How Long - Minneapolis,MN

There is a tea called Mother's Milk. You can google it. It's herbal and helped me to keep my supply up with my daughter. You can get it at GNC.

I think this can vary wildly, but it always took me 2 hours from the time my breasts were completely emptied, until there was milk again.

If my son needed to nurse and I knew I had little or no milk, I would still let him nurse for a few minutes on each breast, THEN I would give him a bottle (expressed milk, formula, or a combo of the two). Letting him nurse kept my milk stimulated.

I know plenty of people will say that anytime you "break down" and give a baby a bottle, you are decreasing your milk supply. But at 3:00 a.m., when I really just wanted to go back to sleep and my son was screaming, it was what I wanted and needed to do. There is no "right" or "wrong" way to breastfeed--you have to make it work for you!

As far as just increasing your milk supply in general, watch your caffeine intake, and be sure to drink LOTS of water and other "good" fluids. I had good luck with the Mother's Milk teas--Traditional Medicinals and Yogi Teas are 2 brands that I drank.

Your baby will increase your milk supply all on their own. There will be times your baby will seem to want to feed and you don't have any milk available, but your body will respond with producing more milk in the near future...what an amazing thing! If you feel this is more serious and a problem that isn't being solved at your child's demand, then you can always try to pump to increase supply as well. The more milk taken from your breast, the more your breasts will produce.

I'm currently nursing my third baby who is 6 weeks old and continue to be completely in awe of breastfeeding! What a simple, yet beautiful solution God provided us with! Best of luck!

Your body is constantly making milk and your breasts are never truely empty. How old is your baby? Baby usually growth spurt and cluster feed (feed constantly) around 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months. This will often make moms think they aren't producing enough, but that would be wrong. Your baby is just very hungry. Also after a few weeks from birth your breasts begin to soften and feel less engorged. Most of the engorgement you feel after delivery is actually swollen breast tissue and not milk. Once the swelling goes down your breasts may feel less full but you are probably producing the same if not more. Be confident that you make enough and keep feeding your baby.

It depends on how old your baby is. However, if you have been nursing a while, you will not get the full feeling and your breasts will start to make milk as your baby needs it. I am a long term nurser and do not ever feel engorged or full. The way to see if your baby is getting enough is to watch the baby. Is baby having regular wet/messy diapers? Is he/she content? Is he/she gaining weight and/or length?

I could never pump and if I have depended on measuring pumped milk to see how much they were getting, we would have never made it through the first week. Babies are the most efficient at drawing milk from a breast.

Babies also "flutter suck" which is a soothing technique they use when they are not needing nourishment but just comfort. They need to do this too.

To maintain/increase supply make sure you are drinking plenty of water and eating extra calories each day. Get rest whenever you can! Hard to do when you are a Mom, but keep it in mind and rest when you get the chance.

A great book is the Womanly Art of Breastfeeding and anything by Dr Sears. His Web site askdrsears.com is very helpful.

Hook up with your local La Leche League group. A leader can help you with your nursing goals. Just google La Leche League and info will be right there.

The most important thing is to keep offering the breast. This is the one time in both of your lives you have the opportunity to do this and it has life long benefits for both of you. Go to www.lightlink.com/hilinda/Diane/breastorbottle.html for great info on just how beneficial your milk is.

good luck, enjoy this baby and keep nursing!
J.

I am not sure how long it takes for the breasts to refill after being emptied. I do know that it takes a couple of days for your body to respond to an increased demand...is your baby having a growth spurt? I had some supply issues with my first daughter and was told to pump after nursing, drink more water and take fenugreek. The fenugreek makes you smell slightly of maple syrup, but I think that it helped.

How old is your baby? As long as he/she is having enough wet diapers and poopy ones, you are producing enough milk. Make sure you are getting plenty of nutrients, water and rest yourself. Babies are very efficient nursers, you may think there is nothing but they are getting some. If you are really concerned call your local Leche League for more assistance.

I know moms who had an increase in their milk supply by taking our nutritional supplement and their babies thrived! If you are interested in hearing what happened for them, you can email me at ____@____.com. Enjoy that little one! R. H.

Is she latching on correctly? You may want to try and pump to see if you can get anything. also increase your water intake and drink mothers milk tea.

Do exactly what you're doing already. I get that same feeling....that my milk is gone and the baby is still sucking. That extra sucking will help your body to produce more milk.

Not sure how long you've been at this but for me it varied a lot depending on my water intake. I had trained my body to pump every three hours then when I switched to BF (I had a NICU baby) she was trained to eat every three hours. So it would take at least two hours to refill. I would note that later on, when she would go a little longer in between feedings, if I didn't keep up with my water drinking, it seemed to take longer. My widwife and the lactation consultant also recommended fenugreek or something like that to help increase supply. I think it came in a tea and a supplement but I never wanted more milk so I didn't try it.

Your breasts are constantly making milk. By her nursing often, she is increasing your supply. By the time she gets over her growth spurt, you will have more than enough to satisfy her. Even though she is nursing frequently, does she stop nursing on her own? In between feedings does she seem happy/content? If she does, don't worry about. It drove me crazy when my LO would go on never ending feeding spurts. You just have to trust yourself enough to get over the hump. It's hard when everyone else is saying 'my newborn was taking 6 ounces at 6 weeks' when you have no idea how much they are getting. After my girls were 6 weeks old, I started giving them one bottle of formula a day. Every day that gave me an out- a time when I could say 'honey I am taking a shower-feed the baby. I will pump when I get done. Most of the time they didn't get the bottle of formula unless we were in serious bind for time because I had breast milk saved in the freezer. HAng in there.

A friend of mine, who knows a ton about breast feeding, told me that there comes a point where the child demands feeding quite a bit. The purpose of this is to increase your supply. So she told me that when it came, she would just sit down with the baby for about the whole day and just nurse, so that the supply would increase. I think we had this conversation after I was done nursing, so I didn't know to try do it for myself. But I did nurse regularly and it seemed that he could have more if he wanted it after a half hour or so. I nursed him for 18 months. The latter part of the time, it was just short times and they gradually diminished in frequency, until a time when we had to take a little trip. After that he was completely weaned.

Even though it seems that there is no milk there, your body constantly is making milk. Allowing your little one to continue sucking will increase your milk supply. Your body is capable of providing just the perfect amount for your little one. Coming from a mother of 2 who exclusively breast fed for the first year.

I would say not more than 2-4 hrs.If this continues I would say pumping is a great way because then you can physically see what your baby's intake is,putting you at ease by knowing she's getting enough.This should help increse your milk supply.It's also good if you would like to freeze some of your milk supply.

B.,

When your baby nurses your breasts until they feel empty, that is a good thing because she is getting the "hind milk" which is a richer milk than the "front milk" which she gets from the breast first.

Keep in mind that your breasts will not continue to feel full as you nurse your baby longer. My little one is 5 weeks, and my breasts actually hardly ever feel full at this point, but she's getting plenty to eat. That is just what happens as your body adjusts to your babies needs.

You've had lots of good posts on increasing your supply, just remember, as long as you are not supplementing with formula and nursing on demand (when ever your baby wants to eat) she will get enough and your body will adjust to her needs.

If you have more questions, or are really concerned that your baby is not getting enough (isn't satisfied after eating, not having wet diapers, seems fussy or restless all the time) contact a lactation consultant and have her do a weight check. My pediatrician is a lactation consultant and they weighed my baby before and after a feeding to check how much she was getting at 2 weeks. It was reassuring to know that she was eating several oz at that point.

Good luck, and know you are doing a wonderful thing for your baby by breastfeeding.

Jessica

It's been about 6 months since I last nursed but your body adjusts to the baby's needs. Basically the more you nurse the more you will supply. If you need to boost up supply, you could try pumping in between. I do know that they say some medications could possibly reduce production so if you are on any I would look into it. I have a friend that actually had trouble producing so she just switched to formula. I would definitely talk to your doctor if you continue to have trouble.

Water, water, water! Drink plenty of water to keep up supply. Also, malt powder....go get yourself a malt from Dairy Queen (they still use actual malt powder) drink up and enjoy it. Everytime I have one, my breasts feel fuller within a couple hours! Just keep up with nursing on demand and your baby should be getting enough:)

Dear B.,

I once had the same problem as you do after I had mastitis a month ago. It took me about two weeks to build up my breast milk little by little since I keep pumping out my milk every 3 to 4 hours even at night.
Taking fish broth helps me a lot increase milk supply. Taking lot of other broth and drinking water are also quite helpful.