Help Needed!! R1D10 and milk supply dropping fast

[Renate]

Hi all, I'm a first time mum and exclusively breastfeeding my 4 mo boy, currently R1D10 and last 3 days a noticed a drop in my milk supply! Immediately took action and changed my daily intake by adding more fat and protein. Today my milk supply is very low and I'm getting really worried!! So urgently in need for some help.

As an example, this is what I ate today:

6am first feed snack - 1 boiled egg and 200 mls coconut milk

7.30am breakfast - mince pattie fried, 2 boiled eggs, cucumber and 1/2 avocado

10am snack - 10 raw almonds and 200 mls coconut milk

12.30pm lunch - zucchini salad with cherry tomatoes, 1 avocado

3.30pm snack - banana and 200 mls coconut milk

7pm dinner - moussaka with eggplant, greensalad, olives and sweet potato as a side

 

Do I need more carbs??

Your help and tips are very welcome!!

 

 

[ShannonM816]

Aim for four full-sized template meals, and then supplement with extra food as needed. Also, be sure you're drinking lots of water. In general for most people we say aim for 1/2 oz per pound of body weight (so a 120-lb person would need at least 60 oz), and nursing moms even need more than that.

A full-sized template meal would include:

• 1-2 palm-sized portions of protein, the length, width, and height of your palm, or if eggs are your only protein, as many whole eggs as you can hold in your hand, which is probably 3-4
• 1-2 thumb-sized portions of fat from oils, dressings, sauces, or mayo; or 1-2 heaping handfuls of olives or coconut flakes; or 1/2 to a whole avocado; or a small closed handful of nuts. You generally want at least one fat serving in addition to what you cook in, since often what you cook in stays in the pan and isn't consumed
• fill the plate with vegetables -- one cup would be a bare minimum, aim for 2-3 cups, more if it's all raw leafy green stuff as they tend to wilt down to nothing as you eat and don't always stay with you
• occasionally, have some fruit, a fist-sized serving up to a couple of times a day.

When you have something between meals, try to have a combo of protein, fat, and vegetables, or at least two of the three.

It would be absolutely fine to have more starchy vegetables. Try adding some potato or sweet potato or just a mix of roasted vegetables at breakfast or lunch, or both. You could cook several servings at a time and just pull them out of the fridge and either heat them up or eat them cold, or sometimes when I have veggies already cooked, I throw them in a skillet to heat them up and once they're warm, I add eggs and just scramble the whole thing up for a quick and easy meal.

You actually seem to have a good amount of fat throughout the day, so work on adding in vegetables, including starchy ones, and make sure all your meals include some protein.

I know there are other things people do to help increase supply -- certain kinds of teas and stuff -- but I'm not overly familiar with them. If they don't include any non-compliant stuff like sweeteners or soy, they should be okay to have. But eating more should help too, it just may take more than a day or two to really see results.

 

[Renate]

Thank you for your advice Shannon, need to make some more adjustments!! Seems like my milk supply is picking up a bit during early morning and at night but the afternoon is still a struggle  

[littleg]

It sounds like you are not in the US so I don't know if it is sold by you but I've heard good things about http://www.traditionalmedicinals.com/products/mothers-milk/

Are you drinking more?  If this way of eating is a big change for you (decrease in carbs, processed salts) you will diurese - so make sure and drink more than you used to.  You might even want to salt the water a bit or use broth (real, not bullion) with electrolytes or coconut water (vs coconut milk).  

I would also definitely add more carbs - you didn't really have any until dinner.  Have some with each meal and see if it helps.

I'm a FTM and 2 weeks PP so who am I to give advice... but here is what I ate yesterday:

M1 - 1/4 of a frittata made with a total of 1 lb sausage, 8 eggs, 2 lbs of frozen veggies, 1 fist sized potato fried in pork fat maybe some extra sautéed broccoli on the side (I forget!)

M2 - no real meal 2 because of a pediatrician app't - snacks over 2 hrs (don't do this!) 4 apples, 2 tbsp almond butter, 3 clementines, 2 HB eggs with 1 tbsp homemade mayo

M3 - big serving of pulled roasted pork, pan fried broccoli, butternut squash, potatoes and a treat (with the whipped coconut cream - and because it was made just one bowl - so I'm sure I had more than 1/8 worth!).  

Over the course of the day I had 3 1L bottles of carbonated water, 1 16 oz kombucha, 1 16 oz mug of the mother's milk tea (with 2 tea bags) and a few cups of half caffeinated coffee in the AM

I'm not experienced enough yet to notice if my supply is "ok" or changing on a daily basis yet.  But little man had his 2 week app't yesterday and he is up 1 lb in 9 days - so beyond the 1 oz a day weight gain they hope to see... almost double that.  So I can only assume my milk is ok...?

 

[Bugga]

I have found that eating starchy carbs with each meal keeps my milk supply steady. I try to vary the types, but I typically rotate sweet potato, white potatoes, butternut squash, kabocha squash, and plantains. 

[osomama]

Echoing others to up your carb intake, sister! Sweet potatoes and other root vegetables and squash should be in at least two meals a day, maybe three to get your supply back up. 

Of course drink plenty of water, you can try mothers milk tea and maybe talk to your doc about a magnesium supplement. 

[reed3297]

Hi ladies - I read through all of your recommendations. I am on R1D16 and am breastfeeding my mobile 7 month old and have noticed the amount of pumped milk I'm expressing while I'm at work is really going down. I bring snacks to have mini meals, but I am always so full after my breakfast and lunch, in addition to drinking a LOT of water, that I rarely eat them. Does anyone else have this issue? Am I eating too much at those meals, perhaps, and should cut back so I can eat steadily throughout the day? 

[jmcbn]

Hey @reed3297 - can you give us a run down of a few typical days worth of food/liquid intake? Are you eating plenty of fat & starchy veg? Have you tried mother's tea?

[reed3297]

Hi there! Here's what I ate yesterday. It's a pretty typical day. Today I have probably had 3 cups of coffee and have only had breakfast. I've  had 40oz of water today. I'm still really full. 

Maybe I'm drinking too much coffee?? Would that impact it? I'm embarrassed that this is my 3rd time nursing a baby and I'm unaware of how much coffee is too much coffee, but I figured it didn't hurt to ask. I only drink it in the morning. In full disclosure I was exclusively breastfeeding my other 2 by 7.5 months as opposed to all this pumping I'm having to do so I didn't have to worry about preparing bottles...they just ate till they were full and happy!

I estimate I'm drinking around 100oz of water a day and I weigh 175lbs. 

Mother's Milk Tea (I drink 1 mug a day right now) - I also take Fenugreek

16oz coffee with a tablespoon or 2 of unsweetened almond milk (compliant!)

Sauteed red potatoes (2 small) in ghee mixed with spinach, peppers and grape tomatoes and 3 eggs topped with 1/2 avocado

10oz coffee black

2 bowls of chicken chowder (from Whole30 book - has broccoli, coconut milk, chicken, sweet potato and I added butternut squash to mine)

2 slices of turkey breast with a ton of carrot sticks and a single-serving container of spicy Wholly Guac, 1/2 bottle kombucha

Buffalo chicken on a huge bowl of broccoli

THANK YOU for your help!!

[Dani26.2]

Can you sub in decaf for most of your coffee?  I am nursing now -- I know the recommendation is 2 cups of regular coffee per day max...but I found if I use 3/4 decaf in the coffee mix, I can kinda' be okay like that...  Coffee does dehydrate you (the caffeine in it does)...  seems like 26 oz a day is a lot.

[mommef]

Try drinking lots of fluids, not necessarily milk. Soups and water can do. Drink healthy nursing tea and keep on pumping. Except for you vitamins, do not take anything that may decrease milk production.