Has your milk supply ever decreased around 6 months but then came back to normal?
Andrea asked:
My baby is 6 months old. I am having low milk supply issues. I used to be able to pump 4 ounces at a time three days a week while at work. Now I only get 2 ounces. I am on fenugreek. Any suggestions to bring it back up?
My baby is 6 months old. I am having low milk supply issues. I used to be able to pump 4 ounces at a time three days a week while at work. Now I only get 2 ounces. I am on fenugreek. Any suggestions to bring it back up?
My milk supply also dwindled, it never came back, turns out I had Hypothyroidism, my doc said that that isa common problem with women who have thyroid problems. you should definitly contact your doctor on this one.
Get plenty of fluids and nurse/pump more frequently. Did you recently start solids? That can sometimes affect your milk supply because your child is starting to get his nutrition in other ways.
I go through this issue quite a bit. My baby is 5 months old and I have experienced something similar 3 or 4 times…. I tried EVERYTHING imaginable!
The only thing that works for me is to nurse more often and to pump more often. Also, I drink plenty of water and take my vitamins.
Very best wishes~
Make sure you are drink plenty of water.
Try to relax!!! Stress will take your milk away fast!
Just to ease your mind, how much you pump isn’t a good judge of supply. I was able to exclusively nurse my son, but couldn’t ever get more then half an ounce total from both *******. That said, certain things like baby nursing less, your period, stress, you being sick, baby being sick, etc can all affect your supply temporarily. Fenugreek is good, also you can try Blessed Thistle. And oatmeal.. oatmeal did wonders for me, the real stuff, not instant. Either as hot cereal, or in yummy cookies. There’s a breastfeeding oatmeal cookie recipe floating around out there somewhere as well. Kellymom.com has great info and links.
You need to be screened for thyroid problems and anemia -particularly if your period has returned. Also PCOS is a concern.
Does the baby nurse directly at all?
The “Six month slump” is very common. My supply took a dip at six months. I increased my pumping, and started waking the baby up to nurse before I went to bed (he was pretty much sleeping through the night), and I used ****** compressions to bring my supply back up to “normal”. It worked pretty well. I was getting about 12 ounces from four pumping’s at that point.
By feeding him at night he needed less during the day. I also pumped first thing in the morning before he got up, and I pumped at night right after he went to bed.
I had sort of chronic supply problems I did finally have to order Domperidone to make it to a year pumping because I was drying up quickly at 9 months. Too much pumping and not enough nursing time in the day.
I don’t know if you can accurately tell by how much you pump. I had this same worry about a month ago…I went from being able to pump 5-6 ounces to struggling to get 2. Baby has remained content, so I am assuming that the problem was with the pump. If your baby seems satisfied and isn’t wanting to nurse more than normal…you may want to take a look at your pump.
Just in case this is of some use:
“Why would your milk supply decrease?”
& I notice, at the same site:
“Fenugreek and blessed thistle seem to work better if you take both, not just one or the other.”