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6 Ways to Boost your Milk Supply While Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding… it’s a lifestyle. On average, a woman spends around 1,800 hours breastfeeding, or exclusively pumping, for a year. That is the almost the equivalent of a full time job! (You know, on top of having a brand new baby, a career, multiple kids, wife-life, homeschooling, etc.) All of that can be overwhelming and downright stressful, which can ultimately lead to a decrease in your milk supply… Which can then cause even more stress.
I see you, Mama. Breastfeeding is not for the weak. I remember the feeling of pure panic when I went back to work and my milk supply began to drop. I researched for HOURS and talked with tons of other moms to see what I could do to increase my breastmilk supply.
Here I listed 6 ways I found success in boosting and maintaining my milk supply!
Mothers Milk Tea
This tea is magical. It helped my breastmilk production within 24 hours. It is a medicinal-grade, organic herbal (caffeine-free) tea. It has been clinically tested and is recommended by Lactation Specialists! Grab a box here!
Boobie Bars
Boobie Bars are a delicious way to snack your way to an increased supply! These Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Vegan, Soy Free, Non-GMO, Certified Kosher, and Fenugreek-Free bars were formulated by a Lactation Consultant! I personally used the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip bars, but they come in a variety of flavors. Check them out here!
Monitor Your Calories
Speaking of snacking, getting an adequate amount of calories is incredibly important for your breastmilk production. According to the CDC, “An additional 330 to 400 kilocalories (kcal) per day is recommended for well-nourished breastfeeding mothers, compared with the amount they were consuming before pregnancy.” If you feel you’re not consuming enough calories, talk with your doctor or a dietician. They can work directly with you to form a meal plan that suits your dietary needs.
Self Care
Stress, not eating well, not sleeping are huge factors in a reduction of breastmilk supply. Although, I know it is easier said than done, you’ve got to take care of yourself.
If you’re overly stressed, pinpoint those stressors and make a plan to eliminate/reduce them. Talk with your partner and discuss how you can tackle those problems as a couple. Find support from your family and friends. Take YOU time.
Not only do you need enough calories, but you need enough calories of the right stuff. Healthy foods will boost your supply. Pinterest is a great place to find healthy meal recipes!
Sleep. I honestly laugh a little at this one because who has time to sleep with a baby? Neither of my kids slept. It was awful. However, this is a significant component to breastmilk production. Work with your partner to take turns on who gets up with the baby in the middle of the night. Recruit a family member to come hang with your kiddos while you take a nap. It may not be a complete solution to the problem, but it’s definitely a start!
Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate
Water is the key to life… and breastfeeding. Breastfeeding women should drink about a gallon of water a day. You can stay on track with a gallon sized water bottle. I personally used this water jug from Target! It is only 50oz, but I knew if I drank 2 and a half, I met my gallon goal!
Research your Meds
Medicine can play a role in a decreased milk supply. This includes birth control pills. Talk with your doctor about your medicines to determine if that could be a potential factor in your decreased milk supply.
A Quick Recap
There are lots of different ways to increase your breastmilk supply. Eating healthy (and enough), getting rest, drinking water, and monitoring you stress levels are things you can implement right now. Talk with your doctor about medicines and supplements to see what’s right for you! Good luck mama, you’ve got this!
Disclaimer: I am not a Lactation Consultant or medical professional. These are tips I found helpful to increase my breastmilk supply. I highly recommend talking with your doctor or a lactation consultant to address your specific needs. I cannot guarantee these tips will increase your breastmilk supply.
The Start of the Amanda Tindall Brand
HEY THERE MAMA!
My name is Amanda, former Teacher turned Stay/Work at Home Mom. Most days you can find me hanging with my kiddos and a coffee in hand. I love crafting, staying active, and spending quality time with my family and friends.
As a previous educator, I have a huge passion for learning and growing. I started this blog to share those ideas with mom’s just like you! This is my full story on how I got started.
CAREER SEARCH
As a kid, I was always interested in learning. I loved school and learning as much as I could. Some of my past teachers weren’t surprised that I chose to become an educator myself. However, many don’t know how difficult that decision was for me!
As I was graduating high school, I was really interested in psychology. I thought maybe becoming a child psychologist was in my future. I brought this up to my guidance counselor at the time. Her response? “That requires a lot of schooling. Maybe you should consider something else.” *Insert blank stare here* And that was pretty much the end of our conversation.
Fast forward a few years, I was in college and had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do. Obviously, my guidance counselor wasn’t of great assistance and I didn’t know of many careers out there. I headed over to my college’s career center seeking some sort of direction. They had me pay for a personality test and gave me a list of about 20 careers and recommended I job shadow a few. *Insert more blank stares*
After some serious searching and talking with friends and family, I decided Occupational Therapy was it. I wanted to help kids that struggled with fine motor skills. I mean, what could be better than getting to play with kids all day??
As I was completing observational hours in an elementary school, I found myself talking with the teachers more than the OT I was shadowing. I really loved the idea of having my own classroom and getting to have a whole group of students rather than one. And in that moment, a teacher was born.
I went back to my college advisor (in my senior year of college LOL) and yet again, decided on a new career path. After some tweaking of my schedule, I was able to graduate on time and be accepted into the Masters of Education program at my school. I. Was. PUMPED.
TEACHING
Fast forward a little more, I graduated with my Masters and landed a teaching job at a small rural school in Northern Missouri. Saying I loved my job is an understatement. I had two incredibly well behaved classes, an overly supportive administration and community, and created some life long friends in the process. I had it made in the teaching world.
During my second year at this school, I found out I was pregnant with our first baby. Being so far from home, we decided after that school year we would move back towards our hometown. I was devastated to leave my job, but knew it was best for our growing family.
I ended up getting a job as a sixth grade teacher in the school district I was praying to teach at. Although sixth grade wasn’t my first choice, I was excited nonetheless. I remember thinking to myself Alright, this is it! I landed a job at the perfect school! I was completely unprepared for what this next step in my career would look like.
A WHOLE NEW WORLD
After starting at my new school, I quickly realized teaching isn’t unicorns and rainbows. There were a TON of things I didn’t even realize teachers had to do. So many expectations and rules I simply didn’t have at my last school, on top of a new grade AND a new baby made for a really stressful situation. I had some serious behaviors to deal with that I had never even heard of in my previous school. Every day was a challenge. I truly didn’t know how I would make it to the end of the school year. I loved my students, but MAN… it was ROUGH.
…..Then COVID hit.
If you know anything about education after the pandemic, you know that it was a total disaster. Teachers everywhere (along with everyone else in the world) were literally trying to navigate a whole new world. Our students suffered tremendously. We saw massive gaps in student learning, extra pressures on teachers and families within the school districts, and a huge political divide among the country.
Our schools wanted to implement new curriculum and make sure teachers were on the same page each day. They wanted detailed lesson plans down to the very questions you would be asking during your lessons. The expectations kept growing without resources, support, or a financial increase.
A LITTLE BLESSING
A couple years into this process, we found out I was pregnant with Baby #2. I had my son just before the start of the school year. We were moving into a new building so I literally had two days to get in and prep my room for my incoming students before I went into labor.
After I had my son, I knew something had to change. Staying home with him and my daughter those 12 weeks were amazing. I knew I couldn’t go back to a job that left me feeling overwhelmed and defeated every day. So, I started looking for ways to supplement my income with the goal of completely replacing it by the end of that school year.
OVERWHELMED TO OVERBOOKED
As I was scrolling Pinterest one day, I found a pin about becoming a freelancer. I thought What the heck is a freelancer? And clicked on the Pin. It was a link to a course that helped moms start an online freelancing business to ditch the 9-5 life and become a Work at Home Mom. After more research and talking things over with my husband, I decided to sign up for the course.
I worked my butt off to complete the course, start my business, and completely replace my income by the time I left the teaching world that year. I’m not going to lie, there were a lot of late nights and really early weekend mornings to make it work. BUT, I did it! I quit my job and rocked the WAHM life. What made the whole deal even better, was I got to help teacherpreneurs promote their resources on social media. This way I could stay connected to a career I was once so passionate about.
MOM LIFE
As I started figuring out the stay at home life, I realized I needed to find ways to start teaching my daughter and challenging her. I started with some pretty traditional education methods. We tried your typical Morning Calendar, counting through manipulatives and a hundred chart, etc. To my surprise, it didn’t work for her. She didn’t love learning in the way that I was so used to seeing.
After several attempts, I finally just asked my daughter, “What do you want to learn about?” You won’t believe her response… Bats. In the middle of the summer she wanted to learn all about bats. Not what I would have expected, but we ran with it.
We read several fiction and nonfiction books about bats, created different bat crafts, completed a STEM challenge to learn how bats fly, and talked about life cycles and habitats of bats. I even incorporated some letter sounds and rhyming patterns using words about bats. My daughter LOVED it. This is when I started rethinking the traditional educational setting I was so accustomed to.
THE BLOG
Following this moment, I started talking with other preschool moms and learning more about what they were doing with their children. Turns out, many of them struggled in the same ways I had originally felt.
Thus, the blog was born. I wanted to create a space for other moms to get inspiration for their children’s learning habits. This blog is here to promote learning through an interest based approach rather than a traditional learning approach, and sprinkle in a little bit of all things motherhood.
So, if you’re a fellow mama looking for something different when it comes to your child’s education you’re in the right spot! Welcome to the community ❤️