I know there are lots here (including myself!) who are trying to increase milk supply. Please share what really helped you! If there is something that helped that I don't have here, let me know and I'll add it.
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For me, adding pump sessions and power pumping helped. Although it was more to maintain the supply I had when things started to take a downward spin. I was never able to really increase it - just stop it from decreasing!
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Drinking more water. I drink water all day long and overnight while I'm nursing. I aim for 80-100oz/day. So far I haven't had to use any other supplements...when it starts to dip I up my water intake and it helps. I'm sure more sleep would help, too, but at this point there's not much I can do about that one!
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Same as @Adira. Supplements never worked for me. I also would notice a dip after especially sleep deprived nights, so I tried to maximize sleep, though I wasn't really in control of that.
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I agree about sleep - can't always control it. I added it because that is the one thing that I've consistently noticed makes a difference in my morning pump session. Supplements seemed to make me feel fuller but I don't notice increased pump output. And everyone talks about looking at pics and video of their babies to pump more but that never seems to make any difference for me.
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Fenugreek and increased water have helped me.
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I got no sleep and make tons of milk! (Just saying, I wish I could have had more sleep but stress was high and sleep was low.)
Food. For me, it is connected to my calories. I also would pump after nursing. I drink tons of water. I don't diet.
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Added hand expression/massage based on another thread.
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More calories!! I didn't realize that until too late though
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@Greentea: @swurlygurl: Added more calories.
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For me enough calories was key. I still lost 20lbs BF but I'm still eating like a horse. Also enough liquids. The one time I had had a stomach bug drinking lactation tea for a couple of days helped.
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The thing that worked the very best was using my manual pump for a few minutes after every feed for 2-3 days in a row. Is that the same as power pumping???
I could not diet or exercise while pumping - I noticed huge production drops if I tried. Eating a lot of nutritionally dense, fatty, and dairy-based foods seemed to be good.
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Food for sure! Like, 5000 calories a day. She seems to need it!
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Water and domperidone
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Insane amounts of water and high calories. At least 100 oz daily. Milk is made from liquid!!!
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I power pumped twice per day for approx an hour and also pumped after ever feed for 15min. I also fed on demand and my nursling fed approx every 90 minutes (until 1yr old) to maintain my supply
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Mothers milk tea and massaging while pumping!
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At the height of it, I've used Domperidone, Fenugreek, tea, lactation cookies, and then ate/drank like crazy. With that being said, I'm honestly not sure any of it did much good (I don't pump so I can't really measure output). I went from having to formula supplement from birth-6 weeks to totally EBF and having her gain awesomely, and I've since dropped the tea and cookies, and majorly cut the Dom (in the process of cutting completely), and I haven't noticed any major change...so who knows!
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@babypugs: yes! 5000 calories!
And no atkins, I mean atkins with vegetables I mean coughpaleocough.
Seriously though- healthy carbs and fatty foods like hummus and like fish and hemp and all manners of complete proteins, tons of protein and veggies and dairy.
I also feed on demand - she ate every hour and a half sometimes every hour and I never went more than three without pumping or feeding. In the early days I woke her and fed her every two hours then pumped after.
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MOTN nursing/pumping. Once we started bedsharing, my supply was ample.
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I EP so I have always been able to see what I pump. I always had an oversupply until after LO was 6 months. Before 6 months I still pumped overnight (pumped twice overnight until LO was 3 months).
After 6 months a chain of events made my supply decrease almost by half. I dropped down to 4 pumps a day and was fine but then I got a cold/sinus infection for 3 weeks that decreased my supply because I was eating less. Before that I was eating over 3500 cals a day. Then I got a stomach bug and I couldn't eat at all for 2 days.
I dropped from pumping 45 oz a day or more to 25 oz a day.
I took More Milk Plus for a couple of weeks and increased my calories again and got my supply back up to about 28-30 oz a day which barely covered LOs feeds.
Now she takes on 25 oz a day and I stopped the supplements and I'm back to producing 25 oz a day. I recently cut calories for 2 weeks to start losing weight but noticed a drop again so I'm back to eating like a pig for at least another month till LO is 11 months and I can hopefully safely start weaning.
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Calories and water for me! I can't believe how much I eat sometimes.
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I have chronic low supply & nothing ever got me to a full supply no matter how hard I worked. Looking back I actually think I am one of those unlucky people for whom fenugreek suppresses their supply because it got better when I stopped. Next time I won't waste my money on tons of supplements & will just focus on nursing constantly right away, and pumping if need be.
What has worked best for me was lots of calories, almond milk, oatmeal & lactation cookies. I don't pump anymore but I am less full when I don't drink almond milk I don't notice a difference if I don't drink water or if I have a lot, but I am not a typical supply mom.
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Mine seems to be pretty tied in to how much I eat. I eat an ungodly amount of calories, I wouldn't even want to add it all up. Most days I have like three breakfasts of varying sizes, then lunch then a snack then a healthy dinner.
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Pumping more, more water, eating more and not skipping meals, and also drinking 100% juice like juicy juice apple juice it's my favorite and drinking more milk
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Lactation tea, lactation cookies, meal replacement shakes / liquid breakfast drinks in between meals - basically HEAPS of calories! Night nursing helped too.
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This is what's helped me so far:
- Drinking at least 100 oz of water at day
- Drinking a lactation drink (50:50 coconut water and almond milk, plus a little cacao powder)
- Pump after morning and afternoon nursing sessions
- More Milk Plus
- Naps / sleeping
- Lots of skin to skinI was worried that pumping in between feedings would mean less milk for the baby when she was ready to nurse, but that's far from the truth. Even if you think you'll only have half an ounce after a feeding, pump anyway. The stimulation will trigger more milk production and you'd be surprised by how quickly your supply is replenished. Start off with one pumping session in the morning, and gradually increase over the next few days the number of pumping sessions. You'll see that you will have a slight oversupply if you don't pump. Patience and persistence is key!
Also, napping and sleeping are huge. I really think something about letting your body rest and recharge does wonders for milk production. I always woke up with noticeably firmer breasts after a good nap. Drink at least a tall glass of water before you nap.
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sleep+water
during AF time: calc+mag pills, fenugreek tabs, MMP liquid
power pumping helped the most
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