home→Animals→ Not enough milk to feed. Not enough milk: how to continue breastfeeding? How to understand that the child does not have enough milk

Not enough milk to feed. Not enough milk: how to continue breastfeeding? How to understand that the child does not have enough milk

How to know if babies are getting enough breast milk

Does the baby have enough colostrum or breast milk, perhaps you need to supplement it with a formula? These questions concern mothers, starting from the hospital. Many children are restless from birth. They may have stomach ache. But usually everything is attributed to the lack of mother's milk. When should you be concerned?

Signs of a lack of breast milk and measures to restore lactation

We immediately note that certain features of the child’s behavior are not a reason to immediately introduce supplementary feeding with a mixture, just pay more attention to breastfeeding, perhaps reconsider the attachment of the baby to the breast, remove the feeding schedule, if it exists, feed at night, etc.

1. When a nursing mother has little milk, the baby often and for a long time sucks at the breast. Especially often this feature is observed in children of the first three months of life. Older babies tend to suck more actively and satiate faster, and besides breast sucking, other interests appear.
Solution: leave everything as it is, let the baby suckle as much as he wants. If you see that the child dozed off during sucking, but he did not actively suck before, swallowed little (that is, he did not suck enough milk) - do not rush to put him in the crib. If the baby has a fast phase of sleep, and it is characterized by rapid eye movement under the eyelids, trembling, awakening due to the slightest rustle, you can try to lightly pat him on the cheek, or move the nipple over his lips, he will wake up and start sucking breast again. By the way, this technique is especially active for use at night, when the child sucks little by little, but very often. Let him suck 1-2 times a night, let him suck for 40 minutes and a little more than he wakes up every hour.

Please note that the baby may ask for the breast more often during teething. In these difficult days for parents and the baby, he rarely eats complementary foods, replacing it with breasts. Babies will have enough milk even after the introduction of complementary foods, so you don’t have to think about how to increase lactation and don’t worry.

2. Insufficient weight gain. There is a certain framework in which the child must fit. So, the minimum weight gain per month is from 500-600 grams in the first months of a baby's life. If he gained less than 500 grams, this is an occasion to consider the next item more carefully.

3. Restless behavior of the child, poor sleep, frequent breast demand. This is how a baby behaves if it does not have enough mother's milk. However, this behavior may be due to other reasons. For example, teething, illness, overwork, violation of the daily routine.

3. A small amount of urination and their pungent smell, a rare stool. A peculiar study is to count wet diapers. For one day, parents refuse to use disposable diapers, use reusable gauze, and count the number of wet ones. Normally, an infant urinates 10 times a day. But this is the case if he eats only mother's milk, does not receive supplementary food and does not drink water.
If there are 8 or fewer wet diapers, something needs to be done with nutrition. The pungent smell of urine is a sign of the presence of acetone in it. And it appears when the body is dehydrated. If a mother has been trying to increase the amount of breast milk for more than a day, but there is still no result, it may make sense to introduce supplementary feeding. But it should be given only after breastfeeding. And it is better to purchase or independently make a supplementary feeding system, using which the baby will suckle the breast at the same time as receiving the mixture. You can find diagrams and photos of these simple devices on the Internet. If you decide to buy, then it is produced by Medela. Long-term bottle feeding will sooner or later lead to a complete transition to artificial feeding.

It is impossible to say unequivocally about whether the baby is full of breast milk by the frequency of the stool. But sometimes, when the baby is underfed, the stool becomes rarer. This sign does not make sense to take into account when the child eats only mother's milk, since the absence of stool can be a manifestation of the complete assimilation of nutrition by the body.

Important! It is impossible to know whether there is enough or not enough milk during breastfeeding by the type of mammary glands, their size, texture, sensations during feeding. With established lactation, and this happens within a few weeks after childbirth, the mammary glands of a woman outside of feeding are soft and painless, it even seems to someone that they are empty. But it's not. Milk is stored outside of feeding in special bags - alveoli. When the nipples are stimulated, the hormone oxytocin begins to be released, and milk from the sacs enters the mammary glands. This is called the rush of milk. Only these “tides” may not become very noticeable over time. But it is not The best way How do you know if your baby is getting enough breast milk? Many long-term (more than 2 years) women report that they have not felt hot flushes at all for many months, nevertheless they continue to feed their children, and quite often.

Also incorrect data gives a test for determining the amount of milk, by expressing it and analyzing the amount. As we wrote above, milk is released directly during the sucking of the baby, stimulation of the nipple, but pumping causes most women, rather, pain. Thus, the hormone of pleasure - oxytocin is not released, and milk from the alveoli does not enter the glands. They remain "empty".

Another similar test used by pediatricians is called control feeding. Mother and child come to the clinic before feeding, the child is weighed. Further, the mother feeds the child, after which he is weighed again. See the difference. This difference is the amount of milk that the baby sucked. This test is often uninformative because on-demand feeding babies may suck different amounts of milk. It seems that the child hangs on the chest for 40 minutes, but he practically does not suck it. Dozing.

When Your Baby Can't Get Enough Breast Milk

1. If a woman does not feed her baby at night. During night feedings, the hormone prolactin is released, due to which the production of breast milk is possible. If the child wakes up at least once at night, do not give him a dummy to calm him down and do not pump up, it is better to breastfeed.

2. With large intervals between feedings. If they make up more than 2 hours in the first months of a child's life, milk will begin to decrease over time.

3. With abundantly introduced complementary foods. If the baby begins to eat about 800-1 kg of complementary foods per day, and in fact these are full-fledged 4-5 feedings of a 9-12-month-old baby, then he no longer needs milk as food. At least he doesn't feel hungry. However, WHO says that every child should receive breast milk or formula until at least 1 year old. If you do not want to lose milk, feed your baby at night, early in the morning, try to breastfeed your baby after feedings, especially if the baby ate a little less than usual.

4. During lactation crises. What to do if the baby does not have enough milk at 1, 3, 6, 9 months? Only breastfeed more, do not give pacifiers, mixture. The amount of milk produced depends on the stimulation of the nipples, the number and frequency of feedings. Babies will have enough milk until they are one year old. This is very convenient, but it requires some effort and correct actions from the mother during critical periods.

Breast milk is the ideal food for an infant breastfeeding children are less susceptible to allergic reactions, regurgitation, intestinal colic. But many mothers feel that their child is not getting enough nutrition. What to do if the baby does not have enough milk during breastfeeding, how to notice and solve the problem in time?

Considering that most babies tend to cry often (due to too high temperature air at home, dry air, intestinal colic, overexcitation, etc.), only crying is not a sign of starvation. And the real sign is when there is not enough milk during breastfeeding, the baby gains little weight. Less than 125 grams per week. How to determine this increase? The simplest thing is to visit a pediatrician. Can be unscheduled. He will weigh the child and appoint a day when to come back for weighing. It will be seen how much the baby has recovered.

Just do not look for signs that the child does not have enough milk in the amount that he managed to express. With established lactation, and this is already 4-6 weeks after birth or even earlier, there is very little milk in the mammary glands. It is stored in the alveoli. And it enters the glands only during active stimulation of the nipple. During pumping, it is quite difficult to cause the release of oxytocin, the hormone that is responsible for the flow of milk into the glands. Oxytocin is the pleasure hormone. Well, pumping few of the women deliver it. Yes, and few people know how to express properly.

How to understand that there is not enough milk when breastfeeding and the child does not eat up, which doctors offer directly? Many pediatricians assure that the crying of a hungry child cannot be confused with anything. An experienced mother who is not breastfeeding her first child will certainly not be confused either. If the milk does not flow well from the breast, you can not hear how the child swallows, he actively sucks, but often interrupts and cries. In the first weeks after childbirth, the flow of milk during feeding is well felt. If a woman does not feel them, plus the previously mentioned signs are present, this does not speak in favor of sufficient lactation.

You can do a test to determine the amount of milk. For this child, the child is left without disposable diapers during the day and the number of urination is counted. This method is informative if, in addition to milk, the child does not receive any other liquid. If the baby urinated 10 times or more, everything is fine.

How to increase lactation while breastfeeding

Breastfeeding experts recommend using so-called natural methods for this purpose. It is not necessary to take any dietary supplements. It is important to find out the reasons why a nursing mother has little milk and the child does not have enough of it, and depending on them, already look for a solution. For example, if a child often sleeps a lot, wake him up for feeding. This situation is especially relevant for children of the first month of life. They should eat at least 1 time in 3 hours. If after feeding the baby sleeps for more than 2.5 hours, wake him up and feed him.

Another common reason for not getting enough milk is ingestion. a large number air during feeding. This creates a false feeling of satiety, as a result, the child sucks milk little. What to do? It is necessary to feed the child in a semi-vertical position, at an inclination of about 45 degrees. Plus, make it a rule to feed the baby only when he is in a calm state, since a lot of air is swallowed when screaming and crying.

The question of whether there is enough breast milk is usually not worth it, when the mother often offers the breast to the baby, has a lot of rest, knows little tricks on how to help the production of the hormone oxytocin while the baby is suckling. This is facilitated by skin-to-skin contact, a calm environment, a good psychological attitude.

Probably, any newly-made mother is concerned about the question of whether the baby has enough breast milk. After all, the baby still cannot tell about his needs. How to understand why he is crying - from hunger or for other reasons? It is easier with artificially fed children, since the required volume is easy to calculate and then control the amount eaten. When breastfeeding, you have to focus on other signs.

Weight gain

The main thing to pay attention to is weight gain. If the child is active and cheerful, the increase corresponds to the norms, then for sure everything is in order and nothing needs to be done. A malnourished baby is unlikely to recover well. After birth, he loses up to 10% of body weight. Then in two weeks he must return these grams, for the entire first month the increase should be at least 600 g. For the second and third - 800 g, then gradually decrease due to the growing activity of the crumbs.

It is worth remembering that children develop with their individual characteristics. Some babies in the first month are a little short of normal, but in the next they compensate. Others, in principle, gain little, regardless of the type of feeding. At the same time, they are absolutely healthy and otherwise develop according to age. One thing is for sure: babies should not lose weight.

Don't weigh your baby too often. Especially do not do this after each feeding. The data obtained will be completely indicative. After all, breast milk is not a mixture, the entire volume of which is evenly divided into all feedings. The baby is applied to the breast much more often, it is difficult to overfeed him. And he can eat 100 ml at one time, and only 20 ml the next. And the total volume every day is not necessarily the same. In order not to give the suspicious mother food for thought, whether the little one has eaten, it is better to weigh the procedure every two weeks, or even a month.

We count diapers

An important criterion by which one can judge how much a child eats up is the normal functioning of the intestines. Babies are able to defecate both after each feeding, and do it every few days. This may be the norm, but only if the baby does not bother the stomach. The stool should be of a liquidish consistency, homogeneous, with a mild odor. But brown or green dense feces is a signal of a lack of milk.

To find out if the child remains hungry, it will turn out if you count the number of wet diapers. When there are at least 8 of them, then the baby receives enough nutrients. In this case, urine should be colorless, with a slight odor. Occasionally, it may have a yellowish color, but not always.

Today, mothers prefer to use diapers. So it’s more difficult to understand how much urination the baby had. It is considered normal if 4 diapers need to be changed per day due to their fullness. But if there are doubts about a sufficient amount of milk, then it is worth doing a wet diaper test from time to time.

How does a well-fed baby behave?

You need to pay attention to the behavior of the crumbs. It is unlikely that a baby who does not eat enough will behave calmly. After feeding, he will cry for more, greedily pounce on the breast or bottle, if offered to him. But if the mother feels that the breast has become soft, and the child falls asleep quietly, then for sure he received everything that he needed.

Sometimes, even with a sufficient amount of milk from the mother, the child becomes restless and gains weight poorly. Maybe it's lactose intolerance. It is necessary to consult a pediatrician who will prescribe an enzyme intake or recommend a special diet.

At the same time, the baby is able to withstand certain intervals between meals. It is unlikely that it will be 3 hours, such a time is considered the norm when feeding with a mixture. But if he is sated, then 1.5-2 hours between applications is enough for him. Although when something bothers him, then you can do it more often. At the chest, the little one feels protected, he is calm and comfortable. That is why modern pediatricians recommend giving the baby a breast on demand. No need to be afraid to overfeed him.

What should not be targeted?

Mothers, worried about their baby, often try to convince themselves that they do not have enough milk. It seems that the child eats well and gains weight, but doubts about the quantity and quality of food remain.

You should not think that he does not eat enough if ...

... there is no feeling of fullness in the chest. After the establishment of lactation, milk begins to come gradually, in response to the actions of the baby. He suckles at the breast, and the amount of food he needs is produced. The transition to such a state may be unexpected. And some women never feel the fullness of the breast, but the children are successfully fed for a long time.
… don't like the color of milk. Women's milk can be thin and bluish or yellow and thicker. But in both cases, most likely, it contains enough useful substances. Its appearance depends on the individual characteristics of the mother.
... the baby wakes up at night. Breast milk is digested quickly, so that the feeling of satiety soon disappears. Therefore, it is not so easy to overfeed him. Or maybe the baby is worried about colic, which often intensifies at night. So the baby does not sleep, he needs his mother's support. You should give him a tummy massage.
... the baby cries after feeding. Maybe he has a stomachache. Or maybe his mother transferred him from one breast to another too early, he did not receive nutritious hindmilk and really did not eat enough. This should be done only after he has completely emptied his chest.
... the baby is often attached to the breast. In fact, there is no single norm for how often and for how long a newborn should suck at the breast. One, more active, will cope in 5 minutes. Another will need half an hour, he will also doze off in the process. To wake him up, you can do this: gently squeeze your chest to increase the flow of milk. Do not try to form an ideal mode. The main thing is that the baby gets all the nutrients. And most of them are in fat milk, which comes to the baby at the very end of feeding.
... it turns out to express very little milk. Finding out by the volume of pumped milk, whether the child is full, is unlikely to come out. After all, it continues to be produced even in the process of feeding. As a result, the baby gets enough food, and his mother cannot see it. Although if you try to express regularly, then, most likely, lactation will accelerate and it will be possible to make supplies.
... the little one cries and arches at the chest. This behavior happens if the child is worried about the tummy. He is hungry, but a new portion of food makes him uncomfortable, especially if he is overfed. Another reason is also possible. Milk flow is uneven. At first he is strong, but gradually weakens. To get it, the baby has to work hard. In the first month and a half, the baby may fall asleep at this moment, and after a while take an already filled breast. Having become a little older, he no longer wants to fall asleep, but expresses his displeasure in this way.

Why does the baby refuse to breastfeed?

Sometimes a baby won't or can't breastfeed. Although the mother has enough milk, he does not eat enough. Why is this happening?

If the little one has been fed from a bottle for some time, then he refuses to work, extracting milk from his chest.
Mom has flat nipples. It is inconvenient for the baby to grab the breast, as a result, he remains hungry. Special pads can help.
Mom eats foods that change the taste of milk, such as onions or garlic.
The baby has a short frenulum of the tongue, which makes it difficult to take the breast normally. In this case, you need to consult a specialist.

How to increase the amount of milk?

It happens that the mother does not have enough milk. Sometimes this happens due to physiological conditions, for example, a woman has had breast surgery, she has a thyroid disease, or she has experienced a lot of stress.

Whatever the reason, do not rush to switch to a mixture. You can try lactation.

Breastfeed your baby on demand. Finish feeding only when he ate and let her out himself.
Check for correct capture. The baby should take the areola. This will protect the mother's nipple from injury and stimulate milk production.
The nutrition of a nursing mother should be complete so that the baby receives useful substances. Only strong allergens should be excluded from the menu. You also need to take care of a sufficient amount of liquid.

Until lactation improves, you can switch to mixed feeding. This should be done carefully, calculating the volume of the mixture correctly so as not to overfeed the crumbs. The child must receive enough nutrition to grow and develop well. And to find out if he has enough milk, it will come out if you pay attention to the features of his behavior.

The main thing is that it is important for you to correctly assess whether you really have little milk. And if you are convinced of this, then you need to know what to do so that there is more milk. So, let's begin…

Step one. Find out if the baby is getting enough milk.

Weighing. Weight gain less than 500 g per month, less than 120 g per week is an indicator that you are actually low on milk
Wet diaper test. The number of urinations less than 8 per day is critical. Only well-soaked diapers count.

Cases when a child does not have enough breast milk are not so common. Much more often, mothers think that they or someone (mother-in-law, doctor, neighbor on the street, etc.) told them that they did not have enough milk. Sometimes, women who could breastfeed without any problems lose milk simply because they do not have enough knowledge about

IF YOUR CHILD GAINED 500 OR MORE GRAM IN A MONTH AND THE NUMBER OF URINATION MORE THAN 8 TIMES A DAY, THEN IN YOUR CASE THERE IS NO SPEECH THAT THE MILK IS SMALL. HOWEVER, YOU CAN LEARN THE FOLLOWING STEPS AND CHANGE SOMETHING IN YOUR LIFE WITH YOUR CHILD.

Step two. Little milk

Do you feed your baby on demand and how many times a day?
Does the child eat at night? Where does he sleep?
Do you use nipples and a bottle? Do you provide water?
Maybe you have already started supplementing with formula? How much and how many times a day do you formula feed?
Watch your condition while feeding your baby. It often happens that a woman during feeding is very tense because of an uncomfortable position or because of the fear that there is not enough milk in her breast again, and the child will not be satisfied again.
Are you drinking enough fluids?
Watch what time of day you have the minimum milk production.
What is the emotional state of your family? Are you surrounded by people who do not support the idea of breastfeeding.

Step three. Not enough milk, increase lactation.

Step four. Increasing lactation with lactogenic agents.

To increase lactation, use lactagon remedies: anise seeds, dill fennel, nettle, homeopathic remedy lactatosan, apilac.

Step five. Increase lactation with massage.

Regularly massage with a special oil “for breasts during lactation” or any vegetable oil with the addition of fennel or anise essential oil.

Also do a breast massage to restore lymph flow, shown in ours.

Step six. Little milk. Weighing

Stop weighing your baby frequently. Do this no more than once a week.

Step seven. Little milk. walks

Do not walk for several days, especially if it is cold outside. After all, going for a walk is often associated with stress. The baby is screaming, mom is in a hurry. And any stress for a breastfeeding mother is contraindicated, especially if she has little milk. You now need to direct all your efforts to increase lactation and solve the problem with breast milk.

IF YOU HAVE LITTLE MILK, I WISH YOU NOT TO LOSE HOPE. YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO BREASTFEED!

What are the arguments most often given by the mother to explain that the baby does not have enough milk:

Mom stops feeling the rush of milk. Milk flushes (rapid and strong breast filling with milk) are observed in lactating women in the first weeks after childbirth when lactation is established. After the third week of lactation, the woman's body and milk production adapts to the needs of the child, and milk begins to arrive little by little, but constantly. Therefore, a nursing woman stops feeling hot flashes. Thus, it is important to understand that the absence of hot flashes is a normal physiological process, and not an indicator of insufficient milk production.

The baby is restless during feeding and cries. This situation often arises not because the mother has little milk, but because the baby does not eat up because it is difficult for him to get it. This is often associated with improper attachment of the baby to the breast, an uncomfortable position when feeding, an irregular shape of the mother's nipple, etc. In addition, the baby may be restless during feeding, because he is teething or tummy ache (intestinal colic).

The baby often asks for a breast and sucks for a long time. Prolonged breastfeeding cannot be attributed to indicators of milk insufficiency. Mom's breast is not only a source of nutrition for the crumbs, but also a means of comfort, emotional and psychological comfort. Therefore, once the child can be applied to the breast to eat, and the other two times - to calm down and communicate with mom.

Therefore, such subjective signs as restless sleep, restlessness or crying during wakefulness or feeding, greedy and long sucking, lack of milk when expressing the breast, lack of feeling of breast fullness, rare dense stools in the baby, are not reliable indicators of milk deficiency.

How to reliably determine that the child has enough breast milk? This can be done in two ways:

evaluate the child's weight gain;
evaluate the amount of urine excreted (wet diaper test).

Control weighing of the child

The method of control weighing the child before and after feeding, which was often offered to nursing mothers in the children's clinic in the past, does not give any idea about the amount of milk a mother has. The fact is that if the mother feeds the baby on demand, then the amount of sucked milk in different feedings can vary greatly.

A mother can conduct a feeding test on her own at home, but for this she needs to acquire special children's electronic scales. Next, you need to weigh the baby before and after feeding several times (at least five) a day. You need to weigh the baby without clothes (or in the same clothes) and in a freshly worn dry diaper.

In order not to get confused with the numbers, it is convenient to make a table with columns: feeding time, weight before feeding, weight after feeding, amount of sucked milk. After filling in the table, it remains to calculate the average volume of sucked milk. First you need to add up the amount of milk sucked for all feedings and divide by the number of feedings. So we find out the average amount of sucked milk per feeding. Then the average must be multiplied by the number of attachments of the baby to the chest per day.

For example, for 5 feedings, the baby sucked 40, 50, 40, 30, 60 g. When adding these indicators, we get 220 g and divide by 5. The average figure for one feeding is 44 g. If the child is applied 10 times a day, then he sucks about 440 g of milk.

Now it remains to find out if this amount of breast milk is enough for the baby?

For an approximate calculation of the daily volume of food for a child older than 10 days of life, a volumetric method is used. This method takes into account the actual body weight of the child. Thus, the daily amount of food for a child from 10 days - 2 months should be 1/5 of body weight; from 2–4 months - 1/6 of body weight; from 4-6 months - 1/7 of body weight (but not more than 1 liter) and from 6-12 months - 1/8-1/9 of body weight.

For example, a child is 3 months old and weighs 5 kg 200 g. To determine how much milk he should receive per day, you need 5,200: 6 = 866 (1/6 of body weight). That is, this child should suck out approximately 865 g of milk per day.

In addition, you can evaluate the weight gain per week. To do this, you need to weigh the child, and then repeat the weighing after 7 days. According to the standards of the World Health Organization, babies in the first six months should normally gain from 125 to 500 g per week, that is, from 500 g to 2 kg per month.

Wet diaper test

In order to conduct this test, the mother will have to give up disposable diapers for one day and count the number of urinations of the baby per day.

To evaluate the results, the table will help:

From day 14, the result is assessed as follows: if there are 12 or more wet diapers - there is enough milk, 8-10 wet diapers - lactation is reduced, 6 or less - the child does not have enough milk and urgent action needs to be taken.

If, using the above methods, the mother has calculated that the baby really does not have enough breast milk, in no case should you rush and, without consulting a pediatrician, begin to supplement the baby with milk formulas. The baby will gorge on formula, less likely to ask for a breast, and this, in turn, will lead to an even greater decrease in milk production.

Why is there not enough milk?

The causes of insufficient milk production are most often associated with errors in the organization of breastfeeding:

insufficiently frequent attachment to the chest;
improper capture of the breast by the child;
supplementation or bottle feeding;
constant sucking on a pacifier between feedings.

Not enough milk: we take action

With a decrease in milk, the attitude and readiness of the mother to do everything in her power to maintain and normalize the lactation process is very important. The following tips can help her with this:

Correctly apply the baby to the chest.

For good lactation and effective sucking of the baby, it is important to properly attach the baby to the breast. If the baby suckles incorrectly, he cannot suck out enough milk, the breast is poorly emptied and the amount of milk is reduced.

For the attachment to be correct, the baby's mouth should be wide open, and his chin should touch the mother's chest. With the right grip, the baby's lower and upper lips should be turned inside out (and not pressed inward), the baby should capture not only the nipple, but also the areola - the dark area around the nipple. When sucking, the baby's cheeks inflate, not retract.

Feed on demand.

For good lactation, you need to often apply the baby to the breast. This is so-called on-demand feeding, in which the breast is offered to the baby at the first sign of his anxiety and as often as he wants. The interval between feedings should be no more than 1.5-2 hours. To maintain full lactation at first, 10-12 applications per day are needed. The more milk the baby sucks, the more it will be produced in the following days.

Care must be taken to ensure that both breasts are offered the same number of times. If you feed less from one breast than from another, then less milk will be produced in it.

The duration of feeding should be set by the child himself, that is, for each baby it will be individual, but on average at least 15–20 minutes. You should not take the breast from the baby before he releases it himself, otherwise he will not receive very valuable hind milk, rich in healthy fats and nutrients, and the breast will not receive a “request” for the production of a new portion of milk.

Be sure to feed your baby at night.

Night feedings are an excellent way to maintain lactation, since at night the production of the hormone prolactin, which stimulates lactation, is much more active than during the day. At night, it is recommended to put the baby to the breast 3-4 times, and two feedings should fall between 3 and 7 o'clock in the morning.

Establish a daily routine and rest.

An important role in the production of milk is played by the psychological factor. Accumulated fatigue, physical fatigue, stress - all this can lead to a decrease in the amount of milk, as the production of the hormone oxytocin decreases. Therefore, in order to establish lactation, a nursing mother must first of all pay attention to her regimen. It is important to organize your day in such a way that you have time for proper sleep and rest. Sleep should be at least 8-10 hours. If the baby often wakes up and asks for breasts at night, you can organize a joint dream with him. At the same time, the mother will have the opportunity to sleep more and relax, since she does not need to rise to the child. When sleeping together, another mechanism for launching milk is triggered, namely, bodily contact between mother and baby. Tactile skin-to-skin contact promotes the production of hormones needed to increase lactation. That is why, with a decrease in milk, it is recommended for a mother to carry the baby in her arms or in a sling more often, to press him to her skin.

Walking in the fresh air is necessary not only for the baby, but also for the mother. The lack of oxygen also has a negative effect on milk production, so it is recommended that a nursing mother spend 1.5–2 hours a day in the fresh air. Experts have proven that the mood of the mother also affects the production of breast milk. You should not constantly think about the lack of milk and worry about feeding. Anxiety and inner stiffness hold back his exit. We must try to eliminate stressful situations and remain calm. You can ask for help and support from relatives and husband who will help in caring for the baby or take on some of the household chores.

Observe the drinking regime.

For sufficient milk production, a nursing mother must comply with the drinking regimen. You need to drink enough to not feel thirsty. In this case, the amount of fluid entering the body should be at least 2–2.5 l / day. For good lactation, it is recommended to drink warm drinks 30 minutes before feeding.

Do not use a pacifier.

A pacifier is different in shape from a breast nipple, and sucking on a nipple uses different muscles than sucking on a breast. Getting used to the nipple, the baby may begin to get confused and take the mother's breast incorrectly.

Do not supplement or supplement your child.

Supplementing the baby with water creates a false feeling of fullness in the baby and reduces the need to suckle the breast. Therefore, without prior consultation with a pediatrician, this should not be done, because breast milk for a child is both drink and food.

Often, a decrease in milk can occur without any external cause. These conditions are called lactation crises and are due to the peculiarities of hormonal regulation. Most often, such crises appear on the 3rd, 7th, 12th weeks of a child's life. During these periods, the mother experiences a temporary change in the hormonal background (a decrease in the production of the hormone prolactin), which affects the production of milk. The body of a nursing woman adapts to the new needs for milk of a growing baby. Lactation crises are a temporary phenomenon, and they usually last no more than 2–3, rarely 5 days. They are easy to deal with by putting the baby to the breast more often.

If, despite the best efforts on the part of the mother, the baby is not full and is not gaining weight well, you should seek the advice of a pediatrician or breastfeeding consultant.