Keeping up Supply After Returning to Work

My lactation consultant said to keep the pump going even after the milk has stopped dripping. She wanted me to pump for 20 minutes each time, even though I was only getting milk for about 10 or so minutes. She said it wold help maintain and hopefully increase my milk suply. Good luck!

Hi S.. It's great that you are pumping at work. I know that can be difficult and time consuming, but I am proud of you for your dedication. I also work part-time four days a week (I started back to work in January) and pump exclusively and then give my son my breast milk in a bottle. I noticed at about 5 1/2 months my son started going through a growth spurt and drinking a lot of milk. My milk stash in the freezer quickly dwindled and I found that I was really stressed about it. Here is what I found that helped me:

1.When pumping at work, watch something funny on your iPod or computer to help you relax and distract you from thinking about how much milk you are pumping
2. Drink a ton of water!
3. Eat regularly
4. Get as much sleep as you can
5. Relax and try to keep stress in check as much as possible (I know, easier said than done!) Get a massage, acupuncture, do at least something for you once a week to help you relax
6. Around 6 1/2 months, I started putting a little organic oatmeal in my son's bottle before bedtime and that would help tide him over until morning.
7. And most importantly, keep telling yourself over and over, "I will produce enough milk for my little one. She will grow healthy and strong." Enough can't be said about the power of the mind and positive thinking (I always tell my patients this too). If you believe it, then your body will believe it and follow through.

You will do great. Keeping believing in yourself.

My best to you and your wee one!

C.

Hello!
I have struggled with a low milk supply from the very beginning (my daughter is just over 10 months old now). I did actually pump after she finished nursing for a LONG time. I finally gave in and I now give her a bottle of formula about once a week (so she'll get it and I pump instead). It's sometimes hard to get her to eat it, but she does better when Daddy or Grandma give it to her instead of me. Also, I don't know how you feel about medication, but my doctor put me on a stomach medication that has a side effect of increased milk! She put me on it to increase my milk supply. So, I'm still on that, too. You might ask your doctor. It works out well for me because my daughter and I have the same family practice dr... I'm not sure how it would work to get the prescription otherwise.
Good luck!

I was always barely keeping up when pumping. The herbs and stuff didn't work so well for me. You're probably already drinking an extra lot of liquids, that's important. Maybe in the morning you could pump before breastfeeding, then her work will get the most out of the breast, get rich hindmilk and work on increasing supply. Your supply is highest in the early morning, and lowest between 6 pm and midnight. I don't know if it's worth playing with the same pumping before feeding in the evening, because your body just might not be able to meet the demand at that time no matter what. Sounds like you're pumping a little extra on the days off? I would try the same thing, pump before feeding. Your milk also has the highest fat content in the morning, which is good for nutrition and keeping her full.

Kellymom.org (or .com, can't remember) has some good tips. Good for you for working so hard to keep breastmilk going for your baby. I hated pumping, myself. It also helped me get more milk pumping when I did a meditation practice while pumping. I didn't have the best pumping environmnent.

Asians believe that leafy green vegetables boost milk supply, so you might try to increase your spinach intake. I found that when I chop spinach, chard, or kale in the food processer, then do a light grill in a cast iron pan with some olive oil and water, I can eat a lot more of it. I also found broccoli rabe at whole foods, which is leafy broccoli and has great nutrient content. I eat them with eggs in the morning, fish or tofu for lunch or dinner. It seemed like a lot of work at first, but now it's easy. I also found out that when you eat tofu and seaweed together, you get the most out of each of them. Sometimes I mix those into my eggs. Oh, I also starting using coconut milk in things while I was nursing, that has good fats for milk supply, and for the baby. There are lots of ways to use it, I put it in the rice cooker instead of water, I poached fish in it, added it to sautes, stir frys, and scrambled eggs. Dietarily, I've heard that it's most important to have a high protein breakfast, so you might want to have some oatmeal in the evening instead, which is also supposed to help milk supply. I know it's hard to imagine re-habbing the diet when you've got other things draining your brain, but I found that I could do it by just keeping it simple: protein, little bit of rice, lots of veggies, not doing anything fancy, just saute with olive oil, and add ricotta cheese or balsamic vinegar.

best wishes.

I am in the same situation, except my 5 1/2 month old daughter will not take a bottle, so I pump just to keep my milk up. I noticed when I returned to work that I was getting less milk when I pumped, so I started pumping after I would feed her, to bring my milk in more. It was a huge pain, but it worked in about three days of pumping after every time she ate. The other thing that helps me is that I have a lot of pictures of my daughter that I carry with my pump, since I've noticed I tend to get more milk if I'm looking at pictures of her. Finally, I also do two let-downs per pumping session. Hopefully this helps. Good luck!

Hi S., you have already received some good advice. Fenugreek did help to increase my supply when it went down (when my son began sleeping longer at night). Are you able to pump frequently at work? I had to pump every 2 hours to keep my supply up at work. While you are pumping, make sure you are able to relax, however you need to. I always noticed that when I tried to do work while pumping, the flow would usually slow or even stop (I would tense up without even realizing it). Also, do you know how to hand-express? After the pump did the best job that it could, I could always get out most of the remaining milk with a few minutes of hand-expressing, going back and forth between each breast until there was nothing more coming out. Also, I don't know if you are open to this at all, but keeping my supply up was the main reason we have chosen to co-sleep for my son's first year. Nursing throughout the night works wonders for your milk supply. I hope you find something that works well for you!

I experienced the same problem when I started back to work (also part time). When your daughter nurses, she's taking in 3-4 ounces. When she drinks from a bottle, it's much more free-flowing which causes her to drink more. A trick that worked for me was using slow flow nipples on the bottle. It's more like breastfeeding in that baby has to work a little for the milk. My son is 10 months old now and 23 pounds, so I think he's getting enough :) I figure if he's getting 5 ounces when I nurse him, 5 ounces from a bottle must be enough (since that's what I tend to pump). Good luck to you!

hi,
i went back to work M,T,TH,F at three months. we had a tough time at first and so my son had only been successfully breastfeeding for about 6 weeks and my milk supply was adequate for nursing for a while but i didn't get a lot from pumping- some people seem to be able to get a lot by pumping but i never could, even when it was obvious there was more in there and the baby could get it.

here's what we did: i only pumped once a day b/c my work situation was difficult. i breastfed last thing before i left for work and first thing when i got home each day, and as much as possible on my day off and on the weekends. During the weekdays, we supplemented with formula. it worked out really well. i didn't have any trouble with supply (are you remembering to drink enough water during the day?! my milk did reduced if i didn't drink a lot of water). Eventually, i started supplementing a bottle of formula on my days off as well b/c he was a pretty big kid and didn't eat well at first.

he is now 16 mos and i am ready to wean him - he clearly isn't tho, so i haven't forced it. We've tapered down to a couple times a day. mostly he still wants to nurse first thing when he seems me at the end of the day and altho i'm hoping to be done when it gets hot this summer, it has been a really great way for us to bond and have a little one on one time after being away all day.

good luck- i hope things go well for you and you're able to have the best of both worlds!

Hi there,

I would have to say that it was about this time when my supply started to dwindle too. I think what's happening is your little one is beginning to need to have more in her system than just mommy's milk to keep her satisfied!

It was about 6 months when I remember my little one started on cereal. We started out adding a little bit to her bottle at night and then a little in the morning. That seemed to hold her until she was able to eat more solids. She still nursed me (though not much right now as I'm 4 months pregnant!) all the time - but she enjoyed having the ability to just eat whenever with her solids and get up and play!

I hope this helps - it was hard for me too when my supply dropped significantly, but they all tend to do allright!

Best of luck!

~S.

S.,

I'm in the exact same boat that you are; working and pumping. I would say that my supply started to drop off around when my daughter was 6.5 months old. I started supplementing her with solid food for a while, while I worked on the supply issues. Here's what I've done:

Fenugreek supplement daily
Brewers Yeast supplement daily
nursing frequently on the weekends
pumping every 2 hours at work and before bed at night
drinking Mother's Milk tea by Traditional Medicinals
Renting a hospital grade pump ($80 at Babies r Us) for a month.
talked to the Nursing Mother's Council for advice (I think you should be able to find them online)

Nothing has made a huge change, but my daughter will be 1 next month and I'm still breast feeding. Good luck.
K.

HI S.,
You've gotten some great advice already and wanted to give a little more.

First, you're doing a great job keeping up your supply for your LO. Mom Milk is absolutely the best thing for babies! I pumped for 11 months (until my girl was 14 months old) and have totally been where you're going. Here's my two cents:

1. your output actually seems fairly normal. Babies should have about 1 oz/hour Mom is away. If you're pumping 3-4oz 3-4x you're getting about 12 oz/day, right? That should be PLENTY. If you are using anything but the slowest-flow nipple, switch back. This will make baby work a little more to get the milk. Stretching out those tiny tummies is not a good idea, bottles should rarely be more than 4 oz each. You could split the bottles up to 3-4 oz and ask her caretaker to give bottles more frequently.

2. have you checked your pump parts lately? Have you changed your valves? This can decrease output.

3. to increase your supply you could either pump while your girl is eating on the side she's not eating from. It is inadvisable to pump before she eats because when she nurses she needs the milk as it is produced to ensure proper foremilk/hindmilk balance. You should also pump for 20 min/session, if you can. You can stop after 10 min, jiggle, shake, massage, then continue to pump. You should be able to get 2 let-downs/session. I sometimes got 3, the last one right at the end of pumping. Continue to pump even if no milk is being produced. It's all supply/demand and if your body is not quite used to the pump, this will help provide adequate stimulation.

4. If you really think you're not producing enough you can try supplementing with fenugreek, mothers milk tea, eat lots of oatmeal. There are others but these three worked for me.

Here are some links from Kellymom.com (breastfeeding website) that might help you:
http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/pumping_decrease.html
http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkcalc.html
http://forum.kellymom.net/showthread.php?t=71896

Good luck!
A.

Hello S.,
My name is T. and I'm a mother of twin girls who are nine months old. First of all, I started to ween the girls of eating in the middle of the night at about 4 months old. I read somewhere that they don't need to be eating in the middle of the night at around this age. If they do wake up it's because they know you'll come to get them and feed them. It's safe to try to get them to sleep through the night. Although it's always hard at first to ignore them crying. But letting them cry themselves to sleep will help get them started in that process. So that should lessen the number of times they eat and give you a break. Your child is also at the right age to be increasing her intake each feeding session, so that's normal and she'll get up to eating about 6-7 ounces around her 6th or 7th month. Your body will naturally produce more milk with the right stimulation. Try pumping a little extra than you normally do every day. This should stimulate the hormone you have that lets your body know it needs to produce more milk. But don't worry if your milk supply decreases by the time your child reaches 8 months. It's part of the weening stage because your child will already be eating baby food and rice cereal by then that you can slack on the breast feeding. I started my girls eating baby food by their 6th month. I still breast feed them but it's only about 2 ounces 4 - 6 times a day. But it's enough to keep the girls content and sometimes helps put them to sleep. Now the girls are more interested in their finger foods and less on the breast.

Hi S.
I haven't read the other responses, so I am sure this is just reapting what you have been told. I would recommend going to your local health food and drug store. They can point you in the direction of some herbal supplements that can increase and stablize your prodution. I would try to avoid eating sage a parsley, they dry you up. Once you are recommended a supplement I would contact the docs, yours and the babys, just to make sure they are ok with you taking it. Then enjoy the FLOW!! Fenugreek will increase milk supply but contains some things that are not the best for nursing moms so do your research and speak with the doc. I have read that fennel seed and blessed thistle will help increase the supply.
Also I know this sounds crazy but it always helped me to look at a pic of my baby while I pumped. For some reason this worked to get me to let down more. If no pic. Dark room or eyes closed and visualize her nursing. Think of the sounds of her nursing and the smell of the baby and the feel of holding her in your arms and the feel of her little arm around your side. Crazy I know but it works!!
Good luck and enjoy your little one she'll grow super fast!!
C.

I am doing the exact same thing, I am in the office 4 days and at home 1 day. My supply has never been high and I only had 1 days extra milk when I went back. I now have about 3 extra bags. My daughter is 4 1/2 months and I went back to work about a month ago. I have found that if I pump right after I drop her off in the morning, on my way to work, I get the extra milk that I need to keep up with her. Also when I leave work I call my sister in law to see how much she has drank that day. If I have not pumped that much and she has eaten with in the last hour or so I will pump on my way to pick her up. If I know she will be hungry when I get there I feed her when I get there and then pump on the way home. Also when you are at work pumping make sure you are comfortable and have water and a snack then pump for 2 let downs(about 20 mins) on a double pump. I don't know if this helps or not but please let me know if I can give you any ideas or you want to know about the "Pump and Drive" techniques that I use. You are doing a wonderful thing for your daughter and I know we can both keep up with our growing angels!