Deciding to Breastfeed: Increasing Your Milk Supply

Many women are concerned they won’t have enough milk to feed their babies.  The early days after childbirth have essential colostrum and your body will produce as much as your baby needs. Work closely with a lactation consultant for the first month to be sure that your baby is gaining weight appropriately but if you feed on demand, you will tend to produce just as much as your baby needs.

Bottle Feeding vs. Formula Feeding

With bottle feeding, you’re generally told to feed every three to four hours and the idea is to try to feed a specific number of ounces. Because you can see milk in the bottle, it’s nature to try to get your baby to drink it all.  With breast feeding, your baby drinks as often as they need and until they are full.   It’s also wise to note that breastmilk’s consistency changes depending on the weather so on a hot day, your milk will have a higher water content whereas with formula, mothers often worry about milk curdling in baby’s tummy due to scorching hot weather.

In order to increase your milk supply, you need to simply nurse more. At various stages, your baby will cluster feed and keep you busy with a lot of nursing but this is due to growth spurts.  Because you feed on demand, you’ll often find that breastfed babies are bigger and chubbier than formula fed babies who are on a stricter schedule.

Here are some tips that can help increase your milk supply but again, the more you nurse the more your body will supply milk because it knows your baby is demanding it.

-Pump between breastfeeding sessions and store the milk in the freezer.  Pump shortly after sessions so you aren’t stealing important fatty milk your baby needs for their next feeding. Having a picture of your baby nearby can help stimulate let down sooner. Dont’ pump too far after a feeding otherwise you could have trouble producing enough milk for the baby which could be frustrating for you both.  Don’t pump during clusterfeeding times when baby is feeding constantly.

-Drink plenty of liquids. If you’re dehydrated, you can’t produce enough milk so be sure you’re drinking a lot of water.

-Don’t forget to switch between breasts.  It’s easy to get accustomed to feeding on one side as you get to be a breastfeeding pro and learn to multitask but try alternating to increase your milk as well

-A galactagogue is a supplement or medication specifically used for increasing milk supply. You can find herbs that suggest they’ll help you increase milk supply but for most women it’s not necessary if you nurse a lot and pump in between feedings.

What Foods Increase Milk Supply?

Some lists exist online with suggestions for specific foods that can help you make more milk. Some suggest that drinking rootbeer for milk supply or eating oatmeal will help as well but the jury is out on that one.  It’s important you’re relaxed when you breastfeed which can help you produce more milk so perhaps this is a mind and body connection when you’ve had rootbeer or oatmeal. By relaxing and believing you’re going to have more milk, you can have more milk.

Other Milk Production Tips

What does your menu look like?  Too many nursing Moms are so busy that they forget that they need to eat really well for their milk production. Make sure you’re getting about 500 calories extra of food a day. When pregnant you’re supposed to consume about 300 calories extra a day but for nursing, you need even more.  Eat a varied diet with lots of nutritious foods and consider taking your prenatal vitamin while you do so in order to maintain your own health as well as produce healthy milk for your baby.

Tags: Breastfeeding, breastfeeding foods, breastfeeding menu, galactagogue, increase milk supply, nursing, oatmeal and breastfeeding, rootbeer and breasfeeding