I see questions about increasing milk supply all the time in the mommy groups I’m part of on Facebook. Breastfeeding can be a real struggle and everyone has a different relationship with it. My journey went on a little too long in my opinion, but I was able to do it for close to 19 months and I could have gone longer if I wanted to! I’ll cut to the chase and I’ll make a list of things you can do to increase your supply for the long run!
Drink water; milk is a liquid that comes from your body, more water means more milk. Doctors tell nursing women to drink more water for this reason exactly! I have always been bad at drinking water but once I increased my intake by even 2 bottles, I went from being able to produce 3 oz at a time from each breast to 5 or 6 oz from each breast. The best way to see if your getting enough water is taking your weight and dividing it by 2. That is how many ounces a non-nursing person has to drink. Now add an additional 16 oz to that and give it a shot!
Breastfeed > pumping; Your body produces what it thinks your baby needs based off of the frequency you breastfeed. Your baby’s saliva communicates to your boobs to increase the flow! When you have the choice, try to Breastfeed.
Nutrition; Making sure your body is getting adequet nutrition is also important in keeping your supply up. An easy thing to do is continue taking prenatal and daily multivitamins and drinking naked juice (or something similar). Another thing you can do, that I didn’t personally, is talk to your doctor about breastfeeding supplements.
Lactation snacks; Baker’s yeast is fantastic for your milk supply, so hopefully on Pinterest and look up lactation cookies with baker’s yeast and find one that sounds the best for your taste! Keep in mind baker’s yeast is very bitter, so the more stuff in the cookies the better! Nuts are also great for your milk supply. I ate a Nature’s Valley sweet and salty almond bar regularly! A few other things that help milk supply are; drinking more milk, steel cut oats, mother’s milk tea, IPA beer and the Ben and Jerrys Oats of this swirl land.
One other important tip I can give you is reducing stress. What killed my milk supply in the beginning (before the revival) was stress. We found out we were moving cross country and I was recovering from a C-section and having to do all the packing myself because of the hours my husband worked. All while handling a newborn. It wasn’t fun and my anxiety got the best of me but shortly after we got things under control, my supply came back up and all was well!
If you have any other tips I missed, make sure to leave them in the comment section! Let me know if any of these milk boosting methods worked for you!
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article sponsered by Northern Michigan certified lactation consulting and Mother Hubbards Country Cupboard
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