What to do for having abundant milk and prolonging breastfeeding

[shaman]

My son would'nt latch on but I was keen on giving him breast milk- so I kept pumping every 3 hours no matter what (even pumped in air on a long flight  )

I started taking fenugreek tablets after the 7th month. He was only on breastmilk for 9 months 

[andreasro]

Karma to all of you!

I admire your perseverence! I didn't breastfeed long. The first few months were very stressful and our son didn't latch on properly... I tried to use the breast pump and refrigerate the milk, especially after the milk startet again at one month and a half with our son's help, but I couldn't continue for long... Well... Iv'e learned my lesson.
Now I'm all ears when it comes to breastfeeding as we're thinking about having a second baby. And this time I want to make things better.

Here's a "what NOT to do" list I have regarding breastfeeding, in order:

- C-section birth (necessary then) and not being (allowed) immediately after birth to spend quality time with our son (only after 5 days I could be with him all the time)
- lack of anti-stress management, positive thinking, outside help (I couldn't have changed much though, this was the situation then). That is quite puzzling to me. Although our son had health problems, when seeing mothers having babies with more serious ilnesses or in worse conditions I had the power to make jokes and help them laugh and try to comfort them a bit thoug my soul was cut in pieces...
- not drinking enough water
- not fighting more for the baby, being (too) selfish maybe, not establishing the right priorities...

 You've given me good tips!

[kelen]

Hi everyone
I have just seen this post.
My girl is 28 monts and i am still breastfeeding,
How I have gone this long? no idea I have never thought about breastfeeding before but this  is something that just happened
Now my feelings are just confused, because i would like to stop, I am very tired and she keeps laching on me for nearly 1 hour everynight and whenever i am not working
I try to be with her as long as I can, but if anybody could help me to stop it?
I just don't want to let her cry as everybody says, but I think she will never  stop
any help?
and how did I do to have milk and prolong it? no idea , it just happened and i am 42
All the best

[shaman]

Andreasro,
I know its easy for me to say, but don't blame yourself- all of us go through different situations so we really can't compare. Even my son was in the NICU for 4 days- I shudder thinking about those days and am still wondering where I got all that courage from. He was kept away from me for all that time but I had camped myself in the NICU I guess, when the mom is strong and ready, she can make things happen - whatever anyone says.

[marimari]

Hello everybody,

I am also here to share my experience, in my case, besides lots of water that is primordial, I take pulsatila homeopathic pills.

Luck for all.

My third baby is 4m now.

[2010BEBES]

I am still breastfeeding Ella, who is 2 years 10 months old now, and will probably continue until she self-weans or we get serious about trying for a second baby. 
...
I second the recommendation for the kellymom website: http://www.kellymom.com/bf/index.html. It was my one-stop shop for breastfeeding info.

We started solid food at 6 months and I pumped at work until Ella turned 1 year old. My Medela breastpump and I were inseparable! 

aangeles, i took a look to the page you recomend and it looks very usefull. I see a lot of information. karma for that page.

I do not imagine my daughter breastfeeding for more than 12 or 18 months. I suppose keep pumping every 3 or 4 hours requires a lot of dedication. Isn't it? Those are valueble hours that can be better used playing with her or doing some activity.

One other thing that i am deducing (maybe i am wrong) is that at certain point it is painfull to stop breastfeeding. Painfull in a sense that you are sorry for what your toddler will feel.
How can you do it? Do you mention that you have to stop or just stop pumping and giving milk and it will be produced no more.
I have many questions about this.
Think i have to read more that page aangelas recommended.

Thanks to all for sharing.

[aangeles]

Well, I never imagined that I would be breastfeeding this long either!  My initial goal was to make it to 12 months only. 

Also, I only pumped every 3 hours for the first 6 months. After she started solid foods at 6 months, I was able to cut down pumping to once or twice a day. I only pumped when I was at work so it did not cut into any of the time I had with her, and I also used the time I spent pumping to catch up on emails, read journals, prepare lectures, etc. so it was not too bad. 

[Frukc]

In my country, specialists named "breastfeeding consultants" are available.
I breastfed my first one until 2 years and still breastfeeding my second one (15 months).

With my second one, I almost lost my milk. Than I increased it from 10% to 100%. Are you interested in how to do it?

[ShenLi]

Just saw this post...

I breastfed my eldest until he was 3.5+years old. I was tandem nursing him and his brother for about 6 months or so. My youngest is 18 months and still going strong.

What did I do to keep my milk supply up? Nurse on demand and believe in yourself. It can be really hard these days with a lot of negative advice on breastfeeding and the best thing you can do is have breastfeeding support - just a friend who has been through it before you can make all the difference.

I think the biggest killer for a Mom's milk supply is stress and formula supplementing (especially in the early days). Babies who fill up on formula milk don't suckle at the breast as often and when there is no suckling action at the breast, oxytocin isn't produced and milk isn't produced. You need your baby to suckle to tell your body that it needs to make more milk.

Agree with TMT - KellyMom is the best website I've seen on breastfeeding and my no.1 source for information for anything I need to know about breastfeeding. 

[6plus]

I have six kids and breastfeed all of them.  Shortest time was 10 months, because he wasn't interested anymore and the longest time 18months...I had to wean him because I was pregnant with number six.  It's really important not to supplement.  Even pacifiers can mess up your milk supply.  if baby wants to suckle it should be on you   With one of my kids I did take some fenugreek, (don't know if I spelled it right), just so I could pump some extra milk for using in a sippy cup when they were older.  So many people think they don't have enough milk when they don't need to worry.  As long as your baby is wetting their diapers and growing your fine 

[2010BEBES]

In my country, specialists named "breastfeeding consultants" are available.
I breastfed my first one until 2 years and still breastfeeding my second one (15 months).

With my second one, I almost lost my milk. Than I increased it from 10% to 100%. Are you interested in how to do it?

Yes, it will be nice to hear how you did it. I understood that if you get sick and take antibiotic, you can give milk no more. Is it right? Or you stop during some days and then start again. In the mean time you should keep taking out the milk cause if not it will get dry.?

[Skylark]

"I understood that if you get sick and take antibiotic, you can give milk no more. Is it right? Or you stop during some days and then start again. In the mean time you should keep taking out the milk cause if not it will get dry.?"

Usually there are alternatives to antibiotics, which are natural and effective. As a rule, antibiotics should be the last resort, and even then you would need to weigh out the cons ( the long term effects on your body). They usually not as effective as we seem to believe. And leave your body vulnerable to wide variety of additional infections.

So when breastfeeding, it is better to stick to alternatives, and better yet to do preventative measures to not get sick and strengthen our immunity, of course. But understandably that not always works, so looking for natural effective remedies as opposed to antibiotics, would be the best when breastfeeding.

If you have to use antibiotics ( lets say after gangrenous appendicitis, or some other condition where general body is seriously affected and antibiotics are definitely needed), then you would pump in order to keep the supply. For the time you can not give baby your milk you can ask around and find someone to donate theirs. There is a face book page called Eats on Feets, I believe, and I think they were networking mommies who were willing and able to donate their milk, even in different countries.

Hope it helps

[Frukc]

with both of my children, I was very "gnawed" at the beginning. feeding was painful so the milk decreased. there was something wrong with the shape of my nipples. with my second one I also got frostbite and occlusion (I do not know the right term).

It would be a long story about what happened to me, but the result was that I had 60% of the necessary (with my first one)  and 10% (with the second one) after 1.5 months. 

I call the method "the three nipple method".

At every mealtime, you give: breast nr 1, than breast nr 2 and than (without pause)  breast nr 1.
Breast nr 1 will be empty but baby will be able to get a few drops.
so brain will receive signal that more milk is needed. milk is being formed in brain!

Keep the usual interval between the mealtimes (at least 1.5 hours, I did 2 - 3 hours).

Repeat it in every mealtime during 2 - 3 days. Than stop unless  you want to open a dairy!
Stop if you feel pain or any signs of occlusion.

With this method I happily renewed my milk to 100% of necessary. Or may be more because my second one turned fat. I fed my first one until 2 years and I still do it with my 16 mo old.

Well, and supplement is not a poison.

=

There are stories that in the war times, some mothers lost their babies and than they adopted other babies who lost their mothers. With this method they renewed their milk even 2 months after they ended to feed. I believe these stories because the method is very powerful.

[Tanikit]

I believe that a good breastfeeding relationship is part luck and part hard work. How I have managed with both my children is quite surprising and shows it can be done no matter what the circumstances. Having said that though I do believe there is still aplace for formula and sometimes breastfeeding can be so stressful for a mother that it ends up destorying the relationship between the mother and baby - then formula is better.

My first child was in NICU for one day and the second for 4 days. Both were given formula in the hospital both by bottle and by syringe to correct sugar levels. They were also both on a drip and my second child also had a nasal tube. All of this is meant to make breastfeeding harder. I never got to feed them til 12 and 18 hours after each ones birth again something that is not advised if you want a good breastfeeding relationship. My first did not latch and it took 4 days before I called someone to help - by then she was starving and very jaundiced. With a lot of work I got the first one to feed and it took 2 weeks of nipple shields til she drank without them. She breastfed 26 months in total. The breastfeeding also left me with low sugar levels as I am diabetic and this was sometimes dangerous.
My second child took to breastfeeding well and latched well despite all the NICU treatments. We were hijacked recently in an armed robbery and this put a lot of stress on me but I am still managing to breastfeed - I just try to drink lots to keep up my supply. She is now 4 months old and I would like to breastfeed beyond a year but will see how things go. My first child I breastfeed even after going back to work, my second I have yet to go back to work for which I am grateful.

[Korrale4kq]

My son just weaned himself at 17 months. I thought he would nurse forever but one day he just stopped asking for it and I never continued to offer.

If you really want to breastfeed I believe it can be done. My son had nearly all the reasons why it is hard. C-section, low birth weight, I never got to see him until the night after I gave birth, He was on a respirator and he had an IV for 2 days so he had no need to nurse all his food was going through that.

However we made it work. I actually had to stop pumping because I was over producing. It was the only thing that stopped me from leaking constantly. I also had a hefty stash in the freezer that I never even used.

The only time I had a supply issue was when I didn't drink enough water. That helped tremendously.  So don't let yourself get dehydrated. Also when your baby goes through a growth spurt it may seem at first like your supply is low but it will catch up the more they nurse. Nursing on demand is also best at building supply in the early days. Try and avoid bottles also because it can increase nipple confusion.

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