Breastfeeding is natural process, which is sometimes broken. There are many reasons for this, one of them is hypogalactia (decreased volume or duration of lactation). But what if a nursing mother wants to continue breastfeeding? How to organize this process without harm to the child?
Exist various methods increasing lactation. More on this below.
Primary hypogalactia is a deficiency of milk from the first days; it occurs rarely, in no more than 5% of women due to neuroendocrine disorders.
In other cases, lactation decreases for the following reasons:
All these conditions are dangerous and threaten a sharp decrease in production. breast milk.
Another danger is that can arise during the first six months after childbirth. In a nursing mother, the amount of breast milk periodically decreases and increases. This is explained by the fact that the child grows, his appetite increases sharply, and the mother’s body simply does not have time to adapt to such changes. It is during this period that hormonal imbalance occurs, which affects milk volume.
To maintain and improve lactation, it is necessary to calculate the lactation crisis and try to feed the baby more often. To improve lactation, use various herbs, folk remedies and biologically active drugs.
Hypogalactia is determined by the child’s behavior; the main symptoms are:
It is based on these signs that a decrease in milk volume in a nursing mother is calculated. If you suspect hypolactia, then conduct a study, to do this, weigh the child for 24 hours before and after feeding, write down the data.
If the diagnosis is confirmed, then it is necessary to act. To improve lactation, increase the number of feedings per day. If the problem is of psychological origin, then consultation with a specialist is necessary. Herbs, balanced diet also help to cope with the problem.
The nutritional value of a lactating woman's diet should be about 2400 kcal, which is 800–1000 kcal more than usual. The daily diet of a nursing mother includes lean poultry, sea fish, dairy products. You can't do without vegetables and fruits. As for butter, the daily portion should not exceed 20 g. It is important to strictly observe the ratio of proteins, carbohydrates and fats.
The daily volume of liquid is at least 2 liters, it is better if it is ordinary filtered water. If you drink too much liquid, the milk will contain less protein and vitamins. And therefore it is necessary to adhere to the norm.
If a woman consumes large amounts of sugar, confectionery and flour products during lactation, the amount of protein in milk will decrease. And newborns need proteins for normal development.
Make sure there is a problem before increasing your milk supply. To do this, it is better to consult a pediatrician.
To increase lactation, give up following products and drinks:
Due to onions, garlic and spices, milk acquires an unpleasant taste, and the baby may refuse several feedings.
To increase milk production, drink weak tea with honey. But watch the dosage, as honey is considered an allergen. Drink the drink 30 minutes before feeding.
Do not give up meat, chicken broths, hard cheeses, seeds and fermented milk products.
Specialized products that increase lactation:
All these products saturate the mother’s body with minerals, microelements, multivitamins, and correct the diet in terms of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.
You can fight hypolactia with folk remedies. During breastfeeding, use herbs to prepare medicinal decoctions.
To improve lactation, prepare the following drinks:
Effective means to increase lactation:
That's not all folk recipes, which help fight hypolactia. Be sure to consult your doctor about the possibility of using this or that product.
Sometimes folk recipes do not help cope with hypolactia, or a nursing mother does not have time to prepare infusions and decoctions. Then they come to the rescue medicines to increase milk production.
When taking medications and medicinal drinks, follow your diet; this is the only way to increase your milk volume. Effective drugs:
When lactation has improved, the question arises of maintaining this state.
Therefore, lactating women must adhere to the following rules:
If these rules are followed, lactation should recover and even improve. If the situation does not change as a result of using all these methods, consult your doctor.
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Drugs that are used to stop breastfeeding have an effect on the female hormonal system, stimulating a stop in the production of the hormone prolactin, which is responsible for the formation of milk. It is necessary to take pills to stop lactation with caution: the hormonal system is extremely unpredictable and for some women such drugs may be contraindicated, since they can cause the development of serious illnesses, including mastitis.
A natural stage in the life of any mother is to stop feeding her baby. At the same time, the timing of interruption of feeding is individual, but WHO standards provide for the completion of feeding before 2 years. In the future, the child does not need mother's milk. Excessive breastfeeding causes maternal health problems (the main pathology is osteoporosis).
It is better to wean your child off the breast gradually, so that changes in diet do not cause him stress and digestive disorders. However, in some cases, it is necessary to stop feeding or stop lactation immediately. Good reasons for this are:
Medicines to reduce lactation are aimed at suppressing the production of prolactin, a hormone that initiates and maintains milk production. Nevertheless, active ingredients the composition of such medications can cause side effects and have a number of contraindications - these factors must be taken into account when choosing a drug to reduce prolactin. According to the instructions, tablets to stop lactation, created on the basis of gestagen, have fewer possible negative reactions than drugs with estrogen, which often provoke:
There is no consensus on the timing breastfeeding, however, the minimum period is considered to be 6 months (until the baby is introduced to complementary foods). As a rule, pills to stop lactation are prescribed by a gynecologist at the request of a woman who no longer wants to breastfeed or medical indications. The latter are divided into unconditional (mandatory) and conditional (applicable only in some cases).
Unconditional reasons for taking pills:
Conditional indications for suppressing lactation are:
Baby gets out mother's milk a large number of nutrients and antibodies to various diseases, therefore natural feeding is the primary task of any mother. This explains why doctors strongly recommend maintaining lactation if there are conditional contraindications (breastfeeding can be stopped temporarily to eliminate negative factor, and then resume). Milk production is stopped with medications only in extreme cases, when weaning must be abrupt.
Anti-lactation pills based on steroid hormones have a similar or similar effect to the hormones produced by the woman’s body. To stop milk secretion, gestagens are usually used, which have an effect on prolactin according to the principle feedback, in more in rare cases Estrogens are prescribed. Despite the similarity of contraindications and side effects, drugs are tolerated differently: the first ones are much easier. To the group of steroids hormonal pills to stop lactation include:
The action of medications in this group is based on the accumulation of dopamine or stimulation of dopamine-sensitive receptors. Thanks to this action, non-steroidal hormones help reduce the synthesis of prolactin, as a result of which the tablets stop lactation. In addition, dopamine is a precursor to adrenaline, which slows down the production of oxytocin, which is responsible for milk secretion. The category of non-steroidal hormonal tablets includes:
This method of stopping lactation, such as taking pills, has a number of contraindications, so before starting to use them, it is important to consult a doctor and undergo an examination. The main prohibitions on the use of medications of this type:
Stopping lactation is difficult for both mother and baby, because this process is stressful for the body. However, in some cases this is the only Possible Solution. Special medications that are sold in pharmacies with a doctor’s prescription help stop milk production. The pharmacodynamics of such tablets are approximately the same, but the composition and spectrum of action may differ, so the choice of medication should be made by a gynecologist. Below is a table with prices for tablets to stop milk flow.
Breast milk - perfect product for feeding the baby. Its composition is significantly different from cow's, so feeding with diluted milk from a goat or cow can lead to vitamin deficiency and illnesses gastrointestinal tract child.
The main thing in the article
In modern maternity hospitals, not so long ago they introduced new position- Breastfeeding sister. She shows how to properly put your baby to the breast and stimulate lactation. Despite the attempts of maternity hospital staff, half of mothers breastfeed their babies for no longer than 6 months. Most of them lactation crises occur in the third month of feeding.
Unfortunately, many mothers do not understand the process of formation and outflow of milk; it seems to them that the baby is not eating enough, since there is little food in the breast for the baby. But in most cases, this is a lack of understanding of the process and a desire to quickly say goodbye to bloody nipples and constant stretching of the glands.
Objective signs of milk shortage:
The most interesting thing is that many mothers constantly weigh their baby before and after feeding to find out how much he has eaten. This is a biased value and does not provide accurate information.
In the first days of feeding, the milk is very fatty, it yellow color. A baby needs 10 ml of this food. Most objective way- wet diapers. You need to remove the baby’s diaper for a day and swaddle him in the “old-fashioned” way. After this, monitor the child’s urination process. In just one day, the baby should go “little” at least 8 times. If less, we can talk about hypolactation - lack of milk.
Reasons for cessation of lactation:
Note! Now you are a mother and about a full-fledged night sleep must be forgotten. Most prolactin is produced at night, so you can't go to bed at 11:00 pm and wake up at 8:00 am. Without night feedings there will be no milk.
If you have done the wet diaper test and your baby is gaining weight very poorly, then you should think about stimulating lactation. Naturally, pediatricians are worried about the baby’s health, so they recommend feeding the baby with formula. But here it is formed vicious circle: more mixture – less feedings breastfeeding and, accordingly, a decrease in the amount of milk. After the formula, the baby is full and will not suckle on an empty or tight breast. Therefore, after a while you will completely switch to the mixture.
Ways to stimulate lactation:
Grandmothers and older women and new mothers are advised to eat nuts, honey and condensed milk to stimulate lactation. This is actually the wrong approach. Scientists have found that it is impossible to influence the percentage of fat content with the help of food. This is a genetic trait. So don't bother adding extra pounds and do not provoke diathesis in the child. It is nuts and honey that are strong allergens that cause a rash on the face and body of a child.
Keep a food diary of the foods you eat. This way, you can discover what your child is allergic to.
There is a list of products that stimulate lactation.
Products useful for lactation:
As you can see, condensed milk and pork are not on the list. Nutrition should be balanced and complete, and exclude foods prohibited for nursing mothers.
Nowadays you can find a lot of products in the pharmacy to increase your milk supply. These are mainly dietary supplements and medicinal herbs. Many pharmaceutical companies have developed special teas for nursing mothers. But these are traditional and familiar means to everyone. However, there are also hormonal drugs for lactation:
It is worth noting that hormonal agents should be taken only as prescribed by a doctor. They can cause uterine bleeding, engorgement of the mammary glands and sore nipples.
This is a drug based on royal jelly. Insects feed the queen and larvae with milk. Thanks to this, the clutch and growth of insects increases. This drug can be considered a dietary supplement. It is absolutely safe, but women who are allergic to honey are not allowed to take it.
Instructions for using apilak:
The drug contains, in addition to royal jelly, vitamins A and B, as well as folic acid.
Mlekoin is a preparation based on plant raw materials. It is completely natural and does not contain preservatives. The medicine contains the following herbs:
Mlekoin is a homeopathic granule that needs to be absorbed. You need to take 5-10 granules per day. This should be done 30 minutes before meals.
Traditional medicine offers many recipes that stimulate milk flow.
Traditional medicine recipes:
Instructions for using herbs for lactation:
Now at the pharmacy huge selection lactation teas from well-known companies. Here are the most popular:
The most important thing is not to panic and resist the urge to feed your baby formula. Increase the number of applications. Allow the baby to “hang” on your chest.
Breastfeeding - difficult task. Many women, faced with pain when the glands become full and cracks form in the nipples, give up the idea of breastfeeding. But no formula can replace mother's milk; fight for every drop of “natural” food for your baby.
Today, there are quite a few drugs, for example, tablets, teas and mixtures, which are designed to help a breastfeeding woman regulate the flow of “milk rivers” if necessary. But are they effective? Opinions differ on this matter, and this is due to the following reasons:
But it is impossible to say that tablets, teas and mixtures of lactogenic action are useless, because in this case they would not be so popular and would not have rave reviews from breastfeeding women.
The desire to breastfeed a baby does not always coincide with the capabilities of the mother’s body. Unfortunately, lactic crisis or hypogalactia can appear either immediately after birth or after some time, during which the mother successfully fed the baby breast milk. And if more conservative methods, e.g. frequent application baby to the breast and drinking plenty of fluids, do not help - it is necessary to resort to specialized and developed according to the needs of a woman during this period, tablets to increase lactation.
The most well-known drugs are the following:
Lactogonic teas and fortified milk formulas for mothers are also considered to increase lactation. The most popular granulated teas are:
The effect of lactogonic teas is similar to a simple hot drink, but more beneficial and fortified. They also have a relaxing and calming effect.
Powdered milk and soy formulas, which are milkshakes, also help increase breast milk supply and also have beneficial influence on its composition and fat content. Examples of such drugs are Olympic, Femilak, Enfa-mama, Milky Way, etc. they contain protein and fat components, vitamins of groups A, B, C, E, D, etc., as well as micro- and macroelements. The recommended dose for consumption is 1 glass of the prepared drink per day; it is noteworthy that it is recommended to drink it every day at the same time, preferably in the first half of the day.
It is a crucial period for both mother and newborn. Sometimes young mothers are faced with the fact that, while feeding on breast milk, the baby does not gain weight well and is often capricious. This most likely indicates irregularities in the mother’s diet, or a basic lack of milk. It is then that mothers face the problem of how to increase the lactation of breast milk so that the baby has enough and does not need to supplement with various formulas.
First of all, you need to pay attention to the diet and lifestyle of the nursing mother.
The daily menu must include:
Avoid:
Many mothers learn from their mothers and grandmothers how to increase breast milk lactation using various folk remedies. There are several ways that can really help.
1. Increasing the amount of fluid you drink through the use of vitamin drinks from various herbs. Helps improve lactation cumin, fennel, anise, nettle and some others. Here are a few recipes that can be easily prepared.
For a drink made from cumin seeds (15 grams) you will need one liter of water, one lemon and one hundred grams of sugar. Seeds are poured hot water, peeled and chopped lemon and sugar are added to them. All this is cooked over low heat for 5-10 minutes. Strain. Drink chilled 3 times a day.
Anise infusion is prepared without adding other products. The seeds are poured with boiling water for an hour. The resulting infusion is cooled. Take 2 tablespoons 3-4 times a day. An infusion of dill seeds is prepared in the same way.
Note to moms!
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Tea with milk. It is better to drink before feeding, about half an hour.
Special teas for breastfeeding, which contain fennel, cumin, lemon balm, and anise, provide double benefits for stimulating and increasing lactation. (See and special)
2. Increasing the frequency of feedings and breastfeeding. The baby should be fed on demand, without taking a break at night. Feeding a baby at night is the key to long-term and high-quality lactation for the entire feeding period. It is better to abandon strict feeding by the hour.
3. Breast massage. After feeding, try massaging the breast from which you fed in the shower. Massage should be done for 5-10 minutes under running water warm water. Direction: in a circular motion from the nipple to the periphery.
4. Video
There are several ways to increase lactation with pills.