle feed. Night time my hubby help bottle feed.
Tried several methods but rather frustrated coz still hope to be able to give my boy more BM.
1) took fenugreek 3tablets 3 times a day
2) drank groundnuts soup, papaya soup, cook sesame with rice, etc
3) eat oats and drink milo, try to drink lot of water
4) took gynae prescribed domperidone
5) tried to pump and latch every 3-5hourly but missed out one session at night coz really tired - tried for few days but supply decrease to 15ml per session instead! So in the end skipped the night pump and yield 20-30ml in the morning pump. Weird!

Really dunno what to do coz now my boy drink 120-150ml but my BM never seem to be able to catch up!

Any other methods to help increase BM fast? Goin back to work soon... Feel kinda paiseh to pump at work for only 20-30ml.

 

[mommom]

Well done mummy n don't give up! I've low supply when my girl was 4 month old. My girl was allergic to cow milk n soy milk so I was desperate to get my supply back up. I did your 1 to 3 but never took domperidone. Bought it but end up never use cos supply went up. I nursed my girl every 2 to 3 hours, day n night. And I pump after each nursing. Initial pumps after nursing yield at most 10ml. But after doing such intensive nursing n pumping for 3 days my supply went up.

Jia you mummy!

 

[venussnow]

Hi..dun mind I ask which pump u using? Coz I was initially v disheartened in the first 3 days after delivery coz i was pumping less than 10ml using the medela pump from the hospital.after I was discharged, I came home and decided to try again with my medela Pisa. Surprisingly, my supply steadily increased to 150ml-200ml per session and I pump every 3 hrs. Maybe it was the massage function of the pump tt helped and I occasionally latch my lil gal at night to help maintain the supply coz I'm alr back at work. Food wise I take papaya on some days and abc juice as beet root is known to help in milk secretion. My gal is currently 11 weeks old too

 

[Gladdyheng]

Hi mommom, thank you for the encouragement. I think I should really perservere in my midnight pumps no matter how hard.

Husband keep trying to tell me "Don't worry about your BM supply, there's always FM." I know he is trying to assure me but he doesn't understand that it's not that I don't have BM but I hope to have more. Doesnt help when hubby told me his mum never breastfed coz she had high blood pressure so not suitable to breastfeed. Whenever I am disheartened he will say "we all grew up on FM and we are all fine." During confinement, my mum and mother in law insisted that my supply is low and baby must be hungry so made us buy FM. Then whenever baby hungry, MIL just bottle feed without asking me. When I bring baby in to breastfeed and he cry, she will come in and bring him out to comfort him. So I missed out the whole opportunity to build up supply then. Keep having regrets on not being firm enough. So when I don't pump more, have tendency to look back and get angry at MIL. Now coming to acceptance but still really hope to be able to see a 'miracle'!

Venussnow I am using Medela mini electric plus double pump. Before bought this i used pigeon electric single pump - too tiring coz have to hold the pump for half an hour so bought a double pump. I have not heard of beetroot juice helping with milk secretion. Where u buy abc juice?

 

[venussnow]

u can get abc juice at any fruit stalls. i have them 2-3 a week. Besides tt, I also take papaya and fish on a regular basis. I haven't tried any supplements so I wouldn't comment on any suitable ones. the medela pump in style has a massage function prior to expressing so it might help to stimulate milk flow so u might want to consider trying tt. also, i let my lil gal latch on to me every night before she sleeps to stimulate production. what u can do is to lie ur lil one next to u in bed and let them suckle till they sleep

 

[PregnantSg]

hello Gladdyheng,

Do try out this fish tail and papaya soup recipe. It is known to help increase milk supply especially for mummies who are breastfeeding like yourself. You can also try fish head and green papaya soup, very similar to the first one, but will also help with lactation =)

 

[Alisa]

Hi mommom, thank you for the encouragement. I think I should really perservere in my midnight pumps no matter how hard.

Husband keep trying to tell me "Don't worry about your BM supply, there's always FM." I know he is trying to assure me but he doesn't understand that it's not that I don't have BM but I hope to have more. Doesnt help when hubby told me his mum never breastfed coz she had high blood pressure so not suitable to breastfeed. Whenever I am disheartened he will say "we all grew up on FM and we are all fine." During confinement, my mum and mother in law insisted that my supply is low and baby must be hungry so made us buy FM. Then whenever baby hungry, MIL just bottle feed without asking me. When I bring baby in to breastfeed and he cry, she will come in and bring him out to comfort him. So I missed out the whole opportunity to build up supply then. Keep having regrets on not being firm enough. So when I don't pump more, have tendency to look back and get angry at MIL. Now coming to acceptance but still really hope to be able to see a 'miracle'!

Venussnow I am using Medela mini electric plus double pump. Before bought this i used pigeon electric single pump - too tiring coz have to hold the pump for half an hour so bought a double pump. I have not heard of beetroot juice helping with milk secretion. Where u buy abc juice?

i was using Medela mini electric single for my 1st son and it left me with crack nipple. i change to Medela Swing no more crack nipple.

 

[mommom]

Hi Gladdyheng, I've the same issue with my mil during confinement too. So I totally understand how u feel...

 

[Honeyfiedcherry]

Don't give up ! I had similar issues with my in laws n own
Mum ! Now am ebfing my 3 mth old without them saying anything as she's growing very well . Used to have milk supply issues due to retained placenta n had no choice but to put her on FM for a week . After that I fought my way thru .
Now hoping my supply isn't dropping as she's going thru a growth spurt . Still worrying but the key is always plenty and plenty of water ! Baby keeps fussing and now I feel like I'm back to square one . Fighting my way thru again . Keep latching baby as much as possible . If baby sleeps for more than 3 hours, wake her up to feed . For myself, now my baby doesn't cry when hungry, I just keep track of feeding times . Feeding on demand is key . It takes time n effort but definitely worth it !

 

[venussnow]

I also had such problems with my mil. she kept saying tt dunno baby drinking enough when she latch on coz she seems to look uncomfortable and stuff like tt. alot of comments but no actual help. i just listen and ignore. dun let wat they say dishearten u. u can do it. dun let her stress u out

 

[Gladdyheng]

Thanks everyone. So tough to be a respectful daughter in law and firm mother at the same time. With my mum i can still push the knowledge through by telling her a about the books i read. For MIL it's impossible coz she will say she and her children survived through without all these. So if i am at MIL house, I'll just give FM to baby.

Hey PregnantSg thank you for the receipes. I have been trying to cook fish with papaya soup at least once a week. Also researched couple of soups using green papaya, groundnuts and such. During confinement, the soups did help a little but then now even drinking the soups my supply still 20-30ml only.

Sigh now my boy is have nasal congestion and have problems latching. Battling with his condition day and night. Can't latch and no time to pump. Finding it difficult to wake up especially the 3-6am pump.

Anyone tried Sacred tea or milk maid tea? How long did it take effect? Thinking of trying it too. On days such as these when baby have nasal congestion, hardly have time to cook soups.

 

[PregnantSg]

hello Gladdyheng,

no problem! glad that the recipes helped =)

 

[ace team]

Yep sacred tea has worked for me while nursing 2nd child but not 1st child. Give it a go. After drinking i got engorgement so be prepared to nurse yr boy frequently after taking 4 cups in a day, for 3 consecutive days.

Jia you! And dun give up! Upon hindsight i realize i suffered post natal depression cos of my mum, MIL and hubby bring unsupportive of me breastfeeding my 1st child. I cried often and was easily upset that i didnt have enuff milk. Anyway, i never did fully breastfeed my 1st child. But at least i still did half half for nearly 9mths...so take courage!

 

[lyra]

I think latching on baby is the best way to maintain milk supply during the first few months after child birth. I concentrated on latching most of the time to get baby to get used to latching and to stimulate breasts. Pumps are after all, not as good as baby's latching. Nature build us this way that our breasts will get stimulated by baby's sucking and release milk. I regretted pumping too much during the first few months while I also latch baby coz I developed over supply of milk.

Another thing is to read up a lot on breastfeeding to assure ourselves that we are doing right and thinking right when the well meaning but discouraging comments comes in from loved ones. Even better is to educate hubby to support breastfeeding. I read kelly mom website a lot before childbirth and during the first few weeks after.

And the third important thing is to be very firm. I told my loved ones that I will give baby full breast milk and if I see a tin of formula in the house, I will throw it down the rubbish chute, doesn't matter how expensive it is. Once there's no alternatives, all we can concentrate on is to latch and latch until the milk supply goes up. And it will really only stablise by 6 months (at least for me) so don't have to worry, once it stabilise, we've gone back to work so we can do the pumping and latching at night and hopefully that helps to sustain the milk supply.

 

[Gladdyheng]

Hi ace team, you mentioned that you had engorgement after drinking sacred tea. What are the symptoms? I drank for going to a week already... Breasts look full but when I pump, very little comes out. I tried to latch baby more in the day time but can't see how much he drinks and when I pump to see so little so not sure if I am also experiencing engorgement too. Breasts not painful but did see that my nipples are little hard. Baby a little more used to latching in afternoon now so will refuse to drink formula until I have breastfed him for half an hour at least then probably continue to throw a tantrum that I stopped. But then minutes later drink up the formula milk fully. So a little confused how much he actually took in.

Just wondering how does the milk supply increase? Like a little over the days or when it comes it's in a big supply. I have this thought that if it comes, it will suddenly become 100ml example... But no matter what I do seems to be increasing then decreasing. Just keep staying within 15-30ml per pump session. Going back to work in a week's time so afraid that I won't have the privelege to pump so much regularly than at home.

lyra when you say stabilize means it will stay that amount you build up to by then?

 

[ling.er]

My girl is 4 month, which she took about 450-500ML day time. Night time i will latch her to slp..
I pump out in day time after latch 50ML only then after part of that i pump 11am & 4Pm in office only have 120-150ML

But my friend tell me to pump every 3 hour so today i try & pump 9.30 / 1.30 & 4.30 - My first 2 pump can get 110ML.
Dun give up. Keep On going.

Hi mummies, I am a new mum to an 11weeks boyboy.
I have been trying to increase my milk supply but so far I am only able to pump 20-30ml. On lucky days maybe I get 40ml. I am doing mixed feeding as milk supply not enough. Usually latch on in the day, then bottle feed. Night time my hubby help bottle feed.
Tried several methods but rather frustrated coz still hope to be able to give my boy more BM.
1) took fenugreek 3tablets 3 times a day
2) drank groundnuts soup, papaya soup, cook sesame with rice, etc
3) eat oats and drink milo, try to drink lot of water
4) took gynae prescribed domperidone
5) tried to pump and latch every 3-5hourly but missed out one session at night coz really tired - tried for few days but supply decrease to 15ml per session instead! So in the end skipped the night pump and yield 20-30ml in the morning pump. Weird!

Really dunno what to do coz now my boy drink 120-150ml but my BM never seem to be able to catch up!

Any other methods to help increase BM fast? Goin back to work soon... Feel kinda paiseh to pump at work for only 20-30ml.

 

[lyra]

lyra when you say stabilize means it will stay that amount you build up to by then?

Yah, by that time, the amount of breastmilk will more or less be the amount ur baby usually takes it. Its demand and supply so how freq u pump or latch baby determines the supply. Around that time I get less engorgement too coz breastmilk stablisises to the amount my baby demands.

But then the amount we can pump out varies thorughout the day. Less milk/ slower milk flow in evening but faster in early morn. That's why my fren who's doing exclusively pumping will wake up early like 4am-6am to pump more milk.

 

[ace team]

Hi Gladdy,

I think the sacred tea works best if your baby is often sucking. I took it with my 1st child but becos there was little sucking there was little stimulation. So breast could seldom be emptied. Like u, I knew there was milk in there cos it felt full but it was jus so difficult to pump. Engorged breast felt like there was something hard inside or there is a sharp pain sometimes stinging. If u have never had it u wont want to get it cos u can be moaning in bed the entire day. Sometimes when you feel yr breast are full try massaging really thoroughly on both sides before pumping. That way more milk can come out. Your hard nipples do suggest though that there seems to be insufficient milk ducts for milk to come out. Or is yr baby sucking for too long? Do u feel milk come out for the whole 1/2 hr? It seems like yr baby may be taking yr breast as a pacifier to sleep. I faced the same problem with my first child so much so that i suffered a blocked duct and had to get a lactation consultant at thomson parentcraft centre to poke a needle at my nipple for milk to flow out. it was that bad...my baby was jus nipple sucking but little milk came out.

For now if yr breast feels full keep at it and continue to nurse frequently. Try avoiding the bottle unless necessary. Get yr baby to suck often so that you experience the 'let down' easily. Once this let down feeling is established then it will be easier to pump. Oh have you ever tried pumping for 15 min and get only 30ml, then go drink smtg or do smtg else then return to pump again? Sometimes that works for me. And you'd be surprise that you might get another 30-50ml of milk. Also using yr hand to manually squeeze out milk after each pump might yield another 10ml.

And with so much problem with pumping milk with my 1st child i didnt even bother pumping at work. This was my schedule if you are interested to try...
1. Nurse early in morning before leaving for work In this way u empty yr breast without having to pump
2. Return home from work with breasts full then pump a little. The foremilk is afterall not as good as hind milk.
3. Nurse at night and through the early morning.

Lastly i want to say that not all breast can be pumped with machine. I know my right breast cant. Although i know that breast has more milk glands inside and can produce more milk, i have hardly ever pumped out much from there. Only successful with my left breast So dun be discouraged. In such case i just have to get my baby to latch on to the right breast often and pump the milk from left side.

Press on Gladdy... and dun let the little milk that comes out affer pumping dishearten you. Lastly remember to get sufficient rest too and drink lots of health tonic, milk, tea and water cos little rest wd also mean little milk produced too. If too tired to carry jus lie in bed with yr baby and nurse. Get someone else to do the burping, etc while you rest. You need all the rest now esp since you will be gg back to work soon.

If you need more help and advice pls go ahead to ask. Id be glad to share more of my experiences. But nothing beats trusting yr motherly instincts...."Jia you"

 

[Gladdyheng]

Wow ace team I am hearing the stuff for the first time! But it does give me some insights... Yes I also suspect my boy may use me as a pacifier some times. If he is really drinking, I can feel his strong sucking and then struggling at my breasts like there is difficulty in getting what he wants. Other times he just suckles slowly then fall asleep going through the motion. Perhaps he never really learnt how to latch properly since birth and I didn't get the lactation consultant to help me correct it earlier.

if like you say there is insufficient milk ducts then do you know is there is any solution to that? I am trying to massage more and applying warm compress before I pump.

I do find that my right breast seems to yield lesser when I pump. I try to get baby to latch on right breast first each time hoping that I get more when I pump. But more than often I still don't get as much as the left breasts. Thanks for sharing your experience... Gave me hope that it may be that I do have milk but it just doesn't come out easily.

 

[ace team]

Hi Gladdy,

Yes, that is good to massage really well before nursing or pumping. As for little milk ducts, cant quiyr do anything now i think unless you feel the pain anywhere then it means the milk is stuck inside. If no pain then then it means yr milk ducts werent quite establised at the start ( i.e within the 1st week upon returning from hospital). For my 2nd child i actually shared my pain of wanting to breastfeed totally to my confinement nanny's agent. When she came with my nanny on the 1st day she said she will check if i have enuff milk ducts and started squeezing my breast so hard and use boiling hot water with towel on my breast. It was horrendously painful, worse than my delivery when i had no pain relief options! She said no choice had to really force the milk glands to be active and get the milk out. She said i shd have done this sort of massaging abt 1 week before delivery and to clearly all the dead skin at the nipple that is blocking the ducts. That was followed by a few more of such sessions that my nanny did on subsequent days.This was for my 2nd child. I wanted so badly to go on total breastfeeding that i really endured the pain.

As for my 1st child it was hard cos right from the start my baby didnt want to suck hard. Very lazy. So i ended up having to express whatever little milk i cd. I got so frustrated at not being able to pump out a lot that i got my husband to buy all the sizes for the medela breast funnel. From the smallest to the largest jus to see which size allows me to get the most milk out. my right breast never quite made it for any of the sizes ( i think one size did but i had to sit and pump for 1/2hr to 45min before a little milk comes out. Your baby is the best and most efficient pump to get milk out actually, that is if he is making the effort to suck.

Lastly if still not too satisfied with this 1st time experience with breastfeeding, have a 2nd child and do it right all over again. That was why i kind of wanted so badly to have a second child even though i didnt quite plan for it. My 1st and 2nd are jus 20mths apart. And remember if pregnant with second child, never wear wired bra during the whole 9mths and even after u deliver while breastfeeding.