Home Forums Induced Lactation aka Adoptive Breastfeeding Medical Interventions to Induce Lactation/Increase Milk Supply encouragement for those of you relactating

I am so grateful to this protocol and forum.
I was able to have a successful relactating experience because of it.
My son just turned 2 and is happily nursing.
We did the full protocol and used the Lact-aid for about 8 months (he came home at 4.5 months). I supplemented with formula as I was never able to have a full supply or enough to have a freezer stash. We've enjoyed about a year without any contraptions and the experience has been amazing!

For those of you who are losing heart or wondering WHY IN THE HECK are you going through all this. It is worth it!!! And no matter what your story is, you won't regret having put forth all the time, emotions, money and effort!

My best to all of you,
Emily and Abel (2, home from Ethiopia 2/08)

Thanks, Emily!

I've been on the full protocol now for 8+ months. I'm not even to the hard part yet (pumping) and I have days when I'm tired of having to remember to take these pills!

We are expecting our baby girl home from Ethiopia (Illien Adoptions) in January. She'll be 10 months old. I'm really hoping she takes to breastfeeding and am actually looking for advice from those who started nursing when their infants were older (like Abel or even older).

Thanks for the encouragement!
Jenny

Thanks for the words of encouragement! I have been pumping for 3 weeks now (with no match even in sight yet..) and what keeps me going is the constant increase that I see in what I am producing each day!
It seems that each week, I can say we are increasing by half to one full ounce. If I could only keep that up, I am on my way to fully breastfeeding a baby sometime in the near future!

Amazing! Good job!

I looked up induced lactation so that I could breastfeed our son we were hoping to adopt. I did not have much time to use the protocol. I started in the beginning of June, and our son was born on August 20th. I followed the protocol as faithfully as possible, taking Yaz and domperidone. I stopped taking the Yaz 1 week prior to his due date and began to pump about 6 times per day and I was only getting a TOTAL of 1 ounce per day and was feeling very defeated! I really felt like this wasn't going to work. I emailed Lenore, and she encouraged me and advised me to continue on and to pump following breastfeeding our son for the first week, or so.

We were at the hospital for our son's birth on Aug. 20, 2009 and he nursed for 40 minutes immediately following his arrival. He has been nursing like a champ since then. I took Lenore's advice and pumped for 20-30 minutes after breastfeeding (total of about 1.5 hours of nursing/pumping every 2-3 hours) for the first several days and didn't begin to supplement with formula until he was several days old. When I did supplement I exclusively supplemented with a small feeding tube in the corner of his mouth while he nursed that was hooked to a syringe where he could SLOWLY get formula while he sucked. THis took about an hour per feeding, but I really feel like it helped with stimulation and increasing my supply. Now, at 10 weeks, I breastfeed almost exclusively and only have to give him about 6 ounces of formula per DAY!! I could probably cut that back too. He's gaining weight like a champ, at eight weeks he was already 12 pounds and he started out at 7lbs 5 ounces! His pediatrician is very pleased with his/our progress.

So, I hope you feel encouraged! Breastfeeding your adopted child IS possible and is a wonderful experience. It feels like our little Isaiah loves to nurse more than our two biological children did. He nurses for hours straight, when I let him. Also, I recently had swine flu (H1N1) and my older two children got it, but Isaiah, who is receiving all kinds of wonderful antibodies and immunity through my breastmilk DID NOT GET IT!! Yay!! Nursing has been so wonderful for bonding as well, it's just been an amazing experience so far, and I have the feeling this is going to be a long and healthy nursing experience, if he has his way!

That is so great! I am glad to hear the good progress. Congrats!