Topic: Need help from the breastfeeding experts...
Boon
unregistered
posted
The current stress I'm under, coupled with Boo having a growth spurt, has resulted in a shortage of milk. Extra fluids and warm compresses are not helping. Is there something I can safely take to help? The only thing I'm taking now are progesterone-only BC pills, prenatal vitamins, and the occasional dose of Advil. Thanks.
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Boon
unregistered
posted
PS- I called my doctor's office already, but she's out until the 14th! Vacation, I guess.
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my youngest is 8, so it's been awhile since I was breastfeeding ... I do remember someone telling a story of drinking chocolate milk just before going to a movie and experiencing an embarrassment of riches, so to speak. I believe she used the work "spray" to describe the phenomenom. Posts: 2034 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
They do, and it even has local contact information with leaders' phone numbers. I, however, don't feel comfortable just calling a stranger up on the weekend and discussing boobage. I have no problem discussing it here where anyone and his brother could read it.
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Boon
unregistered
posted
Doc's entire office is closed. All I get is her answering service.
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Boon
unregistered
posted
Oh yeah...and I drink LOTS of milk, so adding chocolate milk probably wouldn't help.
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posted
I'd guess Ela will get online this evening after sunset, she usually does, if not then tomorrow, and she can offer excellent la leche advice.
Posts: 1990 | Registered: Feb 2001
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Boon
unregistered
posted
Have another question too. Not in the same vein, though.
Have to go to court on the 23rd for custody stuff. Am on-demand breastfeeding. Would it be best to try to express enough to leave him home (not easy considering my current situation) or just plan to feed him during proceedings?
Of course, I'd feed him right before, and hope he slept through everything. But we all know Murphy's Law, right?
So, can the judge order him out of the courtroom? Would it be out of line for my attorney to ask for a recess so I could nurse? Anyone have any experience with nursing in a courtroom? Any advice at all?
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posted
I don't know how you'd feel about doing this, but when I had a milk shortage my sister-in-law told me to drink a dark beer after the baby had gone to sleep for the night. It was suggested to her by her dr. - something about the hops (sp?) makes you produce more milk. It did help, believe it or not.
posted
You can get a mother's milk herbal tea at a health food store. Also I've heard eating oatmeal helps. Nursing your baby very frequently will also help increase your supply. Someone else posted links to breastfeeding.com; you can go to the boards there or at nursingmom.net and ask your supply questions and your courtroom questions and most likely get good answers. Good luck!
Posts: 3 | Registered: Apr 2004
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You can buy it in tea form at the HFS, I used Alvita brand. I darnk it like water and it worked!! Good beer works too, but if you are AT ALL prone to yeast/thrush, don't do it.
posted
Boon -- CALL the La Leche League representative that you looked up! This is EXACTLY what they are there for -- anytime day or night! I couldn't have made it through stumbling times with my firstborn baby without them. Really - they care. Call!
Sorry I don't have any personal advice/experience to help you with it -- I always had a painful surplus of milk, never a shortage.
posted
Milk supply is stimulated by allowing the baby to suckle. The more suckling = the more demand = more milk production. (A great lesson in supply and demand economics!)
Do not substitute feedings by breast with bottle.
Drink plenty of fluids (plain water, or spritzed witha little lemon) and rest frequently (if possible.)
As suggested above, a dark beer really will help the production. I met a woman that nursed ten children, frequently toddlers concurrently with infants. She swore by her nightly intake of popcorn and a beer.
You can breastfeed anywhere. It is your right. It is not against the law. If you feel it more appropriate to take along a blanket or shawl to cover up with, then do so.
I would venture to say that you are a wee bit stressed out - and that can affect milk supply. Do your best to relax. The mother's milk tea will have herbs to help you do so. Remember to steep the tea in boiling water for a minimum of 5 minutes before drinking to allow the herbs to diffuse in the water.
Good luck and hugs! Posts: 5609 | Registered: Jan 2003
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quote:Milk supply is stimulated by allowing the baby to suckle. The more suckling = the more demand = more milk production. (A great lesson in supply and demand economics!)
Do not substitute feedings by breast with bottle.
Drink plenty of fluids and rest frequently (if possible.)
This is excellent advice.
Frequent breastfeeding will increase your supply, especially if there is a growth spurt. It takes a couple days for supply to catch up to demand so just nurse more frequently.
Beer has not really been shown to increase milk supply. You also don't need to drink cow's milk to make breast milk. Water is the best fluid to keep yourself hydrated; I used to drink "shpritzers" - juice with seltzer - when I nursed my children.
Stress can inhibit the milk letdown. Get yourself and the baby comfortable and do something to relax yourself when you sit down to nurse. That may help the milk to flow more easily.
As far as nursing in the courtroom, that really depends on local rules and judges. I would suggest you ask a local La Leche League Leader for input on this.
Don't be afraid to call a local La Leche League Leader at any time of the day, even a weekend. We are all volunteers and are used to getting calls at all times of the day or night - I personally let my answering machine pick up if I am not able to take a call, and call back later, or will refer the mother to another Leader if the need is urgent and it's a bad time for me to talk. So PLEASE call them - it's okay.
Hope everything works out, let me know if you have more questions, I would be happy to help out.
Posts: 5771 | Registered: Nov 2000
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I feel a lot better posting this reply now that the experts have weighed in since I am not an expert. However, I asked my wife to read the thread and she had some insights. AS an US Air Force pilot she is breastfeeding our second child, 10-months now, and has some experience with each of your dilemmas.
1. Supply. As stated above her experience is that in 24-48 hours supply will catch up. But...
Quoth she: "I feel like she just sucked me inside out" Quoth I: "I'm very sorry to hear that honey" (What am I supposed to say?--not my best extemporaneous moment)
2. Breastfeeding anywhere. There are many reasons that we'd prefer to always use the breast but she is not able to take the baby with her to work on the aircraft. Darn the luck. If you end up having to compromise due to the local court rules, we recommend that you try the bottle, with expressed milk, soon. It took some time for each of our babies to adapt, and the last thing you want is to call back to your care provider to find out how your child is doing only to find that the child won't take the bottle, is starving, and inconsolable. This response makes for very stressed out mommies, believe me.
We were counseled, and it seemed to work, to have dad or another care provided attempt to bottle feed away from sight and smell of mom.
Best of luck, Boon. We're all rooting for you.
Posts: 270 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
If push comes to shove, and someone has to give the baby a bottle (preferably expressed breastmilk): Hopefully the baby will take the bottle. You may want to let whoever will watch the baby give the baby one bottle or so before the actual day, but it's not required. Chances are excellent that the baby will not take the bottle from you, or if you are in the room. My mother ran into the situation in which my son wouldn't take a bottle of expressed milk that I left for him, so she took the cover off the bottle and gave it to him on a teaspoon. It's slow, but it worked, in a pinch.
Posts: 5771 | Registered: Nov 2000
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quote:Beer has not really been shown to increase milk supply. You also don't need to drink cow's milk to make breast milk. Water is the best fluid to keep yourself hydrated; I used to drink "shpritzers" - juice with seltzer - when I nursed my children.
Thanks, Ela! I forgot to make it clear that the beer is effective in helping the relaxation process for the tired and worn-out mommies with much to do! Which then helps let-down and milk flow. You are also quite right that cow's milk is not required, and in the case of a lactose-intolerant baby, can be counter-productive.
Rubble! I love it! I was roofing when I got pregnant and continued in the "traditonal masculine" fields while working through my college degree - and nursed my child through his toddler years. One of my favorite Smithsonian covers is of a woman construction worker sitting on a steel girder, wearing a hard hat, steel lunch box sitting next to her - and her ursing baby attached to her breast.
Boon - you're doing a great job! Hang in there! I wish I had had a forum like this to come to with my questions, because it was really hard for me to ask in person, too. Unlike an in-person conversation or consultation, the computer screen can be turned off. Posts: 5609 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
I should have made myself more clear. Beer is not really recommended anymore by breastfeeding experts, neither for increasing milk supply nor for relaxing the mother to help milk let down more easily.
quote:Drinking beer used to be recommended to nursing mothers to help them relax and increase their milk supply. Research studies have shown otherwise, however. In studies comparing alcoholic vs. non-alcoholic beer, babies whose mothers drank the alcoholic beer nursed more often but actually drank less milk.
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