Please help...my let down has disappeared! How can I make myself let down?

[YayJennie]

I haven't let down since last night. My (10 month old) son keeps trying to nurse, but the let down doesn't happen so he gets frustrated and stops. What is going on? Why can't I let down? It's stressing me out and I know that makes it worse. I'm just so worried he's going to wean because he can't get any milk!

Some background:

He was exclusively breast fed on demand since birth until we introduced solids around 7 months. He now eats a TON, but only drinks water and breast milk. At first, I had a MAJOR over supply, and pumped/donated over 1000 ozs of milk within the first 4 months of Wyatt's life, in addition to EBF him. My supply evened out around 8 or 9 months pp, and I stopped getting engorged and very rarely pumped. When I have pumped recently, I haven't been able to get myself to let down, so I just give up because it's frustrating. But usually, my son nursing can make the let down happen within 2 or so minutes. It's happened a few times where I haven't let down and he gave up and nursed later, but I didn't think it was a big deal. But now, I haven't let down in almost 12 hours, and, although he's attempted to nurse, he gets frustrated and stops. I really don't want my supply to tank because he doesn't nurse because I'm not letting down! Should I pump? I keep offering the breast, but he's not all that interested. I don't want him to wean at 10 months! What should I do?

[spughy]

Is it possible you are pregnant? It sounds like you're experiencing a bit of a supply dip and that's a pretty common side-effect of early pregnancy. Other hormonal shifts (like your period starting up again) can also do it but not usually that dramatically. Have you lost a lot of weight recently? Been dieting? Exercising a LOT more? Experiencing stress?

As long as you're not pregnant (and really, even if you haven't got your period back, you should test) I would try hitting the fenugreek and blessed thistle. Fenugreek take 3-4 capsules 3 times a day, blessed thistle 2 droppers-full of tincture at the same time as the fenugreek, in water or juice (yes it tastes vile, sorry).

The other thing you should do is nurse your son when he is sleepy (preferably, asleep). You can pick him up and just pop him on the boob. He will nurse on autopilot and probably not notice that your letdown hasn't happened yet, and so go longer and possibly stimulate one.