How to increase lactation of a nursing mother

Every young mother worries about whether her baby has enough milk. It is not uncommon – such situations when the needs of the growing baby for food are higher than the mother’s capabilities. How to increase lactation of a nursing mother? Doctors-pediatricians talk.

See also: Rules for expressing breast milk.

The content of the article:

How to increase lactation? The most effective folk and medical remedies

• Brew with hot milk (0.5 l) shelled walnuts (half a glass), insist in a thermos for 4 hours. Drink the infusion twice a day, in small sips, a third of the glass.
• Boil carrots in milk… This dessert is eaten three times a day, 3-4 weeks in a row.
• Beat in a blender sugar (no more than 15 g), milk (120-130 ml) and carrot juice (50-60 ml). Drink twice a day in a glass, immediately after preparation. Before going to bed, you can add a spoonful of honey to the cocktail.
• Pour a glass of boiling water over 1 tbsp / l of the mixture (equal parts fennel, anise and dill seeds), insist an hour, drink strained twice a day (no more than half a glass and no earlier than an hour after eating).
• Consume daily lettuce with sour cream (course – month). But the amount of lettuce should be limited and the course should not be delayed; lettuce in large quantities will not be beneficial.
• Pour in sweet boiling water (0.2 ml) chamomile flowers (1 st / l). Drink three times a day, a glass, the course is a week.

• Boil with boiling water (glass) the fruits of anise (1 tbsp / l), drink a third to half a glass half an hour before meals, three times a day.
• Pour cumin seeds in a glass of boiled milk (1 tsp), cook for 2 minutes. Take three times a day, a quarter of a glass.
• Increase the amount of green onions, nettle and dill, bran and caraway bread…
• Brew one packet nettles (purchased at a pharmacy) or 1 tsp, if it is in bulk, drink half a glass twice a day. Do not overdo it: Nettle is great for increasing lactation, but it also causes uterine contractions.
• Pour boiling water over (0.2 ml) dry sweet clover (1 tbsp / l), leave for 4 hours. Drink a glass in small portions throughout the day.
• Pour a glass of boiling water dry dandelion roots (1 h / l), insist for about an hour, drink 100 ml strained and cooled three times a day (preferably before meals).
• Pour boiling water over dandelion leaves (to get rid of bitterness), or put them in cold water for half an hour. Next, make a salad with sour cream out of them.
• Pour a spoonful of the mixture with a glass of boiling water (40 g fennel and 20 g lemon balm), leave for an hour, after straining, drink instead of tea.
• Use green tea… Drink black tea with condensed milk…

• Boil in a liter of water ground ginger (st / l) within 5 minutes. Drink half a glass, warm, three times a day.
• Drink juice from black currant, radish and carrot…
• Put your feet in a basin filled with hot water (before feeding). While your legs are warming up, drink warm tea. After the legs are warm, start feeding.

When using folk remedies do not forget about the risk of allergies in yourself or your baby. Be careful with individual components. If in doubt, it is best to consult with your doctor beforehand.

Pediatrician tips: how to increase lactation for a nursing mother

1. Before feeding (for half an hour) drink warm milk tea…
2. Before feeding, do yourself breast massage (strictly clockwise, stroking movements).
3. After feeding, massage your breasts with a shower about five minutes, from the nipple and to the sides.
4. The production of the hormone prolactin, which is responsible for the lactation process, is most active at night. So on-demand feeding at night increase lactation.
5. For stable lactation, a mother should provide herself good dream… If normal sleep is impossible at night with your baby, then you must go to bed during the day, at least for a short while.
6. Will help in increasing lactation also lean meat and all dairy products… And of course, water – 2 liters daily… You can substitute herbal tea for water.
7. It will not hurt and gymnasticsthat helps to strengthen the breasts (for example, push-ups from a chair / wall).

And the main thing – eliminate, if possible, all causes of stress… From stress, not only lactation can decrease, but milk can disappear altogether.

Commentary by the neonatologist of the highest category, head of the department of physiology of newborns Marina Levadneva – how to increase lactation

First of all, you need to apply the baby to the breast more often and for a longer period. In addition, you need to follow a rational drinking regime.

It must be remembered that 1.5 – 1.8 liters of water are consumed to provide for a person’s own body. It is necessary to maintain good condition of the skin, hair, internal organs. If the mother drinks only 1.5 liters of water, then this volume will all go to her. Or it will go to lactation, but then hair will begin to fall out, teeth will deteriorate and everything else. Therefore, the drinking regime should be increased, even if you are not very thirsty.

You need to drink 2 – 2.5 liters of liquid per day. Most of this volume of liquid should be ordinary water. If the mother has problems with the formation of lactation, but in pharmacies there are herbal preparations, the so-called lactogenic teas. But not freeze-dried instant, but natural sets with filter bags.

Mom can replace her usual morning tea with these lactogenic herbs. And in the evening. They are produced by many companies, they are called so – lactogenic herbs in filter bags. There are physical methods to stimulate lactation – this is a contrast douche of the mammary glands.

I want to emphasize that you do not need to wash your breasts before each feed. Because in place of the halos, the Montgomery glands work. These glands produce sebum, which contributes to the extensibility of the halos. If this fat is washed off, then cracks and discomfort may form while the baby sucks. Therefore, the mammary gland is washed once a day during an evening shower. At this time, you can have a contrast shower.

Take a shower head, turn on the hot water, then cooler and massage the gland, constantly changing the temperature of the water. You need to finish the shower, depending on whether you will feed the baby after a shower or you have already fed him and he fell asleep.

If there is no feeding in the near future, then end with a cool stream, and vice versa, if you feed, then end with a warm stream. You can work with a breast pump. In our department we use a professional breast pump, which has two modes – stimulation of lactation and expression. But any breast pump will help stimulate prolactin production. The same device will help in the treatment of lactostasis, if it suddenly occurs.

Psychologist’s comment

Sociologist, psychologist Alena Dubinets told about why a nursing mother is losing lactation

The human subconscious is very eloquent. In stressful situations, it always defines us, and the postpartum lactation period is, without a doubt, a stressful situation for the mother.

Why can lactation worsen? If there is no medical reason for this, then the problem is psychosomatic and its root is hidden deep in the subconscious. Probably, a mother, insecure about the physical or social safety of her child, automatically programs her body to refuse to take care of her newborn child. The subconscious mind literally says: “It will be difficult for him to survive, you understand this, therefore, you do not need to feed him“. This is how problems with lactation arise.

Only a psychotherapist can help a mother get rid of such a negative subconscious attitude.