Drink a LOT of water!
Breastfeeding can be extremely dehydrating. You will need to make sure you drink a lot of fluids, especially water. Keeping yourself hydrated will help your milk to come in stronger.
Keep a full glass of water by you at all times.
Put water in the nursery so that when you feed the baby during the middle of the night you can drink then too. You can also prepare a cup of ice chips to set near your bed at night.
Once your supply is regular, though, just drink to thirst. Outside the recommended 68 oz of water, you don’t need to overdo. More water does not mean more milk.
Mother’s Milk Tea is a great increaser and I drank it throughout both nurslings.
Oatmeal helped me when I was pumping and nursing for work, or the other way around. 😉 I had a bowl before bed (ack) and at 2 AM I had a nice supply to pump for the next day!
Ohhh! I have oatmeal every morning for breakfast, but I never thought of adding in more oat meals during the day or night! Good idea.
Pumping is what saved me! I had a low supply and was told to start pumping by a lactation specialist at appx 2 weeks after her birth because of the whole supply/demand science of nursing. It saved us! I was nursing her and then pumping in between the nursings and giving her that milk as well in a bottle. She never got what they call “nipple confusion”…as long as she got her milk she really didn’t care what she had to suck on! lol
I also used a product called Lactate Support by Gaia Herbs, that contains Fenugreek (another suggestion by the lactation specialist) and that helped as well, even though it makes you and your baby smell like maple syrup!
Fenugreek and pumping for 15 minutes after each feed! It really helped my supply when I was struggling.
i totally noticed a difference in supply if I didn’t keep up with my water intake!
H2O has been my best friend!
Thanks!
Oh, I forgot how darned thirsty you get in those first few weeks of nursing! It’s just amazing how much you have to drink.
Now that I’m nursing a toddler, I find I don’t need to drink so much any more — though, I know I should because it’s good to drink lots of water anyway. Reading this post is actually a good reminder to me keep drinking lots, even though my body isn’t demanding it quite as urgently as it used to.
Patience and relaxing can be a huge help too, when you stress it can greatly decrease your supply. I know I ran into a couple situations throughout my nursing time with my daughter and my supply would decrease greatly, I learned to take it one day at a time, drink lots of water and Mother’s Milk tea but a hot shower and 15 minutes of “ME” time did wonders as well. My son hasn’t run into many issues but 2nd time around I knew more and of course had more confidence in myself.
When my twins were little time was something I was seriously short on. My day consisted of nursing, cup feeding, burping, changing diapers, pumping and catching catnaps in between. We put a small dorm fridge in the boys’ room and it was a lifesaver. I kept bottles of water and juice in there and would just toss freshly pumped milk in there until I could get around to freezing it (I just froze once a day).
I’m not pumping much right now, but I eat oatmeal almost every morning and drink close to a gallon a day. I just fill up a large bottle in the morning and keep it on hand. What hurts me the most is when I get super busy and stressed. I need to remind myself to relax
I can’t believe how thirsty I get when I’m nursing! Especially in the beginning, but now too. It just makes sense that it would boost your milk – it’s a tiring and thirsty business making all that milk.
Nursing mothers do get thirsty, but they do not need to overdo it. As long as their urine is clear they are drinking enough. In fact, drinking excessive water can cause a decrease in milk supply.
I’m terrible at drinking enough water! Baby is due anyday and I have to potty so much that it’s hard to make myself drink more, lol. I have a hx of low supply and am already working on it for this baby, I HAVE to remember to drink enough.