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No Milk and baby is hungry and loosing weight


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I have read through some of the post in this forum about nursing and I have now been taking a strong herbal nursing formula tincture since Friday and trying my best to eat as much as I can but I still have almost no milk and my baby is hungry all the time and seems to be loosing weight, at least, he looks skinnier.  I don't know what to do, I am at my wits end and feel like I should just quit but I was really wanting to do this for 30 days!! I am on day 14 today and need some timely advise as to what to do!~

Thanks!!!

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How old is your baby? How do you know that you don't have milk? Is baby having an adequate number of wet diapers?

It's possibly baby is just going through a normal growth spurt, which can cause fussiness and an increased desire to nurse. That said, I did notice a bit of a drop when I did Whole30 while nursing. I personally have a very strong, almost painful letdown reflux, and noticed I wasn't feeling that, along with baby fussing at the breast, tugging, crying more, and having infrequent wet diapers. Once i added more fat and starchy veggies, that resolved. I had a sweet potato with lots of coconut oil at least once a day, if not more. Are you eating 4 meals, or at least 3 meals and one or two mini meals?

 

Also, one of the best cures for low supply, no matter what you are eating, is putting baby to breast more often. Skin to skin contact can also help. Try spending extra cuddle time in bed, or put baby in a sling or baby carrier, with baby in just a diaper and you in a tank tap or just a sports bra. Nurse, nurse, nurse.

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There are stores in my town that will weigh your baby on their scale for free. Contact a lactation consultant ASAP if you are worried the baby is losing weight. You might need to pump in between feedings to increase your supply. The pumped milk can be fed to the baby using a SNS tube so you don't even have to ever use a bottle (which could impact supply as well).

 

And drink toooooons of water. 

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If you are really concerned and your baby is not doing well, you need to go to a doctor. We can advise you about eating but an Internet forum is not the place to get immediate help about a baby losing weight and being hungry.

If you feel you don't have supply and your baby is in danger, go to the doctor.

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So here's an example of my day:

Breakfast: 2 eggs, a little meat, asparagus, salsa,mushrooms, and an orange.

Lunch: pork ribs, 1/2 sweet pot., 2 cups broccoli

Dinner: jicama tacos (guac,salsa,hamburger, cabbage) and green beans

A handful of nuts for a before bed snack.

I am drinking lots of water, of course I could drink more. And I've been nursing on demand, which seems like all day and night right now. And, yes, he is having fewer wet diaps. Oh, and my baby is 10 months old, exclusively breastfed, he's my 7th child and I've breastfed all of them till 2 yrs old and have never had a problem with milk supply, so this is, to me, crazy. Of course, I've never before dieted either,never felt like I needed to. Thank you all for your comments, please feel free to give more feedback, I'm desperate to figure this out and get my milk back!

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You're not eating enough.

The composition of your meals doesn't look too bad, but you could do with more food, and certainly more fat - breakfast & lunch look to have none.

Nursing mums need four meals a day, or three template meals and a few snacks made up of two of the three macros - ideally with plenty of fat.

Many nursing mums sip on compliant coconut milk through the day to help.

 

Up your food intake with immediate effect and see how you go, but if you are at all concerned about your son please speak with a medical professional.

 

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I second the coconut milk suggestion heartily. I'm not doing a W30 right now (still feeling overwhelmed with my first baby at home, plus in the process of leaving my job to become a stay at home mom) but I'm going through at least 2 cans of full fat coconut milk a week. Right now, since I'm not W30ing, I'm turning them into chia seed pudding; when I do my next W30 I'll have to figure out something else to do with them since I'm not a huge fan of sipping it straight, but the difference in my supply since I started doing the coconut milk is impressive. Which reminds me, I've had less strong let-downs the last two days so off to drink more water and get some fat into my body!

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Hi there! I'm slightly ahead of you and had the same thing happen around week 2. What helped get my supply back was mothers milk tea with full fat coconut milk 2x a day, sweet potatoes every day, a ton of water and really focusing on the template ( I was letting fruit take over!).

I wholeheartedly second getting with your doctor or a lactation consultant - best of luck!

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I dont understand, what's in the previous diet (way of eating) thats being omitted by only eating good veggies, protein and fats that causes the milk to drop? Processed Carbs?  

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Your body is lacking calcium and carbohydrates or basically sugars. When women menstruate they will notice a dip in their milk supply and we have found this is attributed to a calcium drop. This diet restricts dairy and this is what your body needs actually is calcium from the dairy. I would recommend taking a calcium supplement (Tums also help) and reintroducing dairy and carbs back into your diet. I am a nursing mother for many years now with a tubular breast deformity. I have nursed extendedly my babies so I know the ails of a low milk supply. What you need to do is fix the diet (I would not do this whole 30 diet while nursing based off my research thus far) and get back on a good healthy rounded diet with plenty of water intake. Skin to skin contact your baby, nurse around the clock, drink water, take fenugreek, eat steel cut oatmeal with a glass of milk, and look at the wet diapers of your baby. Your baby comes first and breastfeeding provides so many health benefits for you and your baby it isn't worth throwing away over trying a diet.  

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I dont understand, what's in the previous diet (way of eating) thats being omitted by only eating good veggies, protein and fats that causes the milk to drop? Processed Carbs?  

 Calcium, fats, and sugars (carbs) you need all of these for good breastmilk production. Calcium is a major factor actually. A good tincture or fenugreek pill contains at minimum 73mg of calcium per dose 5x a day. This helps boost calcium and ta-da you get more milk. Here is the composition of fenugreek from Kellymom:

 

 

Nutritional Profile — Fenugreek Seed — Trigonella foenum-graecum (Leguminosae) 

calculated on a zero moisture basis per 100 gm Aluminum 35 mg Cobalt 0.182 mg Magnesium 121 mg Ash(total) 3.9 % Crude Fiber 8.7 % Manganese 0.21 mg Calcium 73 mg Dietary Fiber 48.0 % Niacin 1.60 mg Calories 0.68 /gm Fat 6.4 % Phosphorus 288 mg Carbohydrates 59.1 % Iron 5.6 mg Potassium 102 mg Chromium 0.04 mg Protein 30.6 % Tin 0.42 mg Thiamine 1.35 mg Selenium 0.16 mg Silicon 0.47mg Riboflavin 0.32 mg Sodium 58.0 mg Vitamin A 38.5 IU Vitamin C 60.0 mg Zinc [trace mg]     Nutrients of note: Sugars 13 % (glucose, arabinose, galactose) Starch 15 % Nutritional Profile — Fenugreek Seed — Trigonella foenum-graecum (Leguminosae) 

calculated on a zero moisture basis per 100 gm Aluminum 35 mg Cobalt 0.182 mg Magnesium 121 mg Ash(total) 3.9 % Crude Fiber 8.7 % Manganese 0.21 mg Calcium 73 mg Dietary Fiber 48.0 % Niacin 1.60 mg Calories 0.68 /gm Fat 6.4 % Phosphorus 288 mg Carbohydrates 59.1 % Iron 5.6 mg Potassium 102 mg Chromium 0.04 mg Protein 30.6 % Tin 0.42 mg Thiamine 1.35 mg Selenium 0.16 mg Silicon 0.47mg Riboflavin 0.32 mg Sodium 58.0 mg Vitamin A 38.5 IU Vitamin C 60.0 mg Zinc [trace mg]     Nutrients of note: Sugars 13 % (glucose, arabinose, galactose) Starch 15 %

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There are more efficient and bioavailable ways to get calcium than milk. Most of my family is allergic or intolerant of dairy, but they get calcium through dark leafy greens and vegetables like broccoli and kale without taking a supplement. Calcium is also available in some nuts too.

As for a carb reduction, that'd be easily fixed on whole 30 by using roots and starchy veggies (parsnips, potatoes, sweet potatoes, winter squash, etc) and a moderate amount of fruit.

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As far as sugars, your body doesn't need them. Yes carbs, but carbs doesn't equal sugar. As a diabetic, if I ate the SAD recommended amount of carbs (300g per 2000kcal), I'd be DKA in no time. I function better (even while breastfeeding!) with half or less than that amount of carbs. W30 isn't necessarily "low carb" in that it eliminates carbs, but it does train your body to run off fat which is metabolized differently and less stressfully by your body. My pancreas is on its last leg, and liver too, and if i keep trying to eat the SAD, it's last leg is going to be a short run before it completely stops functioning (I have autoimmune diabetes, not type 2/metabolic).

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I'm having the same problem I've reset so many times since April 4th bc even after one day my milk depletes. So do you drink a full can of milk with every tea or a 1/2 can?

 

I'm drinking probably 1/4 cup of the milk in every cup of tea, and drinking the tea 2x a day, so I'm going through a can every 2 days. I've noticed if I decrease this, I see a drop. 

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Your body is lacking calcium and carbohydrates or basically sugars. When women menstruate they will notice a dip in their milk supply and we have found this is attributed to a calcium drop. This diet restricts dairy and this is what your body needs actually is calcium from the dairy. I would recommend taking a calcium supplement (Tums also help) and reintroducing dairy and carbs back into your diet. I am a nursing mother for many years now with a tubular breast deformity. I have nursed extendedly my babies so I know the ails of a low milk supply. What you need to do is fix the diet (I would not do this whole 30 diet while nursing based off my research thus far) and get back on a good healthy rounded diet with plenty of water intake. Skin to skin contact your baby, nurse around the clock, drink water, take fenugreek, eat steel cut oatmeal with a glass of milk, and look at the wet diapers of your baby. Your baby comes first and breastfeeding provides so many health benefits for you and your baby it isn't worth throwing away over trying a diet.  

 

It is absolutely untrue that you have to consume dairy to have a good milk supply. I successfully breastfed one of my children until he was 2.5, and was dairy free almost the entire time. He was an absolutely healthy chunk of a baby and toddler. If I consumed dairy, he was a miserable baby who cried and screamed for days while having projectile spit-up and diarrhea.

I started a Whole30 while my youngest daughter was 7 weeks old. I noticed a bit of a drop in supply initially, but as soon as I added more sweet potatoes and good fats, my supply went back to a great level, and she gained weight beautifully during my Whole30.

Your baby does come first, and breastfeeding is great for babies and moms - I've breastfed five kids. But doing a Whole30 is not "throwing away" breastfeeding for a "diet." As the many moms who have successfully breastfed while doing Whole30 can testify.

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Your body is lacking calcium and carbohydrates or basically sugars. When women menstruate they will notice a dip in their milk supply and we have found this is attributed to a calcium drop. This diet restricts dairy and this is what your body needs actually is calcium from the dairy. I would recommend taking a calcium supplement (Tums also help) and reintroducing dairy and carbs back into your diet. I am a nursing mother for many years now with a tubular breast deformity. I have nursed extendedly my babies so I know the ails of a low milk supply. What you need to do is fix the diet (I would not do this whole 30 diet while nursing based off my research thus far) and get back on a good healthy rounded diet with plenty of water intake. Skin to skin contact your baby, nurse around the clock, drink water, take fenugreek, eat steel cut oatmeal with a glass of milk, and look at the wet diapers of your baby. Your baby comes first and breastfeeding provides so many health benefits for you and your baby it isn't worth throwing away over trying a diet.

Dairy is absolutely not the only (or the best) place to get calcium from... Perhaps you need to read the rules of the program because a lot of people have breastfed quite successfully on the Whole30. Which, incidentally is not a 'diet'. It's a 30 day elimination plan to see how foods affect each person individually. It's also based on whole foods rich in all nutrients and if someone is eating a variety of whole nutritous foods, they don't need to eat oats and milk... especially if the person does not well tolerate either oats or milk.

http://whole9life.com/2012/02/what-about-calcium/

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they don't need to eat oats and milk... especially if the person does not well tolerate either oats or milk.

 

 

This. Or if mom tolerates dairy fine, but baby has a severe dairy allergy. My friend's first son is extremely allergic to dairy. Kiddo was still in the womb and reacted negatively whenever mom had dairy so she completely cut it out for the majority of her pregnancy and while she was breastfeeding. Not having dairy didn't affect either of them negatively and the kiddo's now 4 and completely healthy except for the severe dairy allergy (they've carried an epi-pen for him pretty much his whole life).

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