Expert: ruth kraft - 10/7/2009

Question
Dear Mrs Ruth kraft
I find this site so helpful and hope you can advise me also.My son is now 8mths old and i stopped breastfeeding around 4 1/2months.  He preferred bottle feeding and i also found it more convenient.  I have breastfed my elder son for 1 1/2yrs as he did not want to stop.  i suppose i was worried that it would happen again with my second son.  I now feel very guilty that i did not give him breastmilk when it was plentiful. i wonder if i can restart again now?  i don t have electric breast pump and in my country we dont have as many facilities as in yours. i only have a manual pump but i found it useless if the breast is not full of milk?  can any medicine help in increasing milk supply?
Thank you for your time and advice
Regards
Tess Limm

Answer
after this long a period of time, it will take alot of work to get the milk back in. Especially with a hand pump only. I suggest looking online, finding a double electric breastpump , one that is high end, and you can take mothers milk tea and see if that help. Pump every 2 hours for about 3 weeks and see if you get any drops of milk. if you do, keep pumping, if not you will have to ask for meds from your doctor.

Good luck!