How to Increase Breast Milk

Try More Milk Plus. It comes in a little blue bottle. You put a few drops into a glass of water a few times a day. It works wonders! I also tried Fenugreek and Mothers' Milk Tea but this stuff waas really amazing. You can get it at Whole Foods.

The funniest thing about taking Fenugreek is that you'll smell like maple syrup!

I took Fenugreek and that definitely increased my milk supply. I know people that have used Mother's Milk Tea and that helped. I never was able to pump very much, and one side usually produced more than the other--completely normal.

Hi R.,

Congratulations on your little one and good luck as you go back to work shortly. It is a transition for you, your body, and the baby, so any preparations you do now to make it easier is very wise. I have found the best resource for breast feeding is the website Kellymom.com. They have a lot of good advice on going back to work, milk supply, etc.

As for my experience, yes I do have a super performer breast and will often get twice as much output as the other. My LO is always satisfied from either side, so I don't worry about it at all. Also, I've found that once I went back to work, what I pumped the day before gets used as the food for my little one. As the saying goes, fresh is best. It is good to have a store though, for those just in case emergencies (bottle spills, etc), but don't drive yourself crazy trying to pump and store 200 oz before you go back to work. I had a week's worth and have slowly contributed to it over the months, as I always seem to pump just a little more than she eats. I am now occasionally rotating my stash (e.g. Friday's pumping is stored and I use frozen for Monday feedings) I hope this helps!

Good luck,

CAL

I have a "lazy" breast too. My lactation nurse told me to always start on the "lazy" side. It has helped a lot.
You should eat foods that boost milk production - proteins like chicken & peanut butter, brown rice, sweet potatoes & apricots (dried or juice are o.k.) also Mother's Milk Tea helps and if you really want a big boost Fenugreek capsules 3 pills 3 times a day.
Now that my milk has come in, I drink the tea at least once a day and take the fenugreek capsules once a day - but sometimes more often if my baby is on a feeding frenzy. some days she wants to eat all day!

Hi R.,

There is a company that has great lactoferrin that is equivalent to mothers milk. It will help increase your milk.

Let me know if you want more info.

____@____.com

Happy New Year.

N. Marie

Completely normal. I always produced more on one side...then after 3 mths it changed. This was also very common when the mom's compared in our support group. If you are working on storing milk try to pump in the morning because we tend to produce more milk in the morning than the evening. But is you can pick a consistant time (range of time) each day...pump then. Your body will increase production at the time you need to pump if you are regular about it. Maybe pump at the time you think you will be pumping when you go back to work?

When my son was just a few weeks old, i was just getting about 3oz of milk from both breasts only for the first two months..So i was supplementing with formula..I kept pumping anyway, I only breastfed him for the first three weeks because he wasn't latching on too well. After the two months, I just suddenly start producing lots and lots of milk all mainly from pumping. I don't know if that has much to do with it or just how my body is,, I wasn't eating specific food or anything.

My left breast was my real producer...the right one never gave up much but I was able to pump enough for work when the time came. It is totally normal...my girlfriend's and I used to joke about the better boob vs. the weaker one. Good luck and you'll be getting more sleep soon!

DO research online for these topics:

Reducing estrogen (including soy products/chlorine in tap water) to help increase milk supply. (estrogen suppresses milk output).

Increasing natural progesterone to increase milk supply.

Of course drinking more water will help too. It's the basic necessity!

This is very normal - it is due to one breast having more milk-making ducts than the other. I was worried about the difference in my breasts when I first started nursing - because of the reduced milk production as well as the size difference. You can try different techniques, such as beginning to nurse two times in a row from that breast so that it receives more stimulation, but to be perfectly honest with you, I stopped doing that and can now barely notice a difference in the size. In fact, I usually nurse first from the side that produces more, so that my baby can get a second helping when I switch nurse (alternate side to side).

If you want to increase your pumping output - choose a time of day (such as an hour or two after you baby goes to sleep for the night) and consistently pump every day at that time. Our bodies remember what times of day we are apt to nurse/pump and make sure there is a milk supply ready at that time. Middle of the night pumping tends to yield a high output as well.

this didnt happen with my first but my second is now 4 months old and i ALWAYS get more out of the right. i dont know why. sounds like you are already doing this but after a feeding i pump until nothing is left. this not only gives me a little extra but helps increase the supply for next time. i find it takes 24-36 hours to start getting a larger supply.

To increase my low milk flow, I started drinking healthy nursing tea after the advice of LC. It helped a lot and stimulated my low milk flow.

Hey, R.~

It is normal that one side produces more than another. I've also heard that pumping is never going to produce as much milk as your child nursing will. That's just how our bodies respond. If you want to increase your milk supply, one is with nursing tea. There's an herbalist that I love, Pam Caldwell. Her tea is available at her website http://www.herblore.com I used it with my first when he was a few months old. Then my body regulated itself and I didn't need to use it. My milk supply increased in the first 24 hours after drinking the tea, it's very effective!

Good luck!
D.
Looking to work from home? http://www.mommiescanworkathome.com

Sometimes my daughter would suckle the second breast just to pacify herself to sleep without drinking too much. That made for a very uneven pump for me. Timing when breastfeeding wasn't working for me. I had to listen for swallowing sound to establish if she's actually eating. Try pumping the side, you suspect it has less, first. Vary the circumstances to see what's affecting it.
Drinking Traditional Medicinals- Organic Mother's Milk Tea and almost a gallon of water a day did it for me.

As both a nursing mother and a peer counselor with Nursing Mothers Counsel, I can say that it's very normal for one breast to produce more than the other, especially when nursing and pumping. With my 3yo son, it was the left. Now with my 7wk old daughter, it's the right.

I have a few questions before I address your desire to increase your supply. How often are you pumping, and how many times in a 24-hour period are you breastfeeding? Are you double pumping? What kind of pump are you using? And how many total ounces are you able to pump each time you pump? Also, how long do you have before you return to work? The answers to these questions will affect what I suggest because you may not need to increase at all.

As far as one breast producing more than the other, if you're concerned about it, start her on the side with the lesser supply. Also make sure you switch breasts with each feed. ie: If you start with the right breast at one feed, be sure to start wtih the left at the next. If she feeds on both sides at one feeding, you can start with the same breast at each feed unless you feel that she didn't feed well on one side. Then, you can start with that side at the next feed. Within 3-4 days, it should even out.

I'd love to help you through this, so please feel free to email me at ____@____.com can also check out the Nursing Mothers Counsel website at http://www.nursingmothers.org. We are a non-profit organization of peer counselors who provide FREE one-on-one education & support for breastfeeding mothers at all stages :)

check out the website workandpump.com there is a book by the same name. it is very helpful. what i understand is that sometimes one side produces more than others.

Just to let you know my left breast usually produced about twice as much as the right. No idea why! So for me it was normal. Happened with every one of my 5 children.

Take care,
D.

I don't have tips on how to increase breast milk except to keep doing what your doing. I am writing to tell you that one of my breasts produces much more milk than the other (twice the amount) when pumping. I think that is usual. I have a friend who has so much more milk production in one breast that looking at the breast you can see it is bigger. -- hers might be because the baby favors that breast. But the baby might favor it because it has a stronger milk flow, too.