Expert: ruth kraft - 8/14/2009

Question
I have a near five month old daughter and it seems as though my milk supply is drying up.  She has not had any formula or solids whatsoever, she won't even take a bottle, so all her nutrition is coming straight from me.  I have noticed she often doesn't seem quite satisfied after nursing and that my breasts often feel flat and empty most of the time.  She has also begun to wake during the night again and nurses every 1.5 to 2 hours or so (She nurses every 2- 2.5 hours in the day). I have tried fenugreek and extra pumping in the evenings after she is in bed and I usually get around 1.5 oz total from both breasts. I haven't seen any increase in the past few days however.  My period returned about a week ago ( I was very surprised as it didn't return for 7 months after my first baby).  I had some supply problems with my older daughter, butI was still able to drag it out for 10 months. I'm confused as to what could cause a decrease in milk when my daughter doesn't get any other food?  Is it possible to get my supply back?  I desperately want to nurse for a year or more!
Thank you so much in advance!

Oh and I am not on any medications.


Answer
there is very little that will cause milk to decrease for no reason... usually stress related, infrequent nursing, inefficent nursing etc... however, because she has nursed this long, its unlikely to be the second two because you would have noticed an issue prior to that... interestingly enough, a mother I am working with has an 4.5 month old as well and one of her twins started doing this same behaviour.... It is perplexing as it isnt something I see often. I don't think it is a problem really... If your baby is having wet and dirty diapers and behaving normally, then you should be fine. Maybe she is going through a small growth spurt that is something her body wants to do but isnt really typical. I do know that it is VERY normal that at this age your breasts feel less full, especially as the day wears on. The morning is when you will have the most milk and as the day progresses it gets less in feeling full and supply dwindles. this is because we are suppose to eat the biggest meal of the day and smaller snacking.cluster feeding meals throughout the evening and night. This is actually how its suppose to be. but that doesnt mean there is no milk so it can be misleading often.

You can take some mothers milk tea and see if you have a response to that... also blessed thistle can help at times as well. She could be just growing through a developmental thing and want to nurse more... if she was once sleeping through the night, try to get her back to that and maybe she will nurse more during the day. She really doesnt need to nurse as much in the night if her weight is fine and shes having those wet and dirty diapers... its more of an emotional need than physical usually... the behavior of pulling at the breast and nursing more frequently is strange... and we may never know why...  you just have to monitor her well being and go from there :)

I hope that helped!
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