Increasing your milk supply

How low is your milk supply?

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Increasing your milk supply when you are exclusively breastfeeding

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One of the main reasons for a low milk supply is usually not a supply problem from moms side, but an increase in demand from your little one, also known as a growth spurt.

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Is your baby around 3, 6, 9, 12 weeks or 6 or 9 months old? Did she overnight start drinking hourly and is fussy as the breast? If there’s not a latching problem, then she’s most probably going through a growth spurt. Some growth spurts are minor increases in volume that she requires, but some are quite intense and can leave you feeling drained (both emotionally and milk wise). Fortunately this isn’t a major milk supply problem, so it’s time to take a breather.

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If your baby isn’t going through a growth spurt, but you have hit a dip in your supply (may it be due to missed feeds, menstruation or career stress etc.), the solution to getting your supply back up is identical to a growth spurt.

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The optimal solution to increasing your supply:

1. Never, ever skip a feed.

2. Ensure that you breastfeed or pump for 15-20min every 2-3 hours.

3. Order a box of lactation bars. You can “double-up” by taking two bars per day (one every 12 hours) for 3 days and thereafter only one per day until your supply has been restored.

 

Order your Honey & Nut Lactation bars here.

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Weaning from formula

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There’s 3 typical top-up scenarios that I come across when helping moms to start weaning from formula:

1. Moms that replace one or more of the breastfeeding feeds with a full formula feed (100ml+) without offering the breast first or pump in that time slot.

2. Moms that only give formula during the day and only breastfeed at night.

3. Moms that breastfeeds every single feed first and then offer minor top-ups (40-80ml) afterwards.

 

All of them are diminishing your milk supply even further, and contribute to falling deeper into the formula top-up trap. Your milk supply is based on a demand system. The less breast milk you remove by either nursing or pumping, the less milk your body will produce until it doesn’t produce anything at all anymore.

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Here’s how to correctly give formula top-ups while weaning at the same time:

1. Never, ever skip a nursing or pumping session and replace it with a bottle.

2. Ensure that you nurse or pump every 2-3 hours.

3. Ensure that you have at least 1 lactation bar per day to stimulate your milk supply. You can have 2 per day to see faster results.

4. Always offer breast first. Offer only one side per feeding session and don’t try to offer both.

5. Offer a small amount of formula (60-100ml depending on how low your supply is, and not a full feed) when he’s still hungry after the nursing session.

6. Put him back on the same breast offered in 4. immediately after his bottle. If he doesn’t want to nurse again, pump that breast for 10-15min.

7. 2-3 hours after 6., offer the alternative breast than the one offered in 4.

8. Offer 7ml less formula than given in 5.

9. Put him back on the alternate breast or pump for 10-15min.

10. Repeat step 3-9. every 2-3 hours, while giving 7ml of formula less than what was offered 2-3 hours ago until you’ve reached 20-30ml of formula top-ups. By now your supply should be up and you can continue to breastfeed and/or pump exclusively without anymore top-ups.

 

Order your Honey & Nut Lactation bars here.