Supplements required for breastfeeding mommy?

Hi all,

I am the mom of an active 3yr old DD and 8weeks old DS. For my DD, when she was 2.5months old,i got chikungunya... after which i was sooo weak that my breast milk supply was too low. Though i pumped, was on good nutrional diet, somehow i cudnt increase the supply then. I guess my stress was the culprit then.

Now for my DS, I would like to BF him till his 1yr atleast. So far am ex-BFg him. But i sometimes feel there is no energy in store, if i manage my DD for abt 4-5hrs, and feed/change DS too...

Am wondering if i need any extra supplements from now on, so that i dont loose my breast milk supply in the later stages...

Now am on mother's horlicks one time a day, amway protien powder, half tsp once. Amway cal/mg once a day.

Eating - am on good veggie diet so far,but not sure if i wud get time to cook an elaborate veggie meal in the future too... kids wud take up all my time...

Need your suggestion ladies... :)

Pon, I had a preemie and I was asked to take Galact or Lactare for increasing my supply. They are galactagogues and work to increase your supply just like domperidone does. Shatavari or asparagus racemosus also is a galactagogue and am told it is available as a plant and works just as good. Hope that helps

Originally Posted by tikka

Pon, I had a preemie and I was asked to take Galact or Lactare for increasing my supply. They are galactagogues and work to increase your supply just like domperidone does. Shatavari or asparagus racemosus also is a galactagogue and am told it is available as a plant and works just as good. Hope that helps

Tikka,

Thankyou for the reply :)
Also, I wanted to ask one more thing.
Say i feed my DS around 1am and if he sleeps well without waking up for feeds till 7am, what should I do, with respect to my supply?

Should i pump inbetween, say by 4 or 5am or let my LO latch on whenever he gets up? I ask this because breast milk works in demand-supply mode na, thats why... Am afraid, if I leave it till he wakes up and latches on, after 7-8hrs, the demand is less, so the supply would become low :(

Another query, if I pump inbetween just to keep up my supply well, what should I do with the expressed milk? Mom says I can drink that coz its nutritious :)

Tikka,

with your permission....

Latha, i believe we are not supposed to leave the child sleep without feeding for more than 3 hours... or atleast that is what I do... We need to wake up the child and feed them , even if they are sleepy...
yes, if you dont feed for more than 6-7 hours, your breasts will get engorged...and this may affect the supply...
Expressed milk (in a sterilised container) can always be fed to the baby.. Not heard anything about drinking the milk ourselves...

Krithika can give you more advice...
Vidyaa

I think its advisable to continue prenatal vitamins throughout breastfeeding.

Is that what you are doing still Vidya! I hope I have not given you that impression.
It is essential to get the newborn i.e. less than one month to feed 10 to 12 times a day, but a lot of them do well without you having to wake them up. I would think after the first month you can now let your baby feed on demand. Sleeping 6 hours or so is a sign of sleep maturity in a two month/three month old. It is a good thing. And your baby sleeping 6 hours wont do anything to your supply, your body will self regulate. The first few days you may feel some discomfort, you can actually express the milk, store it in the fridge/freezer and use it another time when you need a break or when you are going to be away from your baby...

Originally Posted by VidyaaJ

Tikka,

with your permission....

LOL at that. I sound like quite the tyrant, muahahaha!

Originally Posted by tikka

It is essential to get the newborn i.e. less than one month to feed 10 to 12 times a day, but a lot of them do well without you having to wake them up. I would think after the first month you can now let your baby feed on demand. Sleeping 6 hours or so is a sign of sleep maturity in a two month/three month old. It is a good thing. And your baby sleeping 6 hours wont do anything to your supply, your body will self regulate.

Tikka,
Even I was waking up and feeding my LO every 2hrs, in his first month.But nowadays, since he is a fussy baby w.r.t sleeping, once he starts sleeping after 12-13hrs of being awake and tired, I dont feel like waking him up. I let him sleep. But always had a doubt whether there is any harm :))
Thanks tikka, your words comforted me.

The first few days you may feel some discomfort, you can actually express the milk, store it in the fridge/freezer and use it another time when you need a break or when you are going to be away from your baby...

Whenever i feel am engorged, i pump, say after 6hrs or so,but i feed him directly once he wakes up. And the expressed milk is discarded... Till now the need has not arised to be away from the baby when he wants feed. So was wondering what to do with the expressed milk :)

Originally Posted by tashidelek2002

I think its advisable to continue prenatal vitamins throughout breastfeeding.

Ya, even my paed is suggesting it :) She says, more than the health benefits of the supplements, you will be relieved mentally that you are taking enough nutrients to cope with a feeding baby and a doting pre-schooler :))
And thats true with me:) I have started taking iron daily and multivit alternate days, and I feel great :D

Originally Posted by VidyaaJ

Latha, i believe we are not supposed to leave the child sleep without feeding for more than 3 hours... or atleast that is what I do... We need to wake up the child and feed them , even if they are sleepy...
yes, if you dont feed for more than 6-7 hours, your breasts will get engorged...and this may affect the supply...
Expressed milk (in a sterilised container) can always be fed to the baby.. Not heard anything about drinking the milk ourselves...
Vidyaa

Vidyaa,
My DS hardly gets into a deep sleep... when he sleeps well after having a tiresome13-14hrs of staying awake, I dont feel like waking him up :(
But wud sit and worry whether this wud harm him in anyway...
For my elder DD,i used to feed her every 3hrs, though she sleeps... but she was a lil ok, she didnt fuss as my DS does, she wud sleep atleast after 4-5hrs of being awake... my mom wud often say,let him sleep well, he wud feed well once he wakes up... But as you say, am really bothered abt my supply going low, since the demand is less... So i pump for abt 5mins, inbetween, but again not sure if this is right. My paed too said, if he is sleeping well after a long awake time, let him sleep. Dont feed inbetween. But still somewhere in the corner of mine, I feel bad for letting him sleep for long hrs :)

Tikka,

I did feed my DD religiously every 2 -3 hours and my DM and DH would monitor too this went on till three months. Now my DD has got the routine and its getting difficult and I can't stop the habit which I set first

The paed with the weighing scale and my DM and DH with the monitoring made the journey complete no not as yet some more years to go. Now I need to reverse the habit and its somehow not very happening when I need to turn up to office the next day. Just one more week and super semi solids I am supposing would do the trick.

Somehow newborns get the rythm set in the first few months and they wake exactly at the time they were first woken for the feeds unless otherwise they are very sleeping.

Don't know how LO's manage, they are very alert even in sleep especially when it comes to the feed times. This is what I am experiencing every day, every night.

I have never did that K, coz, my LO doesnt give me a chance to do that... I have never seen her sleeping for more than 3 hours.. I didnt know that it was only for the first month...Good that i knew now...

Sorry Latha, for giving you the wrong info...

As the questions were triggered to you, I wanted your permission.. thats all...

Vidyaa

Originally Posted by tikka

Is that what you are doing still Vidya! I hope I have not given you that impression.
It is essential to get the newborn i.e. less than one month to feed 10 to 12 times a day, but a lot of them do well without you having to wake them up. I would think after the first month you can now let your baby feed on demand. Sleeping 6 hours or so is a sign of sleep maturity in a two month/three month old. It is a good thing. And your baby sleeping 6 hours wont do anything to your supply, your body will self regulate. The first few days you may feel some discomfort, you can actually express the milk, store it in the fridge/freezer and use it another time when you need a break or when you are going to be away from your baby...

LOL at that. I sound like quite the tyrant, muahahaha!

Originally Posted by lee50

Somehow newborns get the rythm set in the first few months and they wake exactly at the time they were first woken for the feeds unless otherwise they are very sleeping.

Tell me about it. DS still drinks/eats every two hours LOL! Thankfully somewhere after the 2nd birthday he stared sleeping through the night.
I think the getting in 10 to 12 feeds is especially important till the baby gets back the weight they lose immediately after birth. Poor feeding can push baby into physiological jaundice and/or dehydration. A few of my friends did let their babies sleep 4 hours in the night, but saw to it the total number of feedings added up to 10 to 12.
Vidyaa, I was hoping you were not doing that because you do say your LO does not sleep well during the day. I think our babies have similar temperament. I am dreading March (summer) because then he wakes up even earlier and goes to bed very late! I am still tinkering with his sleep