Denise,
I am confused by several points. 

Mom says the baby sleeps all night but she cannot pump in the night b/c baby will want to nurse? If she 
is afraid that he will want to nurse INSTEAD of the bottle then she can pump only one side, but I do not 
know why we would expect mom not to risk losing her supply with a baby so young who sleeps all night. 
Besides, if he is willing to nurse at night, why is he not being fed at night? 

This baby is too young for solid foods, and they may be contributing to his discomfort. I would also suspect 
that this baby has food allergies as his behaviour is certainly consistent with allergies. I would look very 
closely at mom's diet and also at the quality of fats in her diet. 

Most herbs would not have any properties that would be problematic for her baby, so I do not understand 
the hesitation to use them. I rarely use fenugreek alone anyway. There are many other herbs available. 

I also wonder if the original problems were ever solved? A baby who feeds inefficiently in the early 
months may well drive a supply down by 5 months. Have you watched this baby at breast? 

Finally, I would always look at structure. What was his birth like? Is he still trying to manage structural
problems from birth? I would really want to watch his feeding to see if he is exhibiting compensatory 
behaviours.

Jennifer Tow, IBCLC, CT, USA
Intuitive Parenting Network LLC


From Denise:
"I have permission to post a desperate email from a breastfeeding mother of a 
five month old. He is a hemophiliac, but has not yet required any medical 
treatment at this time except careful watching. He will require clotting factors 
in the future. Mom struggled with her supply early on, but pushed through 
without herbal help--just a lot of nursing and pumping. She did try Brewer's 
Yeast, which helped her supply but made the baby very gassy. She didn't try 
fenugreek as it is reported to have mild blood-thinning properties and we were 
unsure of transmission to the baby. She emailed me the following this am. She 
thinks supplementing with formula in the evening may help his fussiness even 
though she's feeding him. I tried to talk her into pumping once in the night and 
supplementing with that milk in the evenings, but she says he'll wake up and 
want to nurse. She pumps once in the daytime and is trying to save that milk 
for when she goes back to work. She says she only gets two ounces at that 
pumping. She doesn't want to pump more as she says he feeds so frequently 
anyway during the day that it will just make things worse. We'd appreciate 
any ideas/help.

"I have little ______, who is doing very well weight wise.  He had a lot of 
trouble nursing in the beginning of our nursing journey.  And for nearly 2 and 
1/2 months now we have had problems again.  
?
Here's what he does:  He nurses very well early in the morning when I know I 
have oodles of milk.  After not nursing all night.  >From then on, he his 
troubles grow with the day.  He has trouble getting enough milk, so he nurses 
VERY OFTEN, and usually for only 2 or 3 minutes each side, hardly enough 
time for my milk to let down.  But he starts screaming and pops off, when I 
burp him he is throwing himself back down to nurse more....just to repeat the 
cycle.  
?
?
By evening, when he's tired....because he won't nap hardly at all, he is a 
bear!  He is screaming ALOT and I can't even feel my milk let down by 6ish, as 
he tries to nurse every hour.  He is eating solids.  We did rice cereal for two 
and a half weeks and then have moved onto some foods, he has had sweet 
potatoes, squash and carrots.  He does well eating.  And he only eats rice 
cereal about 3-4 T. for breakfast and then half a small container of baby food 
for lunch and dinner as well as 2-3 T of rice cereal.  
?
Please help I am at my wits end, I don't know how to help him.  I do think he 
could be teething, but tylenol does not help and we have also tried little 
tummies to see if it was gas.  Sometimes I think that is the answer but not 
every night.  Are there any ideas you may have for us, I want so badly to 
nurse for at least a year!"



 





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