How To Increase Your Milk Supply (While Nursing)

 With both of my girls I was constantly worried about my milk supply while nursing. I am well endowed in the boob department so I always assumed that meant I'd have plenty of milk. More storage space, right? Not exactly how that works it turns out :).

When both of my girls were just tiny newborns I didn't have enough milk to meet with their needs. So instead of letting them starve to death while waiting for my milk to increase I employed this method:

Step 1: Nurse Baby on both sides for about 10-15 minutes.

Step 2: Give your baby to somebody else (your husband, mom, sister, friend) to feed a bottle of either previously pumped breast milk or formula.

Step 3: While your baby is taking a bottle from somebody else, you have to pump for 10 minutes.

Step 4: Save milk you pumped in the fridge for baby to drink later!

I had to do this for about 2 weeks until I had enough milk. Such a pain, I know! But it was worth it! You know you have plenty of milk for your baby when your baby is too full for the bottle after nursing and has plenty of wet and dirty diapers every day. Later on if you feel a drop in your milk supply you can do this method again but probably only need to do it once or twice a day to help amp up your milk production.



Sometimes at night if I didn't want to wake anybody up to help me I would just feed the baby the bottle myself after nursing her and then after putting the baby back in bed I would pump.

 Some other things that help your milk supply:

Fenugreek Supplement (I just bought mine at Good Earth)



Drinking a ton of water! I would drink a large glass before nursing, and then a large glass right after as well besides other times during the day. If you don't like the taste of normal water get a water bottle that you can infuse lemon, limes, or other fruits into to get a yummy flavor.

Eat lots of almonds, berries, leafy greens, oatmeal and make sure you are eating enough in general! You need 500 extra calories to make milk.

To have a richer, creamier milk have at least a Tablespoon of coconut oil or olive oil a day. You can have it over popcorn. Its yummy!

Get plenty of rest. If you notice a drop in your milk, take it easy for a few days having a "Nursing Vacations" where you just eat, sleep, lay in bed and nurse as much as you can.

Our very own Holly Jensen took this picture of me with my baby :)

And Here I am with the same baby a couple months later. She's purely breastfed and perfectly healthy.
Our own Nicole Stoker took this photo :)

With my first baby she was born so tiny and small her mouth had a hard time latching on for the first few months. I had to use a nipple shield to almost act as a straw to help her nurse. I had to take the shield with me everywhere so I would recommend the case!


Make sure to take care of your nipples. Use Lansinoh to help them not crack and let your boobs air dry a little bit after nursing and pumping if you can. It really will help!