I need some help! Re: possible milk oversupply & probs with latching

[DeannaMay]

Hi Ladies

I need some help. I have just been surfing the net for answers, and now I have well and truly confused myself with information overload....

I'm pretty sure that I have an problem with milk oversupply. Both bubs and I seem to tick all the boxes with my squirty, leaky boobies and his green poos (today with muccus - but I think that could be him getting over his cold), big weight gains and over the past few days - problems with latching.
He has started to just sort of lick the nipple rather than latch on to it properly and when he does get on he seems to be snacking more rather than having a proper feed. I'm trying to make sure that he has one boob until it is empty before I give him the next one, but he seems to lose interest pretty quickly and it's hard to get him to have another go.
He doesn't seem to want to feed too much more frequently and seems very happy and alert - it's just mum who's stressing out!

He has been latching on like a champion since birth & I haven't had to do anything to help him - until now. I have had problems with him pulling off the boob before, but I put that down to him having a cold and struggling to breathe through his nose. He would always go straight back on after a little rest. His cold seems to be on the mend now too.

This is a new problem for us and I would appreciate any tips on latching - or anything that can help!

Thanks Bub Hubbers!

[SPC]

:wave:
I have a BIG let-down and Esme sometimes struggles with the force of it. She ends up coughing and spluttering with milk coming out of her nose. I have also had latching on problems, but due to flat nipples. I've found a nipple shield has helped with both problems; it helps her latch on and seems to regulate the flow a bit. I use them for the first half of the feed until things have softened up a bit and she isn't being drowned.

[Seacretsquirrel]

I too had squirty BM (I was still finding little spatters of it in weird places months after I stoped BF) but I found expressing a little bit into a container or cloth before starting helped ease teh pressure and also leaning back a bit and letting gravity work for you helped slow the flow a bit too.
But with a cold he may just be struggling to keep up and breath, also sometimes things taste funny when your nose is blocked so that might also be part of the problem...
Also they are getting more aware of their surroundings too and get distracted hence the pulling off and also I think they can start to slow with the feeds as they get bigger too (its been almost 2 yrs since DD was that little so I don't remember) - someone will correct me I'm sure.
Anyhoo hope you get it sorted I'd just perservere and I'm sure he will get back into the swing of things as he gets better.

[deb1234]

probably just express a bit off before you put him on. i had a huge oversupply and isaac vomited feeds up all the time...for the next baby if i have so much milk i will express first. i expressed a little when he was first born because i had sore nipples, and used to easily fill a bottle in a couple of minutes so poor isaac was drinking that much each feed (no wonder he threw it all up!).
i think too much foremilk is the cause of green poos so expressing should help this.

because of all the milk everywhere i also had to have a handtowel ready to wipe my breast dry and try to latch isaac on before we all got covered in milk again...so maybe he's having trouble latching because its too slippery? :)

isaac also used to look like he was just lapping all the milk up too rather than attaching because he didn't have to since the milk was spraying right into his mouth!

[AM]

With latching it was always just persistence, persistence persistence until it worked, I would tickle bubs cheek so they opened really wide, then pop bub on. I always made sure to dry my breast in between tries, as sometimes it can get so slippery with saliva and milk bub has absolutely no show of getting a latch.

I think expressing a wee bit to soften the boob is a good idea if you need to, otherwise I used to press my boob a little flat so it fitted the shape of bubs mouth a bit better, and I also found nursing while lying on the bed helped with the fast flow of the milk, and let bub feed a lot more easily.

All the best :)

[Hollywood]

I had oversupply in ONE side back in the beginning at one point, same story with the fast letdown, snacking pattern, green frothy poos (BTW you only know it's frothy if they 'do' it when during a nappy change, as the bubbles pop quickly, leaving only the fluidy green poo ;). Lovely).

Anyway, to fix it, what I did was fed in blocks (I chose roughly 3 hours), so for blocks of 3 hours, I still BF on demand, but didn't change sides in that time.

When the 'resting' boob gets a bit full, it sends a signal to the body to stop producing quite so much milk, and if you keep up the block feeding your boobs should settle down within a few days.

I had to do this to fix it because DS wouldn't drain the boob nearly enough with just one feed, so it really did take block feeding to fix it properly.

[DeannaMay]

Hi Ladies,

Thank you so much!

For the last 2 feeds - I have expressed out the first bit (OMG - about 75mls in 2 mins - it was like a river!! No wonder he was choking!) and we have had 2 lovely yellow poos to follow.
I also made sure my nipple was dry before he attached on - this seemed to help too.
He attached like his normal champion self.

Thanks again - you are all brilliant!
One very happy new Mummy here :)

[DeannaMay]

Hi again
Do you think that it's ok to save and use the milk that I express off at the start of feeds - because it's going to be majority foremilk??
Thanks again!

[AM]

Hi again
Do you think that it's ok to save and use the milk that I express off at the start of feeds - because it's going to be majority foremilk??
Thanks again!


How long does breastmilk keep in the deep freeze? Something like 3 months? I would keep it, just in case you ever have a need for it, as bub gets bigger, the whole formilk/hindmilk issue gets to be less and less of a problem, so why not have some frozen...if you don't use it, well, you haven't lost anything :)

[TKK]

Just wanted to say congrats for getting your BF working better. I had much the same problem when I started with DD and was freaking out because I couldn't find too much information - most of the internet seemed devoted to undersupply and not oversupply!!

Expressing (just a little) before is great, three weeks on nipple shields helped us (DD was great and could switch back and forth easily - some kids can't so take care) - so you've already done all the things I would suggest.

I did want to post and say that the ABA is pretty amazing and to give them a call if you need. They gave me some amazing advice, told me it was okay when I was so sad I was almost sobbing into the phone, and generally made me feel it was going to be okay (I'm quite the "oh my gosh its the end of the world" kinda person :o). I went in a few weeks from chubba bubba with green poos who was spluttering and choking to a healthy bubby with normal poos who was able to latch on and feed happily (and the happiness translated to the rest of the day).

Congrats again for making it work.