I’ve probably googled “how to increase your milk supply” hundreds of times.
Every breastfeeding mom knows this struggle – how do I increase milk supply to keep up with my growing child?
After a week of Christmas vacation my milk supply dropped. I wasn’t able to keep up with what my son was eating at day care. I thought maybe I was getting sick, but after the second week of a low output from the pump, I knew I had to make some changes to increase milk supply again.
Milk supply can dip for any number of reasons – mine dipped when I went on vacation and lacked consistency in my feeding and pumping schedule. The good news is you can get your milk supply back with these four easy tips in just a few days.
How To Increase Your Milk Supply In Four Simple Steps FAST!
Drink Water
This will be first on every list on how to increase your milk supply!
Make sure you are drinking the recommended amount of water! You want to make sure you are staying hydrated. Hydration is a key point for you to maintain and increase milk supply. You can increase your water intake if you choose, but research has shown that as long as you’re keeping up with your thirst you will be able to keep your milk supply.
I use a big water mug with a straw and fill it three times a day. For me, drinking cold water is much easier than drinking room temperature water. I find being able to move my water around with a lid helps me drink more because I can have it handy and not spill it. Or, in reality, when a spill does occur it only has one exit point. The straw is because my hands are always full!
This Yeti mug is a whopping 30 ounces and keeps your water cold for a really long time! Get this lid that has the straw too! These are affiliate links, but I highly recommend these products!
Healthy Diet
Maintaining a healthy and balanced diet has shown to help breastfeeding mothers. For me, my sweet spot for calorie intake was 2000. I needed to add in a few extra snacks throughout my day to keep up with my supply.
For snacks, I added in more fruits and veggies to increase my milk supply. I found that breads (like those pesky bagels that work always buys) did nothing for me where fruit did the most. Besides, don’t we all need to snack healthier anyway? Carrots are another great addition to your diet for increasing and maintaining your milk supply.
Add in more delicious leafy greens. Iron is great for milk supply – studies show your milk supply can be lower if you’re low on iron!
Some more foods that are excellent for increasing and maintaining milk supply are: Salmon (DHA!), Almonds, Cashews, Chickpeas, and Black Beans.
Oatmeal
Oats are a great source of iron and, as mentioned previously, studies show when you’re low on iron your milk supply can be lower. When I didn’t eat oatmeal, I noticed a difference in my supply. I had to keep it up! Without oatmeal, my morning 8 ounces would be 5 ounces. Every ounce counts when you’re pumping, so you want to make sure you are consistent and stay with your routine. To make oatmeal less boring, add strawberries, blueberries, and a little cinnamon.
I think oatmeal was a big key in my success in keeping my supply up and regaining my supply when it fell off.
A great way to get in oatmeal is in a cookie! Okay, sure, I just told you to eat healthy, but cookies! I used this recipe, without the chocolate chunks. See, I can be “healthy.” I froze the dough as directed and it worked great. I preferred to eat my oatmeal in the morning with berries, but having a cookie once in awhile isn’t the worst.
Be Consistent With Pumping!
I cannot stress consistency enough.
A big key in how to increase your milk supply (and keep it going) is remaining consistent with your nursing and pumping schedule.
If you are not consistent with your pumping and nursing, your milk supply will fluctuate. If you are a pumping mama like me, stick to your pumping schedule while you take some time off.
When we went on our Christmas vacation, I assumed because I was with my son I wouldn’t need my pump. I was wrong. I needed to be on the pump to keep up with the amount my son was eating without me there.
Another pumping trick to increase supply is to keep pumping even when you think you’re done and flow has stopped. Add 2-5 minutes of time on the pump to increase your milk. This helped tremendously in getting my supply back on track!
I may not have nursed him as much as usual either because we were busy. At home, I’d just nurse as we felt. While on vacation visiting family, it felt more scheduled which isn’t like us and not good for a great nursing relationship.
We were able to go back to nursing on demand when we were made it home. When I went back to work following vacation, I got back on my pump as consistently as I was before. I did my very best to stick to the same times every day while pumping at work.
Additional Tips To Increase Your Milk Supply
I personally have not used any supplements, such as Blessed Thistle, Mother’s Milk Tea, or Fenugreek. I decided to look into taking them in January, but ultimately opted against it once I read our local milk bank would not take breastmilk if a supplement was used. If you’re planning to eventually donate your stash, please look into local requirements by milk banks and hospitals before taking a supplement.
The good news is you can get your milk supply back up with these simple steps and a lot of consistency in your schedule. Increasing your milk supply can be done in as little as 48 hours when you follow this advice. Following through on these steps and consistency are key to increasing your milk supply.
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- Weaning A Toddler From Breastfeeding
- Tips to Increase Milk Supply – Baby Castan on Board
What have you done to increase milk supply?
Thanks for the helpful information! I’m tagging my sister in this post! She’s a new mommy 🙂
Thank you!
-Ashley
Great post!! I have to forward this to some ladies I know!
Thank you!
-Ashley
These are great tips! I definitely try to remember to hydrate and eat every chance I get, and frequency is definitely key!
Thank you!
-Ashley
Keeping this in mind as my husband are hoping to have kids soon.
Awesome! Thanks for your comment 🙂
-Ashley
These are great ideas. One of my favorites that I recommend to my doula clients is, if you can, get into bed with baby on the weekends. Find some movies, snacks, magazines, water or juice and park yourself there for the day or two days. Skin to skin contact with baby plus allowing them to nurse whenever they want is a wonderful way to increase your milk supply.
So weird about the milk bank not wanting your milk if you drank tea.
Yes! Thanks for the extra tips!
-Ashley
We pumped for a month but the demand goit to high and I gave in to formula. I found the pumping to be just to time consuming in the end it was hard to keep pumping whilest looking after a newborn and a toddler 🙂
That sounds really hard! It is incredibly time consuming.
-Ashley
This is so helpful to so many moms. 🙂
Thank you!
-Ashley
Oatmeal is SOOOOO helpful. At least, for me it was! Pumping consistently really is the best thing you can do though, because milk production is a total supply/demand thing.
I have heard of some women having success with galactagogues like fenugreek, but I’ve never tried it. Thanks so much for sharing! <3
Thank you for your comment! I definitely agree with consistency!
-Ashley
Drinking water helped me so much! It’s easy to forget about that when your busy with a new little.
Yes! I recommend getting a water bottle with a closed lid to take with you everywhere! A handle wouldn’t hurt either 🙂
Ashley
I love these. I cannot say enough for oatmeal, fenugreek and trying to NEVER miss a pumping session if you are pumping to keep up supply while away from baby! Good luck to all you nursing mommas!
Consistency is key!
Ashley
really great tips! I needed you around when I was nursing! 🙂
Thank you!
You have provided great tips to breastfeeding moms with supply issues. I was in the same boat when my son was just 2 months old and I started drying up. However, my milk supply regulated with significant boost when I started drinking an herbal tea called Healthy nursing tea.
I am glad you found something that worked for you!
Consistency is such an important factor. I can remember the days of having an unexpected drug out meeting at work and found my self unable to pump on time. It completely altered the production of my supply. Oatmeal is the bet too!
Oh man! I’m sorry you weren’t able to break away!
This list is SUPER helpful! I recently wrote something similar and a lot of the same things are on there! Moms definitely need to read this!!
Thank you for your comment!
Drinking water is sooo important! Every time I had low supply, I would start focusing on my water intake, and sure enough, problem solved!
I’m so glad something so easy worked!
Great Pumping Tips! I am exclusively pumping, and sometimes I forget a pumping session and I can immediately notice a change in my supply! I also eat oats every morning like its my job =)
Kudos on exclusively pumping! That’s awesome work you’re doing!
I always find that water is one of the biggest keys when women are worried about low supply. The next thing that I find is rest. Most women aren’t getting enough rest, either because they can’t or because they don’t realize that they aren’t getting enough.
Consistency is soo soo important, just like you said! That and adding in another nursing or pumping session can do wonders!
Great tips Ashley!
Thanks for the additional tips, Rebekah!
I wish I read this 10 years ago. I did not have enough milk and my baby girl had an excellent appetite. Nice post!
You did everything you could, mama!