When my baby girl was about 9 months old I caught a stomach virus and was really ill for a couple of days. Due to being ill I didn't feel like breastfeeding too much (so my husband used the frozen milk in the freezer) and also I was pretty dehydrated so the milk volume became really low. BAD idea. After a few days it looked like my milk was about to dry up!
So, my advice for this situation (which I wish someone had told me!):
- If you get sick, you can still breastfeed. Apparently it gives the baby the immunity to whatever you might have anyway so there is no 'risk'... just make sure you wash your hands plenty and stay away from breathing all over the baby all the time
- Make the effort to breastfeed regularly even if you are exhausted and feel like nothing is coming out. By leaving longer periods between feeding/pumping you are signalling to your body that it doesn't need to make so much milk.....
- IF the supply dips, like mine did, you need to start an agressive pumping/feeding schedule to get back to normal. It took me about 1 and a 1/2 weeks to do this. I also had to try and drink more liquids than normal and beef myself up with more food!!!
- The frozen bags are great and were a life saver. BUT...I paid for that afterwards...so try not to stay off the breastfeeding for too long.
- Sleep, drink, pump....
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