The cost for my 2 hour private consult was $90.00. It was worth every penny. I know that many families live on a tight budget and that an extra $100 is not always available. But let me ask you this, if you are unable to increase your milk supply on your own and you do not get professional help, how much will supplementing with formula until your baby is one year+ old cost? I guarantee it will be more expensive than $90.00

If your situation is like mine, and your precious baby is not getting enough to eat, it is important that you supplement their caloric intake until you alone can produce enough milk to sustain them. This does not mean that you have to give your baby formula. I was lucky because I had pumped a large enough stash over the first four months to be able to supplement her with bottles of my expressed milk. But if you do not have a big enough stash of frozen milk, supplementing with formula is the next best step. My pediatrician recommends Enfamil Lipid. In his research he has found that specific formula to be the closest to breast milk on the market.

But how much should you supplement your baby?

My Pediatrician instructed us to weigh our daughter before and after each feeding for a 24 hour period of time to find out how much she was drinking. For breastfed babies you cannot measure how much they are eating with just one feeding. When babies are formula fed, you know you are giving them six 4 ounce bottles throughout the day. But the breast does not make the same amount of milk all day long. In most women, the breast produces the most ounces of milk per feeding in the morning and then tapers off throughout the day. It is very normal for a baby to drink 10 ounces of milk at their morning feeding but maybe only 2-3 ounces of milk at an afternoon feeding.

How to weigh your baby:

We were fortunate enough to be able to rent a hospital grade baby scale from the Special Addition nursing store in Austin. You can however buy a baby scale for under $50 at Babies R Us.

1. Before a feeding, place your baby on the scale and document the weight. Make sure your scale shows ounces.
2. Nurse your baby on both sides.
3. Reweigh your baby immediately after nursing. It is very important to make sure your baby is wearing the exact same thing that he/she was when you first weighed her. We are talking about ounces, so even a sock matters. Also do not change his/her diaper between weighing either. Even if they have soiled their diaper during the feeding, that pee or poop was in their body during the first weight, so it needs to be included in the final weight to get a true account of the amount of milk your baby is receiving.

When we did this, we found out our daughter was getting about 12 ounces less than a baby of her weight should be consuming on a daily basis; so we knew that until I could increase my milk supply, we needed to make up for that 12 ounces by supplementing her. I chose to give her two six ounce bottles. I gave one in the afternoon and one in the evening before bed. Always supplement your baby after they have fully nursed at each breast. I chose to supplement in the latter half of the day because my breasts made the most milk in the morning.

Remember the goal is to increase your milk supply not replace it. So only offer supplementary milk AFTER a full feeding at both breasts.

I am fortunate enough to be able to stay home with my daughter, so cuddling up on the couch and nursing all day was a viable option for me. I tried to keep Savannah attached to my boob as much as possible. I fed her every hour and every time she would wake up at night. I let her sleep nurse, pacify suck, anything she wanted to keep my breasts stimulated. Co-sleeping during this process can really help if you are open to that style of parenting.

Keeping your breasts as empty as possible is the best thing you can do. It will signal your body that you need more milk. If you let your breasts get full, your body thinkshey, we have enough now.

If you are a working mom, see if you can take off for a few days, or maybe take a long weekend. If you have any vacation or personal days saved up, I cannot think of a better reason to use them. Nothing will help more than a sweet nursing baby. If this is not an option, try baby-wearing the hours that you are at home. In the morning when you wake up, nurse your little one like normal, then place them in any type of baby carrier that you feel comfortable nursing in. That way you can continue to nurse the entire time you are getting ready for work, eating breakfast, and loading up your car. Even if they are just playing around, any type of stimulation will be helpful. Do the same when you get home from work.

Adding as many pumping sessions as you can, while you are away, is a must!

One of the main culprits for my low milk supply was that I would often just nurse off of one side. Many times Savannah would fall asleep after eating off just one side, or she would unlatch and start to play. I though this was a sign that she was getting enough.

If you have milk supply problems always feed off of both sides, even if you have to wake your little one up or coax them to finish the meal. If you are really trying to increase your supply, it is even better to feed off of both sides multiple times during the same feeding session. Switch back and forth every 10- 15 minutes.

Try to eat as many fresh fruits and vegetables as possible and drink plenty of water. This does not mean you have to gorge yourself with H2O. My IBCLC told me to drink enough water until I was not longer thirsty. She recommended cutting out all other beverages and just drinking water for a week. This forces you to properly hydrate, instead of replacing water with soda or caffeinated beverages.

My meals were the last thing I wanted to think about when my baby was hungry. I just wanted to focus on her. So I know how you feel. Just do your best.

At that point, I considerd it a nutritional success if I had eaten something other than peanut butter and jelly for lunch.

Also I found that if I just took a deep breath and focused on relaxing that I could get my milk to come down faster. In the beginning, I would often have trouble getting my milk to let down while I was using the pump. So I would close my eyes and envision the milk rushing down out of the ducts. I would think about it flowing out of my breast. Crazy as it may sound, that actually worked for me and worked well.

I rented a Medela Symphony from my local nursing store. You can also rent them from almost all hospitals with LDR units and many OBGYN offices. The cost varies depending on your city and how long your rent the machine. Many places will give you a discount for a longer rental. You also may be able to get a tax credit for this expense, so please keep your receipt. I ended up keeping my rental pump for 2 months and it cost me a total of $120.00. Once again, I felt this was well worth it and it was definitely was cheaper than formula. However, I did not have to keep it that long. One week at $70 was sufficient for my milk supply. I chose to extend my rental to help me re-establish my frozen milk stash.

While nothing will help you increase your supply as well as a baby, a hospital grade pump will go a long way, especially if you are a working mom. Pump as often as you can. If you are nursing all day, try pumping at night when your baby is sleeping. I know this sounds like a marathon, but the harder you go at it, the quicker you will increase your milk supply.

Make sure you have a knowledgeable professional show you how to properly use your pump. Also make sure that all of the attachments are the correct size for your breasts and nipples.

My IBCLC recommended that I always use the milk that I pumped to supplement my baby either that day or the very next. That is the point right, to be able to provide your baby with the needed amount of ounces in a 24 hour period? It also helps save your frozen stash or cut down on the amount of formula you need to use.

What I like to call Power Hour, is basically a super pumping session. This is how it works:

For one hour, pump for 10 minutes then rest for 10 minutes. Pump for ten minutes and rest for 10 minutes. Follow this exact pattern until you have completed one hour. You should have pumped 3 times and rested 3 times during the hour. It is very important that you do this for an entire hour, or else it will not have the same effect. You should do this at least once a day, but a maximum of two times per day. The goal is not to get a lot of milk, but more to stimulate your breasts.

I did power hour at night right before I went to bed. I chose this time because I knew Savannah was sleeping and would not need me for at least 3-4 hours. During the first two days I tried to do power hour twice a day; once at night and once during the day. My day time attempts were unsuccessful because my baby always needed me and that interrupted the session. So I chose to only do this at night. I knew it was working when my breast would start to fill up at bedtime and during my first 10 minute pumping session I was able to get 2  ounces out of each breast. (When I started I could only get ounce).

In the hospital I was introduced to my first nipple shield by the in house LC. She recommended that the nurse bring me a nipple shield. The nurse brought me the size medium and said that was the best size for me. So we nursed with that size for four months. During my consult with my newly chosen IBCLC regarding my supply issues, the first thing she noticed was that I was using too large of a shield.

    She explained that when using a shield, you should use the smallest one you can fit into. Using too large of a shield can sometimes reduce the amount of milk the baby can get out of the breast. A smaller shield also allows you to feel more of the sucking sensation which is ultimately more stimulating to the breast.

You can read many nursing blogs and websites that will give you a large list of various supplements to help boost your milk supply. They range from brewers yeast to flaxseed. I am not going to list them all here, because it is a long list and because I did not use them. I want to stay true to giving you advice that I know worked for me.

I asked my LC about these supplements during our consult and she said that while they couldnt hurt, to be efficient about which you use. For example, I see ads all the time for Mothers Milk Tea, so I asked her about it. She said that while it does have milk boosting qualities, to get enough of the supplement to really help your supply you would have to drink gallons of that tea a day. She recommended just taking the high dose mothers milk capsules.

The only other thing she really recommended was eating oatmeal. So I ate a bowl of oatmeal every morning for breakfast. I do think this helped. So I do recommend at least trying it. Oatmeal is something most people have in their house and it can be easily integrated into your daily meals. There were some days that I had oatmeal that I felt my breasts were a little fuller that afternoon.