Mothers Milk Tea

K.,

They are pretty much the same thing. The Tea has other ingedients that will stimulate the milk glands. But, beware...full breast get heavy fast and leak. If the baby cries it will also stimulate the milk glands...I do not know why but it does. Good luck!

L. M

I would go for the pills because the concentration of the herb is higher. Just be sure to take enough -- I think the recommended amount in 9 pills per day. You know you are taking enough when you start to smell like maple syrup. This is no joke! Other tricks you can use are to eat oatmaeal (not the instant kind), stone fruits (apricots, peaches, nectarines), barley (this is the basis for the beer recommendation). You can get the same benefits from beer with the non-alcoholic varieties. I like the clausthaller (sp?) brand.

As most other people have mentioned, drink TONS of water and get plenty of rest.

You can also check out this site -- it's a great resource for breastfeeding and infant feeding in general:
http://www.kellymom.com/herbal/milksupply/herbal_galactag...
http://www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/low-supply.html

Good luck to you! Just remember that if you need to supplement with formula, don't feel guilty. Even if you nurse just a little bit, you and your child are still reaping the benefits. I was only able to give my daughter breast milk for four months. I cried when it was time to go to formula. But she thrived and I kept my sanity by not worrying about how much milk I was producing. A sane mama and a full baby tummy make life much, much easier.

I like the tea. I enjoy relaxing with a cup of tea and enjoy the flavor. I also think increasing how much liquid you take in helps to increase your milk. I have noticed that I have more milk when I make sure to drink lots of water all day. Frequent nursing is truly the best way to increase your milk supply. The more you feed the more you make.

I have lots of friends and family who have had small babies and their MD tells them the baby needs more milk. My personal opinion is that our bodies make the perfect food for our babies and if they are not as big as the MD want them to be that is the MD’s problem. Everyone is different. How can they say a person/baby should be a certain size? Some people/babies are just petite.

My children have the opposite problem. They are huge. My son is 6 months and 20lbs. My daughter is two and 32lbs, her good friend who is the same age just hit 20lbs. Every time I go to the MD they talk to me about what an epidemic childhood obesity is. I am accused of over feeding them. TRUTH I just have big kids.

So do try to increase your supply. You can never have too much of a great thing. But don’t worry about weight gain or the percentiles they talk about. We are all unique.

Hope this was helpful and Congratulations on your sweet boy!

I had the same problem...... i would recommend the Fenugreek & of course, breastfeeding more often will increase your supply!! Good luck & drink plenty of water! Stress plays a factor in your supply too.... (at least it did for me)

I had trouble producing enough breast milk with my last child, the lactation nurse at TG recommended I use mother's milk tea and for me it worked good. I was taking that along with pumping in beween feeding to increase the milk production and to have breast milk to give her in a bottle before the milk production increased and to have ahead of time for when I went back to work. I know there is also a pill you can take (maybe that's what the fenugreek is? not sure), I wasn't able to use it due to other medical conditions. I've never heard of the other one, so I wouldn't be able to give you a comparison, I just know the mother's milk tea worked good for me. Hope that helps!

I used Fenugreek when my son was 2 weeks old. I did notice an increase in milk supply, but I'm honestly not sure if it was the fenugreek or the constant pumping after each feeding that helped. I'm sure it was probably both. Don't be surprised if you and your baby start smelling like maple syrup!

Good Luck!

My OB recommended fenugreek to help me build up my milk supply. I turned into a commercial dairy--it just kept coming! It was great because my milk supply leveled off at a high level, and I kept pumping after each feeding, so we always had plenty of milk on hand in case I wasn't there (or just to give Mom a much-needed break once in a while). That was kid #1.

With kid #2, the current kid, I started taking fenugreek immediately after his birth. Within two weeks I had to stop taking it because I was producing so much milk I was forced to pump. :-) This was a nice problem to have. It built up my supply immediately to a healthy level.

With fenugreek as a kick-start, both my sons were chubby, rosy, and healthy through babyhood. You can drink fenugreek tea or take fenugreek capsules. I much preferred the capsules because you could swallow them, or pour the powder into a drink and just chug it down. I poured it into my water as a motivator to get lots of water down fast. It always worked. :-) I've heard the tea works too; it didn't do much for me. Every woman is different though. Best wishes to you!

I was facing the same problem as my supply was nearly zero. Healthy nursing tea did great help to increase my very low milk flow.

I used Fenugreek and it worked awesome. My daughter was 3 weeks early and was loosing weight fast and my production wasn't enough to feed and pump. Fenugreek was recommended by my lactation consultant and worked awesome. I had more than enough to keep up with both.

Good luck.

The best way to increase your milk supply tends to be increasing your feedings- ("demand" feeding) -which isn't always a popular concept. It is not common for milk supply to be low, unless you get yourself checked out by your own doctor to see that is the case for you. I successfully breastfed my four children and had a lot of breastfeeding support during the time. As long as your baby is having lots of wet nappies, is feeding well and is healthy / happy, then you are probably meeting his needs well. Also, some babies are very active early on. There are a few indicators besides weight gain that are important to consider. Make sure that you allow the baby to finish feeding on one breasts before you switch to the next one. The hind milk is fattier compared to the foremilk, and sometimes we forget to let the baby have enough of the hind milk. Good luck! Cheers

The Mother's Milk tea worked for me (I'm tandem-nursing my toddler and infant), though it's a bit pricey for our budget. I prefer to eat a bit of oatmeal or put chopped up kale in my food (it's really easy to hide in just about anything) which also increase many women's milk supply.

For the kale, you can just chop it up finely, stick it in a ziploc and freeze it. Then whenever you're making a casserole or soup or sauce or smoothie, you just throw a handful or two in. It doesn't have a very strong taste and it has a ton of nutrients that will get passed on to your babe as well :)

Best wishes!

~B.

Hi,
I used the Mother's Milk tea when I was breastfeeding my daughter. I saw an increase in milk supply but only by a little. I followed the directions exactly as the box instructed. The Mothers Milk tea has Fenugreek in it so I'm pretty sure either one will have the same effect.

My second son had trouble regaining his birth weight (9.5 pounds!)..almost 1 month. During that time my midwife had me try everything already mentioned here as well as half a beer a day. apparently the hops increases milk production and only 1.5 serving doesn't have enough alcohol to do anything.

We found out later that first month that I had to go off all wheat and dairy for his digegestion....he was very gassy!!!

We just recently (5 years later) discovered that he is gluten intolerant, and probably dairy too.

I firmly believe he wasn't gaining weight because he wasnt' getting the right nutrients for his body from my diet. Once I removed the wheat and dairy he did great!!

good luck!

Mothers Milk tea works great. You may also try: make a tea with comfrey,Raspberry leaf, Nettles, Alfalfa. You can also get a tinqure from Mama Rosea Herbs. I also used Blessed Thistle. I made sure I ate lots of leafy greens,apricots,and pecans. Hope this helps some.

Blessings
M.
Mother of two great boys
9 3/4 and now 5 years old!