Expressing milk - how to boost the output?

Hi Blouoog

Have you tried Jungle Juice? I had a problem with letdown and milk drying up and my doc gave me a recipe for Jungle juice. Being a bit of a skeptic when it comes to 'miracle remedies' I tried it anyway as I had nothing to loose and I must admit, miracle remedy indeed! 3 days and I got about 140-160ml per boob and letdown was a breeze! Hopefully it will work just as good for you!

Here's the recipe for Jungle Juice (ingredients at clicks, dischem, etc) I used the first recipe, it's an acquired taste, but works wonders!

Ingredients:
50ml Schlehen Elixir
1 litre Apple Juice
2 Litres water
1 Sachet Blackcurrent Rehydrate
PLUS
10-12 drops Rescue Remedy per glass

Dosage:
Day 1: drink 3 litres of Jungle Juice, thereafter: drink 1.5 Litres every second day.

OR

Ingredients:
1 Litre Liqui Fruit (berry or grape)
50ml Schlehen Elixir
1 Rehydrate
1 Calcivita
1 Litre Water

Dosage:
Drink 2 Litres over 24hours.

Hi Momtoc
Your reply was awesome - I mean, you saw my question...could have summed it up in a few lines, but I just jammered on and on .

To answer your questions...
As mentioned, I sometimes get a let down reflex, but most commonly not. Even without it I manage about 120ml on average (a bit of breast massage encourages the girls to give it up).
Visualisation never worked that intensely for me, even when with my daughter or looking at her sleeping (being as happy as a cow in India), it doesn't boost it enough. It might be because I'm perpetually happy, so my oxytocin levels are already sky high ...what ever the reason, I don't think the oxytocin really affects the outcome so much at his stage,
Our drinking pattern is also pretty fixed, although she is a demand feeder, so I express when at work at the time she would normally have drunk anyway. When I'm at home, then she drinks and reestablishes the flow so the girls understand that they need to keep shaping up.
The work situation is not too uncomfortable.We are a small open plan office with one bathroom cubicle, so I can't take up our one bathroom for more than 20 minutes...its not fair to the rest of the guys. I'm also super pedantic about completing my work, so once at full time I will probably pump twice or three times a day, but for now I'm there too short to take an hour out of the five for "bathroom time".

Good luck with the return to work, its nerve wrecking, but also nice to talk about grown up things again.

Cheers!

Hi there

Firstly, it is heartbreaking to go back to work & leave our little ones behind. Atleast you've been able to work half day but as you said, it is going to change soon

I've had my 2nd child 3 months ago & still have 4 weeks left with him but it's already stressing me out as I'm returing full day & will have to pump atleast 3 times during working hours. I also demand feed him & he feeds alot hahaha. He only stretches 3 - 5 hours during the night. During the day is a different story but I don't mind......I just love it!!!!!!

Now to answer your question

You obviously know what the let down reflex is for & it comes extremely easy when bf baby but as soon as we put those pumps in work, it's a different story & not so easy to get the let down BUT if you don't get it, you won't express enough milk.
During pumping, if you manage to get a let down, the milk will flow out much easier. It's a case of tricking your breasts to release the milk even if it's not the baby suckling. If you battle to get a let down during pumping, you will probably battle to get a nice amount of milk out. Stress interferes with the release of oxytocin. You can stimulate the let down by applying warm compresses, thinking about the baby, breast massage etc.

Is there a reason why you don't have enough time at work? Are you just extremely busy or is it all they give you?

How long do you go before expressing at work since your last feed with baby & are your breasts extremely full before you express because if they are too full the brain will think that you don't need more milk because it will seem that baby doesn't feed alot anymore & will produce less milk?

Your breasts should always be as empty as possible because the empier the breasts, the more milk it will make.

You can buy fenugreek or drink the jungle juice if you want but even with alot of milkies, it won't help if you don't get a proper let down.

Sorry for the long reply!!!

Hi all
I currently work halfday (soon to move to full day ), and have always had enough milk to be able to express for my LG (at least 200ml sometimes more) for the two feeds she has whilst at daycare.
She feeds through the night and once in the afternoon, and when we are at home, she still demand feeds (she has learned the deaf language sign for milk - its being used in overdrive ) about 3-4 times a day.

Alexis is now 11 months old, come Monday, and I find in the last month (declining as we went along), I haven't been able to express much more than 100ml at work.
I only express once at work, and don't really have the luxury of time or space to increase that (insert image of me actually having booked our one cubicle bathroom between 12 and 12:20 for expression - boy, was that a comfortable talk to have with the 4 guys in the office ). I also know that from 1 year old, they can start drinking cows milk, or "growing up milk", but I'd still like to boost the expression for the time being just until we reach that point.

Any hints or tips to boost the quantity of milk I express. I generally don't have a let down reflex when I express at work - the stress of time and space contributing to that - but even if it is there, it doesn't up the ante with that much.
I have heard good things about fenugreek, but not sure how to go about ingesting it and in what quantities. I also despise the taste of jungle juice - but will do it if necessary for baby love.

Grazie madri