The best nutrition for the baby is breast milk. It contains everything that a child needs for development and growth.
However, sometimes young mothers face lactation problems. Do not worry and immediately run to the pharmacy, buy expensive dry mixes.
There are a few rules and tips on how to increase lactation.
But, first of all, you need to figure out why there is a problem with the production of breast milk and how to understand that the baby is missing it.
Why lactation decreases
The tendency to feed a child with an artificial mixture is gaining more and more popularity every year. Some young mothers simply do not want to spoil the shape of their breasts and drink special teas and drugs. Others, in fact, suffer that they cannot meet the needs of their child in breast milk.
Among the main causes of decreased lactation are the following:
• mental and nervous disorders;
• transferred stress;
• regular exercise, such as weight lifting;
• lack of micronutrients entering the body of a woman, malnutrition;
• lack of fluid;
• trouble sleeping;
• the presence of bad habits.
If the new mother was interested in the question of how to increase lactation, you must first understand why the failure occurred.
How to understand that a child is malnourished due to a problem with lactation
Symptoms by which you can understand that a child of breast milk is not enough:
• within a month, the baby does not gain weight;
• the child becomes restless, often cries;
• constipation;
• decrease in urine volume (normal number of urinations per day - 6-7 times).
If the presented symptoms have been noted, you need to seriously think about how to increase lactation. Switching to artificial mixtures right away is not recommended, especially if the baby is only a few months old. It is better to try to restore the process of breast milk intake in order to supply the body of your child with the maximum amount of useful trace elements.
How to increase lactation at home
Often newly made mothers are interested in how much food their baby should receive per day. The norm is 1/5 of the body weight of the child. When a child ceases to gain weight, then he does not have enough food.
There are some tips on how to increase lactation at home.
1. It is very important that mom watches her diet. It must be balanced so that the food is high-calorie, but at the same time contains a sufficient amount of vitamins and minerals. During the day, it is recommended to consume about 100 grams of dairy products (cottage cheese, yoghurts), 20 grams of hard cheese, butter (10-15 grams).
2. Confectionery is strongly discouraged, as the composition of sweets stimulates a decrease in the amount of protein in milk. In addition, chocolate can cause allergies in the baby, because his body is not yet capable of digesting all the food.
3. There is an opinion that it is useful for nursing mothers to drink beer. It is absolutely impossible to do this. Alcohol impregnates breast milk, as a result, it enters the children's body and destroys the nervous system. You can not drink any alcoholic beverages, the ban also applies to smoking.
4. Be sure to drink plenty of fluids. It can be plain water without gases, a rosehip broth, fruit and vegetable juices. When there is enough fluid in the mother's body, the fat content of breast milk decreases and its influx to the mammary glands increases.
How to increase lactation: the rules that every mother should follow
Maintaining a constant flow of milk is not as easy as it might seem. Many women make basic mistakes in this matter. There are several important feeding rules, following which there will never be a question about how to increase lactation.
1. Frequent feeding. The baby needs to be constantly applied to the chest, especially in the first month of his life. The optimal interval between feedings is 2 hours. Even if the child is sound asleep during the day, he needs to be woken up and put at least for 10 minutes to his chest, this must also be done at night. It was noted that the highest activity of milk hormones is observed from 3 to 8 in the morning.
2. The chest must be emptied. If milk remains, the new will not abide. It is necessary to try to apply the baby first to one breast, then to another. If milk still remains, it is decanted with a breast pump.
3. Full relaxation. A newly-minted mother needs to take care of herself and try to relax, even if there are a lot of household chores, time can always be found. Any stress, lack of sleep, or excessive overwork reduces lactation.
4. Bottles and nipples leave for later. Breast they are absolutely not needed. In addition, the bottle has a different sucking mechanism. If the mother decantes, and not put the child on her breast, the baby may get confused. As a result, he will begin to grab the chest incorrectly, which is very painful for a woman. Over time, this will lead to the fact that the child completely abandons breastfeeding, lactation stops and you have to switch to artificial mixtures.
5. Tactile contact for a newborn is very important. He should feel the skin of his mother, her smell. The more often a woman will apply a child to her naked body, the more the risk of stopping lactation is reduced.
6. Do not allow the baby to fall asleep quickly while feeding, he should be well fed. To maintain the child in wakefulness, you need to apply it alternately to one chest, then to another. Thus, the baby will receive its norm of mother's milk, and the process of inflow of a new one will only be accelerated.
It’s much easier to follow these simple rules than to think later on how to increase lactation. Mom should understand that her milk is very important for the baby. Pediatricians recommend breastfeeding until they are at least 6 months old. It is believed that during this period, mother's milk contains a maximum of nutrients that are important for the normal development of the child's body.
Increased Lactation Beverages
Mom needs to drink not only water during breastfeeding. The presented recipes for drinks will help maintain lactation and increase the flow of milk, if it is not enough.
1. Fresh carrot juice. It is necessary to grate fresh carrots on the smallest grater. Juice is squeezed out of the resulting mass, it must be drunk 3 times a day, 150 ml each. For better lactation, you can add 1 teaspoon of cream to the drink.
2. Carrot milk infusion. 1 large carrot is rubbed on a medium grater, 200 ml of fresh low-fat milk is poured. Drink should be allowed to brew for 15-20 minutes, then drink it. Such a tool is recommended 2 times a day - in the morning and half an hour before going to bed.
3. Dill infusion. It is necessary to take dill seeds (1 tablespoon with a hill) and pour from 250 ml of warm water. The drink is infused for 3 hours, then divided into 2 identical parts. One is drunk during the day, the other before bedtime.
4. Anise infusion. Two teaspoons of plant seeds are steamed with boiling water and left to infuse for an hour. When the drink has cooled, it will be ready to drink. You need to take 2 tablespoons of the product before meals for 30 minutes 4 times a day.
5. Radish juice. 100 grams of fresh radish is rubbed on a fine grater, ½ teaspoon of honey is added there, everything is poured with 250 ml of warm boiled water. The resulting drink is drunk 2 times a day - in the morning and afternoon.
6. Caraway seeds. 1 kg of brown bread needs to be cut into small pieces, dried and fried in a dry frying pan for 5-10 minutes. Then everything is poured with cold boiled water (8 liters) in a separate saucepan and infused for 4 hours. The bread is filtered through a gauze, 400 g of sugar, caraway seeds (40 g), and yeast (25 grams) are added to it. The pan is cleaned overnight in a warm place to allow the contents to ferment. In the morning, kvass can already be drunk, but no more than 3 glasses a day.
There are other ways to increase lactation. Pharmacies now sell many teas designed based on herbs for this purpose. However, you need to carefully study their composition before buying, so that mom does not have an allergy to individual components.
If it is possible to feed the child with breast milk, you do not need to deprive him of this. Following elementary tips, a new mother will be able to maintain lactation and give her baby a strong, strong immunity.
