I am feeling very sad and disappointed with myself. I have been breastfeeding my lo from birth now. She is 7 mth 3 wks old now. We have come a long way, I direct latch her whenever she is with me, and I pump hard at work whenever I could squeeze in time between meetings and conf calls and general work, so as to provide enough for her when she goes ifc. Couple of weeks back she fell ill and later I fell ill too. I always take a very long time to recover from stupid tiring coughs. Needing to get better, I had to take cough syrup and subseq TCM herbs. Little did I know that despite the prescribed med being safe for a lactating mom, it affected my milk supply tremendously. I stopped my med but my milk supply is not coming back. I cannot yield the same volume anymore despite stopping the med, drinking lots of water, milk and eating lactation cookies. I really feel very sad..as I wanted to give her this precious gift of bm for as long as I can. I love the bonding with her whenever she latches on.

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Breastfeeding safe medicine just means that it will not affect baby if some of the medicine goes into ur bm. It may or may not cause ur milk supply to drop. I don't think it is reasonable at all to expect ur body to still be producing optimal amount of bm when u are sick and u also mentioned that it's a long draw Anne tired out cough so the body is tired and also has lesser resources to produce the bm. When u are fully recovered u may or may not be producing the original amount as ur boobs may have adjusted to the new production rate. U can try ur milk boosters (not everyone have the same and not lact cookies always work) if u know what they are or just go for a wide variety and a lot of known milk boosters and hopefully u will hit jackpot If it really drops, u can just latch less and then bond with her through other things. She will still want to be with mummy yar. There are many other first experiences that u can be there for her too so it's really ok. Don't need to be too hard on urself. Motherhood is a life long journey - every section is just as important and precious

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7y ago

Thank you for the wise words and encouragement. Apprec it.

Oh dear please don't be upset. Big hugs to you. Im sorry to hear that this has happened. But not being able to have anymore bm, is not your fault. Baby can still have your love which is above everything else. All i can say is, baby loves you and im sure you have done everything within your means. Cheer up. Give yourself a pat.

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8y ago

Thanks dear. :)

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you still can latch on even there is no milk! with her latching on, the bonding gets stronger and baby will help you to stimulate the supply even more! You are one strong mama for trying your very best to give the very best to your LO!

Hugs! U have done ur best, there are other ways to bond besides direct latching. U can play with her instead. She will enjoy ur company no matter what

7y ago

Thanks Jaslyn! :)

most welcome! don't give up and don't be hard on yourself. it will get better! hang in dear

7y ago

Thanks Ling and Jorelle :) I managed to pull through the 1yo target...! Somehow the supply came back after i got well n rested well. She is almost 14mo. I still dl her (i am still lactating, yay!) but started giving her fm when she was 13mo so as to manage everything well n stay sane. Hugs n big thanks to all mommies who have encouraged n cheered me on.

You can stimulate milk production again by doing power pumping for 3 consecutive days.

8y ago

Thanks Geraldine! I will try that.