How to Increase Milk Supply Fast. Boosting Your Breast Milk Has Never Been Easier!

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Breastfeeding mothers have a lot on their plate already, but struggling to produce more milk shouldn’t be one of them. If you’ve been wondering how to increase milk supply fast, these milk boosting tips can help.

Struggling with your breast milk supply is a breastfeeding challenge I know all too well.

I’ve breastfed two babies for a total of 3 years and easy is not the word I’d use to describe that journey. However, I can say that there are some tried and true tricks you can implement to help your body produce more breast milk.

Will they all work for you? Probably not. However, there’s bound to be some that can help you increase your milk supply fast.

First things first, please don’t stress! Although your milk supply might be low, there are ways you can bring it up quickly. However, please remember that if you need to rely on alternative forms of feeding, like using baby formula, you’re still a rockstar mama!

Understand Your Milk Supply

If you suspect your milk supply is low — the very first thing you should do is notify your doctor or lactation consultant.

As a breastfeeding mother, you don’t just want to “make more milk”, you want to make sure you’re making enough milk so that your baby is getting adequate amounts of their daily nutritional needs.

These needs equate to about 8 to 12 feedings in a 24 hour period for newborns (averaging 1 to 2 ounces per feeding). As your baby grows, their stomach get’s bigger and they’re able to drink more milk. Around 2 months old, your baby’s feedings will increase to 4 to 5 ounces every 3 to 4 hours. This nutritional need will continue to grow.

Regardless of if you’re exclusively pumping, nursing baby, or doing a combination of pumping and nursing — all milk production is a supply and demand process (which we’ll talk about in the next section).

How Does Your Body Make Breast Milk?

The very most basic step a new mom should know on how to increase milk supply is to understand how her milk supply works.

Within your breasts are milk ducts that branch off into bundles of little sacs called alveoli. The alveoli get stimulated by a hormone known as ‘prolactin’ to produce breast milk.

Sometime around your 2nd trimester, your body will begin the production of what’s known as ‘colostrum’.

Colostrum is the “liquid gold” colored substance that you’ll notice being secreted from your breasts after birth. Sometimes, if you’ve had children before, you’ll notice your breasts may even begin leaking colostrum before the baby’s birth.

If you begin leaking colostrum, you can try using a little breast milk shell to catch some of that awesome first milk for your baby! You can totally throw it in the freezer and save it for the big day.

Typically a few days after birth, your breast milk will start to “come in”. This is the process in which the colostrum (which is highly concentrated) forms into a thinner, higher volume substance known as breast milk (which is also totally awesome and has lots of benefits for baby too).

As your baby begins to nurse frequently or you begin to use your breast pump to draw out the milk, the more stimulation it provides to your breasts sending the message that it needs to make more milk. Supply and demand.

Pretty awesome, huh?

Monitoring your breast milk supply is easier to do when you pump because you’re able to measure the output of your milk. Whereas when baby is strictly nursing, you have to go off whether they’re gaining weight, how your breasts feel, etc…

How To Tell If Your Milk Supply Is Low?

Again, if you ever suspect your milk supply is low, you should notify your health care provider and/or lactation consultant for assistance.

It isn’t common for mothers to have a true low milk supply, but if you suspect you may, here are a few of the more obvious signs to watch out for:

Your baby isn’t gaining weight (or begins to lose weight)

Your newborn/infant isn’t soiling their diaper enough (not enough dirty diapers in 24 hour period)

Your breasts don’t soften after a nursing or pumping session

What Is Cluster Feeding?

Cluster feeding is when your baby begins nursing or eating in close back-to-back frequent feedings. Oftentimes cluster feeding goes hand in hand with fussiness and evening fussiness.

Some even day they line up with baby’s growth spurt. What happens is that the aby will latch on, drink a little, latch off, begin to fuss and repeat the cycle over and over.

The good news is that for many mothers this can help bring in more breast milk. Nursing mothers should avoid offering a bottle during cluster feeds if possible to prevent their milk supply from lowering or not increasing.

How to Increase Milk Supply Fast!

In order to tell your body to make more milk, because it’s not as easy as just saying “hey body, make more milk please”, we have to find ways that signal it to do so.

That means the ONE best way to increase your milk supply is to increase the DEMAND! What I mean is that you need to remove more milk more frequently throughout the day.

Increase Breast Milk Production by Pumping

Removing breast milk is a pretty easy task at hand, however, it can be very time-consuming.

Here are my 3 favorite ways to increase the demand for breast milk to help boost your milk supply:

Pump or nurse baby 2-3 extra times/day.

Pump or nurse baby LONGER during your normal feeds.

Add a few power pumping sessions into your feeding routine.

I struggled with a very low supply with my first baby. The ONLY reliable method that helped me bring up my supply was by adding in extra pumping sessions throughout the day.

If my son nursed on one side, I’d pump for 10-15 minutes after our nursing session.

In the mornings I’d pump right after he nurses and at bedtime, I’d pump right after I laid him down to sleep.

It was a lot of work doing this every so often and became very time-consuming, but it did help bring up my milk supply quickly!

Ensure Baby’s Latch is Effecient

Is your baby coming on/off the breast? Or are you stopping the nursing session early?

During those beginning weeks, it’s crucial to allow the baby to eat a full meal to ensure adequate milk removal from your breasts (they will almost always unlatch on their own once they’re finished).

In the beginning, a nursing session may take 40-60mins, but as they get older and become more efficient little drinkers, you may find it only takes 20-30mins.

If you think it could be due to your actual nipples or maybe it’s just too painful, try using a nipple shield!

Nipple shields can be a little tricky to figure out during the beginning and honestly when I had tried to use them, I actually used a small piece of scotch tape to tape it onto my breast and prevent them from moving.

Unfortunately, they didn’t work out for us, but I have plenty of mama friend’s who swear using a nipple shield saved their breastfeeding journey!

Lastly, seeing a Lactation Consultant can greatly help with any ongoing latching issues.

Stay Hydrated

Being dehydrated and not eating enough throughout the day can potentially cause a dip in supply (especially during the initial newborn stages when your supply building is crucial).

Please note that drinking extra water or eating extra foods won’t necessarily make up extra milk.

However, it can help keep your body hydrated enough to function as a milk-making machine!

Pumping Moms — Use a High Quality Breast Pump

I’m not going to lie to you, I’m 100% biased to Spectra Breast Pumps (particularly the S1) because I have one and it works AMAZING!

When I was hospitalized, the pump in the hospital barely got anything out despite using the recommended settings.

I had my husband go home and bring my Spectra Pump that same day and boom – all of a sudden I was getting colostrum to send down to my baby in the NICU.

Photo shows Spectra S1 Breast Pump on and working.

Everyone’s experience will likely be different, but I highly recommend doing some research on various double electric breast pumps. You want something as close to “hospital grade” as possible.

In fact, I wrote a post just for exclusively pumping moms ( & how to choose the best breast pump)!

Also, a CLOSED circuit pump is a little more ideal as it prevents anything nasty fluid and dirt from circulating back into your pump.

Most insurances will provide a pump for you but the brand/type you’d have to call your insurance company for that info.

Use Galactagogues

Galactagogues is a food or supplement that is thought to help increase a low milk supply. These days, there are lots of brands popping up left and right claiming to have the best formulation for lactation support.

Unfortunately, research is still lacking in this area, but there is a ton of anecdotal support from breastfeeding moms using them.

Here is a list of some of the more common and reliable galactagogues that could work for you”

Brewer’s Yeast

Lactation Cookies

Green Leafy Vegetables

Breastfeeding Friendly Smoothies & Shakes

Fennel

Legendairy Milk Supplements (already formulated for you)

Oatmeal

Galactagogues (herbal remedies for a breastfeeding mama) are usually a final resort to trying to increase breast milk supply, but I know many mothers who swear by them.

Other Ways To Boost Your Milk Supply

Make sure you’re using the correct flange size. If you’re not using the correct flange size, you’d be surprised how much more milk you pump when you’re finally fitted with a size that amounts to more efficient output.

Keep your pump parts fresh & updated. Yup, breast pumps need to be maintenanced from time to time. This means replacing things like your tubing, duckbills, and more!

Try not to focus on how much you’re pumping. I know it’s easy to get consumed with “how much” is in the bottle, but the added stress does not help. Instead, try covering the bottles with a baby sock so you can pump without obsessing over the volume — you may find it has a positive impact.

Look at photos of your sweet baby while pumping. When you nurse your baby, the hormone oxytocin plays a big role to help you have a letdown. While pumping, try to reestablish this emotional connection by looking at cute photos or watching videos of your baby. This is the same hormone that peaks during skin-to-skin contact with baby too.

Add in some hand expression. If you’re a pumping mom or a nursing mom, adding in some manual hand expression & a breast massage at the end of the feed or pump is a great way to make sure you’re as close to “empty” as possible.

Consume a healthy diet. It can be incredibly easy to rely on snack foods and processed foods when you’re tied to the pump or sofa nursing your baby. However, a well balanced diet will be crucial to maintaining healthy breastmilk production throughout your breastfeeding journey. Need some help coming up with meals? This lactaction-friendly meals & recipe guide is one of my favorites.

How to Increase Milk Supply OVERNIGHT (when prolactin is high):

Something else to consider is to focus on your nighttime pumps/feeds. Studies show that breastfeeding mothers’ prolactin levels are significantly higher at night (between midnight and 5-6 am) than they are during the day.

This is important because prolactin aids in the secretion of milk from the alveoli. You can add in extra pumps during the day, but adding in more pumps or nursing sessions at night while your prolactin levels are higher can have a quicker onset to help you produce extra milk.

Why do some moms experience a sudden drop in milk supply?

There’s a variety of reasons some moms may experience sudden low milk production. I’m going to share 5 of the more common reasons for a low milk supply.

1) Milk Supply Drops During Period

I’ll never forget the week before I had my first postpartum period, my milk supply literally tanked. I went from averaging 3-4oz per pump session to maybe 1 if I was lucky.

I contacted my lactation consultant right away who asked me if I had gotten my period back yet. She told me it sounded like I was probably going to get my period soon and advised I try supplementing with a magnesium & calcium supplement.

She explained how the hormonal changes in the early days of ovulation through the first 1-3 days of getting your period can sometimes affect a woman’s milk supply.

The other tip she suggested was to make sure I was consuming enough iron during this time. Not that a supplement was necessary, but to ensure I was consuming lots of iron-rich foods such as dark leafy greens, meats, legumes, and more.

Lastly, she suggested that if I was going to take my birth control, to be sure I was taking a “mini-pill” which is known to be the most lactation friendly and safe type of birth control for lactating mothers.

2) Missed Breastfeeding Sessions

Skipping breastfeeding sessions or allowing too much time between sessions can signal your body that it doesn’t need to make more milk.

Remember, breastfeeding is a supply and demand process.

The more full your breasts, the more your milk production slows down.

For instance, if you plan to be away from your baby for an extended amount of time, make sure to bring your pump with you or even a handheld one like this will do.

That way, you can pump or empty your breasts in place of your normal feeding session.

3) Consuming a Poor Diet

Maintaining a healthy breastfeeding supply can be greatly affected by a poor diet.

In fact, there are lactation-boosting foods out there that are known to promote a healthy milk supply.

Of course, enjoying some delicious foods here and there shouldn’t affect your supply too much. Making it a habit, however, could have some negative effects.

Need some ideas on what kinds of foods to eat while breastfeeding? Check out these delicious breastfeeding foods & recipes to help support a healthy milk supply!

4) Stress & Not Enough Sleep

Between not getting enough sleep, feeling totally overwhelmed during postpartum, and adjusting to a brand new routine — limiting stress can be nearly impossible.

To make sure these don’t come creeping up to hurt your milk supply, do your best to ask for help when needed & prioritize your sleep as much as possible.

Though it’s not always easy to “sleep when the baby is sleeping” or “ask for help” from friends and family, you can start to take small steps to get there soon!

5) Medical Problems or Health Issues

Lastly, medical or health concerns such as:

Diabetes

Hypertension

Thyroid Issues

Breast Surgery

and more.

can possibly have a negative impact on your milk supply.

If this is the case for you, please be sure to notify your doctor or lactation consultant so they can help you work towards being able to make more milk!

Knowing how to increase breast milk in one day can be kind of tricky, but it’s possible!

Now that you know how to increase milk supply in one day, which tips will you be implementing right away? And if you’re an experienced lactating mother, which of these methods works best for you?

This article was updated on February 18th, 2022.

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