Questions about Mother's Milk Tea and also Goat's Rue

[Sk8ermaiden]

Let me preface this by saying I know how questions about low supply are usually answered, so I wanted to say up front that I have been on no less than NINE different supplements for supply already (none of them have worked) and I have two wonderful IBCLCs at my disposal, but I am tired of bothering them.

If anyone asks me if I've tried oatmeal or Fenugreek or Domperidone or compressions or pumping after feeds I might just explode all over them, k?

I am on my "last attempt" supplement - Goat's Rue. I figured if everything with the effect of making more milk had failed, then maybe something designed to increase breast tissue would work (I have had no increase since before pregnancy). My question on this is, how long does it generally take to work?

I also think I may be seeing a tiny increase from a mother's milk tea (using the Earth Mama Angel Baby brand) and am off to buy more tea to start drinking around the clock (instead of just at night before I pump). My question is, if I am getting more milk with the tea, can I eventually wean off of it and keep my supply? It takes three tea bags in a cup to make a difference at all and that would be too expensive of a habit to support.

I have said that this will be my last attempt at upping supply before I give in and accept that I will only meet 75% of her needs. It has been a long battle and we have spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars to even be breastfeeding at all. (Pumps, LCs, BFing-friendly bottles, supplements, Thrush treatments.) We are tired of spending half our income at the Vitamin Shoppe. If anyone has any extra suggestions about these two particular things, or even anything that is particularly effective paired with them, I would love to hear it. But I'm at the end of the road here so don't be offended if I don't take your other supply suggestions. There is always something else to try and all it will do is drive me to depression.

[phrogger]

WOW, no advice but I wanted to just say that is a lot of dedication and what a great job you are doing. So much effort. I don't know what all you have tired and I have no idea how to answer your question. The only thing I know that has helped (or I should say caused me to lactate when I was not pg and was not nursing and hadn't in over a year) was reglan, but you have probably tried that already. So I just wanted to at least applaud you on your hard work. I hope someone has better answers.

[anaboa]

I was in the same boat as you, desperate. I also used EVERY product i could find. Goat's rue being one of them. To be honest, I'm not sure how long it took for the milk to come in. I was drinking the teas, taking the herbs,visualizing and pumping after each feeding. I had a month to get my DD's weight to an acceptable amount before I was to try supplementing. Within a month she gained the weight she needed. No formula ever needed!
I still drank the teas and took the tinctures, for my own reassurance, after my milk became more abundant. At 6 mos i felt better about supplementing with real food here and there.
Still BFing at 26 mos!
stay positive and hope this helps

[mambera]

omg you sound just like me!! - I joined just to answer this post. I also have a 75% supply and have tried just about everything in the book. I hear you about helpful people on the internets - I know everyone is just trying to help but after a while it gets frustrating to hear "did you try pumping after feeds" for the 1000th time, when you already have semipermanent circle marks on your boobs from the dern pump flanges.

I also hear you on the $$$ - I almost lost it when the nice lady at the lactation support desk asked me wasn't I glad that bf was so much cheaper than formula. !!!!

Anyway, my dd is 4 months old and by now I have pretty much accepted that we will need several oz of formula every day to be a happy camper, but I keep futzing around with the herbs/meds just in case something magically works some day.

I read somewhere that it takes at least 2-3 weeks to start seeing an increase with goat's rue. I have been taking More Milk Special Blend with goat's rue consistently for 5 weeks. There's maybe been a tiny tiny increase but I could be imagining it.

I started dom a couple of weeks back but so far nothing, and plus I am really nervous about it. I am having some GI side effects and I am afraid to go up to a higher dose (I'm on 60 mg per day right now, I know some women need as much as 160 mg/d to see an effect). I'm also afraid that even though I'm not seeing an increase, I may see a *decrease* when I go off of it.

Do the stomach issues go away as you get used to the drug or is this going to be happening for as long as I take it, anybody know?

[mambera]

Oh, and about the tea - from what I've read, I think that while *some* women can ultimately wean from any given supplement (presumably tea included) and keep the supply boost, there's no guarantee of that. So you might actually need to keep taking the tea for as long as you need the supply. No way to know ahead of time.

[BekTens]

Goat's Rue helped me after about 2 or 3 weeks. I'm also taking oatmeal, More Milk Plus, Mother's Milk Tea, domperidone, saw palmetto and alfalfa.

Just want to let you know that alfalfa has been *the* most helpful herb for me and my IGT. It's the only one that gave me a very noticeable increase in supply.

I still only produce about 2oz/feeding, but I'm at peace with it.

I would STRONGLY recommend alfalfa. You can get it at www.luckyvitamin.com super cheap.