A customer recently wrote this email to us…
“We are having a foster child come into our care and i am planning to breast feed him. I still am able to express a tiny bit of milk from one of my breasts and am wondering the best way to go about inducing lactation for the foster baby. Should I pump lots of times daily before he arrives or use the Supplemental Nutrition System when he arrives? or both? What would you recommend?”
Well firstly, Good One!! What a legend this lady is for trying to do this, to give the foster baby her breastmilk.
In this situation, we would suggest that she pumps about every 4 hours for a few weeks before the baby arrives. Then when the baby does arrive, the supplemental nutrition system (also called Lactaide) would be the ideal way to get him to latch to her breast while being rewarded with milk. This would also stimulate more milk flow.
For the breast pump, since it is one that she will be using quite frequently, we recommend either the Avent Electric or the Medela Swing.
The Swing is slightly better, as it has a two phase method of working to firstly stimulate letdown and then a longer slower motion to mimic baby drinking.
Both of these pumps are really quiet too.
A doctor could also prescribe some Domperidone to get your breasts producing milk.
