Does Pumping decrease milk supply

Cool discussion! Ladies, I think BF is just as tough as pumping so we are all in the same boat

My story was the same - emergency c-section followed by a 5 day stay in the NICU for my son where he was fed formula. My milk also came in only 5 days later so he had to be on formula and got hooked on the bottle. Combined with my flat nipples, not a situation conducive to BF. I took him to the lactation consultant when he was 2 weeks old and she gave me a nipple shield to help him latch. We still practice BF twice a day with the breast shield and he sometimes drinks upto 50ml with it, but you should see the expressions on his face if I try to BF without the breast shield

My hospital has a BF support group , planning to take him there soon.

Yep bottle feeding is a lot of work, what with bottle washing, bottle making and measuring, sterilizing and then feeding. But I have my mom to help so that makes life much easier.

My LO also has milk allergy so no formula for him so that's my extra motivation to keep him on breast milk, latch or no latch

I hope my employer is able to provide me with a place to pump when I go back. It is required by law here so hope that will help me convince them

My tips for increasing milk supply and general food guidelines for first few months of BF


1. Eat a tablespoon of crushed/ground raw jeera 6 times a day. I gulp mine down with water.

2. Soak fenugreek seeds (methi seeds) overnight and drink the water , or you can get fennugreek capsules from GNC

3. Pump often. I am a bit lazy in this dept, the most I have ever managed is 7 in a day, generally I do 6.

4. Take a washcloth, wet it well and heat in the microwave for 45 seconds. Let it cool down a bit and then wipe your breasts with the warm washcloth before pumping or feeding. Better yet, take a warm bath before pumping.

5. Sit in a hot room while pumping. The heat makes your glands "sweat" out more milk.

6. Eat lots of protein and drink lots of warm water. whey protein shakes , rice protein powder or egg protein powder, all can be found at whole foods and amazon.

7. Take a prenatal vitamin, calcium supplement and a fish oil supplement.

8.When you start having more milk than LO consumes, freeze the excess milk so that you can have some on hand when her demand increases or when you go back to work. You can freeze breastmilk and use it upto 4 months later. The best breastmilk storage bags in the market I have found to be are the lansinoh brand. You can get them at walmart or www.diapers.com. I put 4 of the stored bags inside a ziploc bag and put them in the freezer.

Some Food Tips

9. Do not eat any daal except mung daal. Toor dal and chana daal will cause excessive gassiness. My mom only fed me torai, lauki, spinach and carrots for the first 40 days. Now I have started eating an apple or pear a day. Before that, no raw foods. I ate only chappatis or khichdi , plain rice I only started eating after 40 days got over. No spices in the food except salt and turmeric. For breakfast I ate sprouted cooked mung beans or omelettes, for lunch and dinner it was chappati, daal and some veggie. For snacks I ate almonds, protein shakes, upma (no tomatoes or onions or mustard seeds) and raagi flour dosas.

10. Don't eat any cold foods. All should be piping hot. Don't eat junk food, soda, juice etc.

Originally Posted by pmahensa

My hospital has a BF support group , planning to take him there soon.


I hope my employer is able to provide me with a place to pump when I go back. It is required by law here so hope that will help me convince them

One of the perks of living in California. If it's required by law, then he SHOULD give you a place to pump.

Raj

Happy to see lots of disucssion going on this. I am BF him in the nights and day time I am pumping and giving him (so that it will help me even if i go to job back again). I give formula once in day so that he will keep used to that too. I dont have too much of milk supply so even if my little once increases his intake or my supply decreases he will easily transition to formula. And my milk supply is bit low then his needs now so once forumula per day is balancing it.

hope the tips discussed of food intake while bf will increase my supply.

-AMPU

Great thread, Raj, another sticky idea!

Ampu, Oatmeal is another thing that helped me. I had a midmorning snack of oatmeal and banana. I ended up eating everything, no Pathiyam Diet for me (Trust me my mom tried and gave up because I was constantly hungry on the pathiyam diet.) Get a drink of something healthy or water while you nurse or pump. I had this urge to drink something immediately after let down at everysingle feed.

Ampu, I suggest you hold back on the formula till your supply stabilises; which it does around the 6 week mark anyways. Even one bottle of formula a day will get your supply down at this point. We had a preemie who did not latch great and were asked to give him preemie formula till he got to be 3 kg, which he did roughly around the 2 month mark. We gave him 1 oz of fomula. It took me two months to get my supply up because of that. If you do want to give him formula for the taste, then pump during the formula feed. Afterall, breastfeeding is not an all or nothing process.

I would also suggest pumping after breastfeeds for say around 10 min to help with the supply. Your supply will not tank if you follow your child's cue in feeding. I am so happy things are working out for you. When do you need to return to work?

Originally Posted by tikka

Great thread, Raj, another sticky idea!

I agree, Krithika. The thread is definitely a 'sticky' material.

Raj