I am a mom of 4 ages 9, 6 ,4,and 7 months. I have always lost my milk by 7 months. With my first daughter, my grandmother(who I was very close to) died when she was 6 months. She had been very ill and I think the stress finally got the best of me. With my first, I had no knowledge or help and (in the beginning) ended up with cracked and even bleeding nipples.
I found out I was loosing my milk by offering her a bottle of formula one night to try to stop her from crying so much. Poor thing ate like she was starving.
With my next two, I spoke to a lactation consultant who gave me lanolin(wonderful stuff!). At about 5 months I suspected I was loosing it again. I didn’t feel as full and wanted to be sure they were getting enough. Plus they would want to nurse constantly and still acted unsatisfied. So I started supplementing. Once they figured out they could get food faster with a bottle, they stopped wanting me. Even herbs couldn’t help that.
Now we have our 2nd boy and possibly our last, so I really don’t want to lose my milk. I have been feeding him on demand and No supplementing with formula! I drink a ton of mother’s milk tea(having trouble finding fenugreek). and have learned that smaller breast size doesn’t mean my milk is leaving.
He seems to be doing well so far. Feeding satisfies him. I just started giving him bananas and applesauce which seems to keep him full longer. Anyone have any advice to make sure longer times between feeding don’t result in me loosing my milk. I really want to breastfeed at least a year, but am getting a lot of negativity around me from family members. I had a clogged duct 2 weeks ago(fevered, achy all over, etc… not fun) I am better now, but got advice like,”Don’t you think it’s about time to just give it up? I mean he’s got 6 months of milk, that is a good start”. Ugh! Frustrating.
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Don’t be frustrated you are doing well. I’m still nursing my fourth, which may be my last one too. He is almost 22 months. He just doesn’t want to let go. My third one slowed way down on her nursing at about six months, about the time that I introduce food. I really struggled to keep her on till one year. On her b-day I gave up. My first one was a very stubborn one from day one. I, like you, had cracked and bleeding nipples. It took a lot of will power to get her to nurse. She and the next one nursed untill about 15 months. I was never very good at being able to tell if I was full or not unless I was actually starting to get hard, then I would start to hurt. I think you are doing just fine, if your baby is nursing and is happy when he is done then you probably are producing enough. Be carful how much table food you give him. In spite of what pediatrics may tell you, if you want to continue to nurse, try to stay away from snacks, or solids between meals. Outside of heat try to stay away from beverages. My yougest never had a bottle. Try to stretch things out between feedings then maybe you will feel fuller. Keeping baby buisy will take his mind off of food for a while, use the older children to help with this.
Get a breast pump and use it to get milk flowing more. You will only make what is being used, your body is amazing like that, it will adjust. So if you want more then stimulate more. It is a lot of work on your behalf but worth it.
My son was born with Down syndrome and I was determined to breast feed him. He wasn’t putting on weight because he had a hole in his heart (That is now all fixed) because I wanted to breast feed only I had to feed him every 2 hours then after feeding him I would sit there and express more milk. So that he didn’t have to work to hard to get it, I had plenty of milk and it flowed quickly. If I hadn’t of done that I would have started to dry up. Later on I would notice my supply was getting down so I would work to get it back up again. Once you have had a baby, you always have the ability to breast feed even years later. Debi Pearl talks about that in her book Created, when talking about the story of Ruth.
I am not a mother but my mom has breast-fed 11 kids. She makes sure to have plenty of drinks with her (ice water and sometimes gatorade/powerade, juice or sweet tea) they help you “let down”(esp. if you do sugary drinks).
If you still can’t make enough milk here is a story that might help.. My little brother had a horrible reaction to the rotavirus vaccine just as my mom was starting to feed him a little bit of solids (but still breastfeeding him a lot) We had to take him to the hospital on 2 separate occasions with seizures, super high fever, throwing up etc. Long story short, he could no longer eat breast milk. We tried several diff things including formula, and cow milk. We finally found goats milk (we would feed it to him with a 3cc syringe haha). As far as i know it is the thing most similar to breast milk(in nutrient content). So if you still can’t make enough milk try buying some goats milk and see what your baby thinks. 😀
oh and they should sell goats milk at your local grocery store (walmart, kroger etc) 😀