success story: overcoming insufficient glandular tissue

[gingerpeachee]

If anyone from this thread is still around could you please share your herbal cocktail? I was planning on taking More Milk Special Blend but now I'm seeing I should be thinking about Alfalfa?

[Datamum]

Logged back in to reply to you - the whole time I nursed my first I made tea with:
- fenugreek
- goat's rue
- fennel
- red clover
- alfalfa

Drank it all.the.time.

It made a difference, but I still supplemented with formula and used an SNS. We nursed until a nursing strike at 10.5 months. I was back at work at this point so I just gave up breastfeeding.

While pregant with my 2nd, I drank tea to help in the last trimester. I drank:
- goat's rue
- alfalfa
-red clover
-nettle
- RRL

Once my second was born, I took domperidone right off the bat, accepted her slow gain (my first was always small, still is!) and just nursed night and day, at least every hour if not more frequently. I took the more milk capsules and drank the tea. I stayed away from our formula-pushing ped. She gained her birth weight back after one month, and was 14lbs by 5 months. I weaned off domperidone at 5 months, and ran out of more milk capsules at 6 months but found it didn't make too much of a difference so I quit them and the teas around 6 months. By 6 months we revised her lip and tongue tie, and then she really started to plump up. She is still a tiny peanut but quite healthy and EBF at nearly 9 months. She has a healthy appetite for solids so I know we will be formula free for her.

I guess is what I'm trying to get at is I feel that all the work using an SNS and taking the herbs and persevering with my first has allowed me to nurse my second.

It is really worth it.

[kittenbaby77]

Good tips and amazing story!!! Will be following the post!

[delladea]

I am encouraged to see this thread! I have IGT/hypoplasia and couldn't produce more than about 6oz a day. We had to give DD formula by day three because she had lost nearly a pound by then. After four months she got to where she wouldn't stay latched for more than ten seconds and would just scream at me for trying. The LC we saw said her latch was perfect, and I had no other physical issues impacting my ability to breastfeed other than just not having enough mammary tissue. DD gradually lost interest in nursing because there just wan't much there.

We're considering trying for another about a year from now. I still want to give BFing a shot when the time comes. This may sound like a silly question, but would some of these herbs still have an effect on mammary tissue if you're not lactating anymore?