Lactation help...

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

I am a new mom to a BEAUTIFUL 4 month old baby girl and am having

trouble keeping my milk supply up. She has a slight tongue-tie,

diagnosed by our wonderful lactation consultant, which prevents her

from pulling milk as easily as she could (it also causes continuously

sore nipples, further irritated by the amount of pumping I have to

do!). She is exclusively breastfed & nurses best when my breasts are

really full & I compress & massage to help her. I've been taking

fenugreek but want to come off it, I don't like smelling like maple

syrup, and I've had to take increasing amounts of it to maintain the

same supply. I know pumping helps, but I can only hang out at home

topless pumping & nursing for so long. Does anyone have any ideas?

I'd love to try homeopathy but our ins. doesn't cover it & I can't

afford it right now.

Thanks!

Sarah

[Guest guest]

Hi,

 

I've used Traditional Medicinals Mother's Milk Tea. Tastes good too!

Red Raspberry tea is another or combine the two. I think Red Raspberry

is in the Mother's milk, can't remember. Yes, Homeopathy would work,

but I know money can be an issue. Although sometimes there are

Homeopath's willing to take payments. I would suggest it because

possibly since the baby is so young her issues can be resolved through

you. That is usually how it works when they are young. That is all I

can think of now.

 

Best wishes and just keep going things will work out. I had the most

horrible time with my first, but once you get through it and don't give

up, things will work out!

 

Lisa

 

 

 

 

Sarah Whiteman wrote:

>

> Hi all,

> I am a new mom to a BEAUTIFUL 4 month old baby girl and am having

> trouble keeping my milk supply up. She has a slight tongue-tie,

> diagnosed by our wonderful lactation consultant, which prevents her

> from pulling milk as easily as she could (it also causes continuously

> sore nipples, further irritated by the amount of pumping I have to

> do!). She is exclusively breastfed & nurses best when my breasts are

> really full & I compress & massage to help her. I've been taking

> fenugreek but want to come off it, I don't like smelling like maple

> syrup, and I've had to take increasing amounts of it to maintain the

> same supply. I know pumping helps, but I can only hang out at home

> topless pumping & nursing for so long. Does anyone have any ideas?

> I'd love to try homeopathy but our ins. doesn't cover it & I can't

> afford it right now.

> Thanks!

> Sarah

>

>

[Guest guest]

Hi Sarah,

 

Congratulations on your new treasure.  I had to do some reading up and research

myself while breastfeeding my little ones.  Some of the suggestions made my my

midwife are: oatmeal, wheatgerm, carrot juice, irishmoss (a type of seaweed we

use in the Caribbean to make a drink), herbs: blessed thistle, fenugreek,

alflafa, fennel, lemon grass...which by the way are all in the mother's milk

tea.  The red raspberry is excellent to aid with healing and is has great

minerals and nutrients.

 

Here is a good read on relactation from a website you will find useful:

 

would like to relactate in order to breastfeed my 10-month-old daughter. Is

this unreasonable? She never latched well as an infant, and I ended up

exclusively pumping for six weeks. I ended up in the hospital at six weeks and

was on some drugs that did not allow me to continue giving her my milk, and I

gave up. I've felt guilty about it ever since, and now I am interested in seeing

if we can nurse again. I would be interested in extended breastfeeding, since

she's already 10-months-old.

 

You and your daughter certainly didn't have an easy time of it in her early

months. And what a blow, after all that effort to keep her fed exclusively on

your milk, to be told you'd have to stop even the pumping because of your

medication. It's no wonder you are sad about what might have been if the

circumstances had been different.

 

Could you start breastfeeding again at this point? Theoretically, it's possible,

but there are some ifs, ands, and buts.

 

I'm assuming that what you are yearning for most is the kind of relationship you

see between nursing mothers and their babies. Mother's milk, while not

unimportant at this point, does not have the same prominent role it had when

your daughter was still a young infant.

 

There are a number of things you can do to duplicate the interaction you are

observing between other mothers and their older breastfed babies. At this age,

your baby is likely to be an interested explorer of the world around her, and

this is as it should be. But like most babies, she will come back to her base

(you) repeatedly for reassurance, and sometimes she'll just get fed up with the

effort it takes to grow up and want to stay near you. These are the times when

she (and you) will most appreciate close contact. If she doesn't already sleep

in your bed, you might want to consider it. Rocking or holding her until she has

fallen asleep are appropriate ways of easing her into sleep. Bathing with her is

another way to have closer physical contact, and she is now old enough to really

enjoy splashing around in the tub with you. With a tie-on baby carrier you can

carry your daughter close to you when you go about your work in the house or on

errands. She'll probably be happier at this age being carried on your hip so she

can combine being close with observing the world around her. If she is getting a

bottle, try holding her close to your breast while she is drinking. Her

curiosity will likely lead her—at some point—to explore that interesting bit of

you she is leaning against. A number of older babies we know of have gone to the

breast rather easily when they have been given an opportunity to explore it.

 

Bringing her into contact with other babies and small children who are

breastfeeding can also be helpful. Babies are great mimics, and they often learn

best from their age-mates. We have also seen older babies who first figured out

what to do with their mothers' breasts when they saw other children

breastfeeding.

 

What you are trying to do with all of these strategies is to make being in touch

a pleasure for your daughter and an enhancement to your relationship. If, once

she is feeling comfortable with this increased contact, you want to see if you

can wean her from the bottle to the breast, you will want to proceed slowly.

Here it might work best to offer her a chance to suck at the breast when she is

sleeping or near-sleep. In this state, some babies—but not all?can more easily

call up their instinct to suckle the breast.

 

Some mothers have used a multistep process to encourage their older babies to

get acquainted with the breast. This process includes: giving the bottle at the

breast; moving to threading a fine tube through the bottle nipple to a nursing

supplement device (thus eliminating the bottle); then to placing the nipple over

the breast; and then to exchanging the bottle nipple for a nipple shield. The

nipple shield is eliminated at some point?also in stages?and the baby is then

suckling at the breast directly with or without a nursing supplement. For a more

detailed look at this you can visit www.stillunterstuetzung.de. The site owner,

M & #65533;rta Gu & #65533;th-Gumberger, developed this method as she encouraged her

third child?who arrived at 10 months?to learn how to breastfeed.

 

So, in light of all we now know about relactation and induced lactation, it is

not unreasonable to consider relactating for a 10-month-old, or even for a

considerably older baby, however, it is not the easiest project in the world,

and it does depend on the baby's willingness to get involved. If you keep your

eye on maintaining the good relationship you already have with your daughter,

watch her for clues and introduce other practices that enhance the close contact

between you, you will create a win-win situation regardless of what your little

girl decides about breastfeeding.

 

Elizabeth Hormann

I abundantly produce breastmilk, so I store lots of if it. My daughter is now

two months and I have about 70 bags of breastmilk in the freezer (most of them

are over five ounces each). I also have ten bags of colostrum frozen. My husband

accidentally left the freezer open over night (for about 14 hours). Do you think

it is OK to give my daughter the milk and /or colostrum?

 

What a dilemma! & #65533; Mother's milk and colostrum are liquid gold. & #65533;

It's hard to even think about discarding them, but if they have been thawed they

need to be used within 24 hours. & #65533; Thawed milk should not be refrozen.

 

Depending on the type of freezer you have, it might just be possible that some

of the bags did not thaw out while the freezer door was open. & #65533; If they

are still solidly frozen they can be kept. The rule of thumb is: Solidly frozen

milk will keep three to four months in a separate freezer unit that is part of a

refrigerator, & #65533; and at least six months in a deep freeze if the

temperature stays at 0 & #65533; F (-19 & #65533; C) all the time.

 

Rather than discard thawed milk that still smells fresh, you can keep it a day

or two in the refrigerator and add it to your baby's bath and to yours. & #65533;

It's wonderful for the skin. & #65533; More adventuresome families might like to

try using it in cooking instead of bought milk.

 

As disappointing as it is to lose all that milk, & #65533; the good news is that

having collected more than 10 quarts of milk in two months, you can quickly have

a good supply stashed away again—or if you'd like to reduce the excess a bit you

can slow down on the pumping.

 

 

--

 

I am nursing my one year old son. & #65533; Just a month ago my period resumed.

Since then, I've have noticed a drastic reduction in the milk produced while

pumping at work. & #65533; What can I do to get the supply back up so I can

continue nursing my son? I'm afraid I will run out of milk for his caregiver to

feed him while I work Monday-Thursday, nine to five. I have no problem with

supply while I'm actually nursing, just a problem with the supply while pumping

at work. Could it be stress related? (I'm divorcing) Could it be related to

birth control pills (I just started taking them one month ago but since the milk

decreased, I decided to stop taking them as of today). & #65533; Any

suggestions? & #65533; I do not want to stop nursing or providing him with milk

while I'm at work.

 

What a lucky little boy your son is still getting his mother's milk at a year

whether you are at home or away! & #65533; I think you can stop worrying about

whether you can continue to breastfeed. & #65533; As long as he is happy to go to

breast and you have no supply problem when he is nursing he won't wean for lack

of milk.

 

Pumping is a very different process to feeding at the breast. & #65533; It's hard

to cozy up to even the best of pumps and many women find that their let-down

doesn't work quite as well when pumping as it does when they are

breastfeeding. & #65533; This is especially true for long-term pumping.

 

Stress can inhibit the release of oxytocin and make it more difficult to let

your milk down. & #65533; Stress can be on-going (global) or short-term

(situation-related). & #65533; Since you apparently have no problem with your

let-down when your little boy is at the breast, it is unlikely that the on-going

stress of your divorce is causing the difficulty.

 

Progestin-only oral contraceptives, should not (in theory) & #65533; interfere

with milk production. & #65533; Nevertheless the World health Organization (WHO)

recommends waiting for six or eight weeks after birth, until breastfeeding is

well established, before starting progestin-only birth control. & #65533; This is

generally considered to be compatible with breastfeeding but some mothers

continue to report that their milk supply declines when they use this kind of

oral contraceptive.

 

Combination (progestin and estrogen) pills have frequently been associated with

reduced milk production. & #65533; For this reason, WHO recommends waiting at

least six months after birth to start on this kind of oral contraceptive. Even

the low-dose combination " mini-pill " may cause a decline in milk production and

shorten breastfeeding—especially if milk production has already been on the low

side.

 

If you want to continue providing your son with your milk for the times you are

away, you might consider doing some of the pumping at home and freezing the

milk. & #65533; Some babies don't mind if you pump on one side while they are at

the other breast—but expect a one-year old to be very curious about what's

happening on that other breast. & #65533; If he objects or it interferes with

breastfeeding, you'll want to find some other times to pump.

 

Having a second look at the conditions for pumping at work might yield some

useful insights.

 

Do you have enough time to relax, have your milk let down and empty the breasts?

Are you able to pump at least twice in an eight hour work day?

Do you have enough privacy?

Do you have enough support from your employer and your colleagues?

 

Sometimes the support a nursing mother has had for pumping at the work place

erodes as the baby gets older. & #65533; Have you been able to present your case

in a way that your employer sees the advantages for the company or institution

where you work? & #65533; There is good research indicating that breastfeeding

mothers miss much less work time because their babies are ill less often.

 

Finally you might want to re-evaluate how much milk your baby needs when you are

not at home. & #65533; If he is eating a good variety of other foods, he might do

fine over the day with less breast milk than you have been providing up to now.

Most babies at a year need about 500 ml (about a pint) of mother's milk a

day. & #65533; He can easily get that breastfeeding in the evening, during the

night and first thing in the morning. During the day he could have a cup of

water to drink with his meals. & #65533; In the three days a week you are with him

all day, he can make up any nursing and in-arms time he has missed.

 

Breastfeeding mothers who are employed, nursing older babies or raising their

children alone need quite a bit of support in Western societies because their

situations are still a bit unusual. & #65533; You are doing all three! Your local

La Leche League or other breastfeeding support group may offer special group

meetings for mothers in one or more of the situations you are in. & #65533; And

for sheer delight and inspiration, you will want to read La Leche League's book

for working mothers: Hirkani's Daughters " ; Women Who Scale Modern Mountains to

Combine Breastfeeding and Working.

 

 

 

 http://www.mothering.com/sections/experts/hormann-archive.html#relactating

 

 

Good luck.

 

Regards

 

Kameela

 

Yes, Mother. I can see you are flawed. You have not hidden it. That is your

greatest gift to me.

- Alice Walker