Nov 06 2007
Successful Breastfeeding Tips (part 3)
Continue from part 2…
[More breastfeeding tips can be found on part 1 and part 2]
When Arriving Home
Feed Directly, At Least First 2 Weeks
Continue to feed on demand, and directly. Do not express breastmilk in the first 2 weeks. No doubt, you will wonder how much milk you produce, whether the amount is enough for your baby. The reason I ask you not to express is not to let you confirm your doubt. Usually in the first 2 weeks, milk hasn’t come in, and the breastmilk contains mostly thick colostrum. If you start expressing early, you might be able to get only tiny few drops and get panic. Most mothers start to supplement at this stage as their confidence deflated, when they see little yield in expressing.
Round The Clock Feeding
As milk production is highest at night, do continue to breastfeed on demand especially at night. If baby gets older and feed less at night, you might want to consider expressing at night to maintain milk supply. I used to express at 2am and 5am, even after Ian fed from my breasts.
Warning: If you don’t feed at night, your milk will likely to dwindle!
That’s why I say there’s a lot of sacrifices to make. Hugs up to all breastfeeding moms…
Breastfeed Exclusively
By this, I mean no supplement of whatsoever for the first 6 months. Some like to give water, gripe water, glucose, fruit juice, etc. Say NO to all these. Breastmilk has all the nutrients baby needs, and its water content is just right for babies. Feeding other liquid will reduce milk intake. It causes imbalance diet for the baby and reduce milk production. Water will do more harm than good to your baby [read here for reasons].
Cheat The Body
Well, I’m not sure whether you want to follow this trick or not, but it was useful for me. I tried to cheat my body to produce more milk than actual demand. I was desperate during Ian’s time, as I had a long planned trip (17 days) when Ian was 5 months old, and I needed to stock enough milk. I expressed to empty my breasts everytime after feeding Ian. I started this in the 3rd week, for every feed. My milk production was so good that at one point I had over 2,000+oz of frozen milk stock.
This trick is also useful to prepare body when baby faces growth spurt. At one point (around 4th month), the baby would need more milk to suport this. Ian’s milk demand jumped from 4oz to 9oz in just one week. Had I not cheated my body to produce that much, I wonder if I could meet his demand!!
Watch Out Your Diet
Thsi isn’t the right time to be on diet. I’ve met a mom who wants to go back to previous size desperately. After 1 month, she started to skip her breakfasts, ate very little lunch, and no carbohydrates for dinner. As a result of that, her MPI dropped till she has to stop breastfeeding completely. No input, where got output?
Eat a balanced diet and breastfeed frequently, the extra fat will be gone without much effort!
I will share more on breastfeeding mom’s diet later. 
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I sent your articles to the new mums in my office.
Told them you are a role model where bfg is concern … most think that what you are doing (esp. feeding successfully even when travelling) is close to impossible … but I told them I had met you and you are real …
Thumbs up to all your hard work.
BusyBee: You are so funny about the part of being ‘real’. Hahaha! Thanks for the nice comments… paiseh lah. Actually I always feel that BFG is the easiest to do, compared to other parts of upbringing our kids.
I really can’t be a good mom - I’m not patient enough, I shout and spank my kids, I got mad most of the time, etc. Compared to those other stuff, BFG seems to be the easiest of all…
Thanks for all the tips, Suzette, all 3 parts of them. Will there be more? Hahah…just kidding.
choohk: hahaha! If there are any more, it would be probably adhoc basis. Subscribe to my blog RSS for update then!