Reglan: Looking for encouragement, please.

[at-home]

I am on this breastfeeding journey with my daughter who gave birth 12 days ago. I feel that the hospital staff kind of sabotaged her breastfeeding by giving her baby formula right from the start - because he didn't latch on immediately and because he had jaundice. Nothing we can do about that now.....she has been taking fenugreek and blessed thistle and we obtained a Medela pump. She pumps every 2 (sometimes 3) hours and here baby latches occassionally (but doesn't stay long at the breast, probably because the milk isn't flowing as much/quickly as he'd like). Mostly she is finger feeding him breast milk supplemented by formula. At day 9 she had very scant milk when pumping (didn't even cover the bottom of the bottle) so her doctor prescribed Reglan. She is at day 12 and her milk still barely covers the bottom of the bottle on one side, and maybe only a few drops from the other side. I am encouraging her to hang in there, just keep plodding along, and that her milk will eventually become more plentiful and her baby will latch on for longer periods.
I am wondering if anyone who has been on Reglan has any encouragement for her. She is wondering if she should expect more, or how long it might take for her supply to increase. Thank you.

[AislinCarys]

I didn't use Reglan, I used Domperidone, so I don't know what to expect that.

But I wanted to ask if your daughter had considered using an SNS or lact-aid, to supplement the baby at the breast (a tube from the bottle is taped to mum's breast, and goes into baby's mouth with the nipple)? We had a lot of success with an SNS (lact-aid is apparently easier, less fiddly).

I can't get much when pumping, not even once I did get my supply up. Some women can't really let down for the pump, despite having lots of milk (my friend is one of them). So pumping may not tell much about her supply. I can however say that the more time baby is sucking at the breast, the better will any drug to increase production work.

Check out www.drjacknewman.com . There is lots and lots of help for low supply issues there, I very much recommend it. We followed his advice, guided by an LC, and got through quite severe supply issues, emerging breastfeeding at the end!

[patronus]

i took reglan. i remember it taking about two weeks to kick in. my supply continued to climb after that but i noticed an increase by about 2 weeks. before starting it, my LC said about 2 weeks. i was in a similar situation as your daughter. i could barely pump half an ounce. it was really difficult, emotionally and physically. it took us until dd was about 2 months to wean off supplementation, but we did it. and actually, the reglan and all the pumping worked so well that i ended up with over supply & mastitis. good support is the key, so keep doing what you're doing. if it weren't for my mom and dh i would have been sunk.

i'd also highly recommend working with a lactation consultant if you're not already.

good luck to your daughter!