Causes Of Low Milk Supply And How To Increase Milk Supply Fast

Almost all breastfeeding mamas worry about making enough milk for their baby at some time or another. Let’s look at some of the reasons for low milk supply and what you can do to boost your milk production quickly and easily.

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If you mention low milk supply or ask for ways to increase your milk supply, you’ll have comment after comment of people asking why you think you aren’t making enough milk. I always want to say, “Um hello, because my baby is still hungry!”

They’ll say that if you nurse your baby on demand and empty your breasts completely after every feeding that you’ll make enough milk for your baby. It’s a simple issue of supply and demand, right? In a perfect world, yes. But the world we live in is far from perfect and in reality it is possible to have low milk production. Even when you’re trying your hardest to do everything “right”.

So what causes low milk supply and what can you do to make more milk?

Causes of Low Milk Supply

• poor latch – possibly due to a tongue or lip tie and leading to an insufficient emptying of the breasts. Read all about tongue and lip ties and how they affect breastfeeding here.
• insufficient glandular tissue-milk making tissue is important, not the size of the breast
• hypothyroidism
• PCOS
• not nursing frequently enough
• dehydration*
• medications – antihistamines and cold medicines to “dry you up” will dry everything up!

**I can’t emphasize enough how important staying well hydrated is for a nursing mama. You should be aiming for no less than 3 quarts a day while breastfeeding. Every time my supply seems to be dropping, it’s because I haven’t been drinking enough water!**

How To Increase Milk Supply

Fortunately, there are things you can do to give your milk production a quick boost. I’ll list them all out and then we can take a more detailed look at a few things. Every woman is different so what helps me may not help you, but they’re definitely worth trying!

• galactagogues
• supplements
• brewers yeast
• dark beer
• power pumping
• fennel and basil essential oil
• nursing on demand
• pumping after nursing
• lots of skin to skin
• plenty of fluids/blue gatorade
• Medications

*Things To Avoid While Nursing*

• Allergy and cold medicines
• Peppermint essential oil

Galactagogues

Galactagogues are substances that promote lactation and can help boost milk supply. So technically, half of the things on our list are galactagogues. We’ll talk about a few foods and some good supplements to help boost your supply.

Oatmeal is one of the most highly recommended milk boosting foods from nursing mamas. It’s also cheap and easy, which is a major win! If you’re not an oatmeal fan, feel free to get creative dressing it up.

My favorite way to dress up oatmeal and hide the oatmeal-ey-ness of it is to sweeten it with sucanat or coconut sugar and top with chocolate chips and chopped pecans. So yummy and I’m not an oatmeal fan!

Blue Gatorade is also a top recommended but cheap, easy option to try for a quick boost.

>>Be sure to check out my recipe for Healthy Lactation Cookies with a dairy free option!<<

Dark Beer and Brewers Yeast

Brewers yeast can be added to almost any food as well as “lactation” foods like lactation cookies and brownies. There’s differing opinions on whether you can substitute nutritional yeast and get the same benefits but it’s almost unanimous that brewers yeast is better. I’ve got a delicious lactation cookie recipe that includes oatmeal, brewers yeast, and flax seed for a delicious milk production boost, if you’re interested. I lived off of these things in those crazy, sleep deprived newborn days!

Dark beer is another good thing to try because of the hops used in the beer making process. So you can kick back for your power pumping sessions with some tasty cookies and relax with a dark beer. That’s unless you’re like me and hate the taste of beer. I had to choke them down!

*Note – Alcohol passes into breast milk and will be the same as your blood alcohol level. A single beer should be metabolized in an average size woman within 2-3 hours. Alcohol doesn’t stay in or get concentrated in breastmilk. It leaves your breast milk as it leaves your bloodstream. You can read more details about alcohol and breast milk at La Leche of Great Britain.

Non alcoholic beer works the same way for those of you who would like to avoid alcohol altogether.

Supplements

There are so many supplements to help boost breastmilk production. During our breastfeeding and milk supply struggles I tried every single one that I could find!

There are tons of herbs that are recommended including fenugreek, blessed thistle, milk thistle, goat’s rue, fennel, basil, with fenugreek being the top recommendation.

Something good to be aware of is that fenugreek can cause a strange body odor. Also please note that herbs can be useful for many things including lowering blood pressure, lowering blood sugar, etc. so it’s a good idea to research the ones you decide to try to avoid unintended “side effects”. Please read up on each one so you’ll know any other health impacts they could have for you.

There are many supplement options that have combinations of the different milk boosting herbs so you can take one pill instead of 3 or 4. Legendary Milk has some great milk boosting supplements and different ones for different applications. For example, some herbs help with your let down or for higher yield. Lactavist is one that has very high reviews and also Liquid Gold comes with high recommendations. {not affiliate links, just great products!}

A lot of women also love Mother’s Milk Tea. I’m not a tea drinker, so this is not one I’ve personally tried but I’ve seen so many positive reviews of it. Plus, it’s a super inexpensive option to try!

Power Pumping

Power pumping can be super effective for quickly increasing your milk supply. It mimics a baby’s cluster feeding pattern and tells your body to make more milk NOW! I typically would do my power pumping session as soon as I laid my baby down for the night. You’ll want to plan it for whenever you have the longest break between nursing sessions since you’ll completely empty your breasts for a whole hour and it’ll take a little while for them to “catch up”. {that was my experience at least} So how do you power pump?

Since the premise is to basically trick your body into making extra milk, you’ll want to pump short sessions frequently.

First, put on a good movie, grab something yummy to munch on, and get cozy. The whole power pumping sequence is an hour long.

You’ll start off by pumping for 20 minutes. Rest for 10 minutes, pump for 10 minutes, rest for 10, and pump for the last 10 minutes then you’re done! Power pumping works best if done once a day for however many days it takes to see an increase, usually three to five days.

I love the Spectra S1 double electric pump. On almost every post that I’ve seen where someone has asked what pump to get, the Spectra is almost always the top recommended one! It’s the pump that I decided on and I never regretted my choice.

Spectra also has the S2 which can be battery operated and may be better for some moms who need a little more flexibility and mobility. Check with your insurance company also because some plans cover the cost of your pump!

Medications

There are a couple of prescription medications that can increase milk supply. Domperidone used to be commonly used but is nearly impossible to get in the US now. Reglan is the most widely used prescription to increase milk supply.

I didn’t try Reglan during my low milk supply struggle due to a possible side effect of depression. My post postpartum depression was really horrible and I didn’t want to take any chance of making it worse. If it’s something you’re interested in trying, definitely talk to your doctor about it!

My Free Milk Supply Boosting Protocol

If you’d like to have everything laid out for you, get the milk supply boosting protocol from my free resource library. If you need the password, fill out the form below to join my email list and get instant access to the entire resource library. I include the password at the bottom of nearly every email so there’s no need to sign up twice!

If you have any other questions or suggestions for boosting low milk supply please share them in the comments below! If you try my milk boosting protocol, I’d love to hear how it worked for you!

More Motherhood Posts That You May Like:

Tongue and Lip Ties | What Are They {And How Can They Affect Breastfeeding}

Healthy Lactation Cookies – Dairy Free Option

Newborn and Baby Essentials for a First Time Mom

How To Use A Moby | Baby Wearing And It’s Benefits

Shop This Post To Boost Milk Supply:

Legendary Milk

Mother’s Milk Tea

Goat’s Rue

Fenugreek and Blessed Thistle

Brewer’s Yeast

Spectra S2 

Spectra S1

Breastmilk Storage Bags

Pumping Bra

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