Block feeding: Please tell me about your experiences

[CakeandRoses]

I've started block feeding my 8 week old DD 2 days ago to try to address her silent reflux and terrible wind pains, caused (I think) by my over-active let-down and oversupply.

She sleeps well at night (6 - 7 hours unbroken stretch plus 3-4 hours either side ) so I don't think the issue is an intolerance (I don't eat dairy by the way), I think it's better at night partly because I give her last feeds lying down which slows the flow.

I've been taking her off the breast during my let-down and waiting until the spray has abated, this helped a little but she still has lots of pain and crying episodes off and on through the day. She also pulls away from the breast, crying and choking during some day time feeds.

I've given her a dummy and don't lay her flat after feeds which has massively helped the reflux but still leaves the wind.

I've started with a 3.5 hour block (to address the fact that she often goes 3 hours between feeds and I was already feeding from one side only so switching sides every 3 hours would be no different, if that makes sense!)

I'd like to know:

Did block feeding work for your baby in terms of reducing wind or reflux?

How long did it take to work?

Did you go back to feeding normally after it worked or did you continue block feeding?

How/when did you fit expressing in with block feeding? (I need to express a couple of feeds a week)

Thank you!

Can you explain Block Feeding to me please Cake? I've never heard of that term before.

Ineed: The idea is to reduce your milk supply by reducing the demand on your milk production. Instead of switching sides each feed (or even during each feed) then you'd choose a time block (usually 3+ hours I believe) and stick on the same side until that time block is up, no matter how many times you feed in that time.

e.g:
12pm to 3pm left side only
3pm to 6pm right side only

This should reduce the amount of milk you produce (thereby reducing flow and hopefully the mad let-downs) and also mean baby gets more hind milk.

I block fed to try and reduce wind/discomfort, fussing at the breast and because DD's poo was green - no reflux problems. DD wouldn't take a bottle so I rarely expressed. My baby fed more frequently than yours, so I had a two hour rule. Sooo... Did it work? Yes, sort of. How quickly? Within 24 hours. Did I go back? Yes, once I started weaning. Not sure how helpful that is, but I didn't want you to think no-one else had tried it!

OK, I exaggerate - within 48 hours, maybe. It was pretty quick, though.

Thank you wombat and two!

She actually seems miles more settled today (no crying so far and lots more smiles than usual) so maybe it is the start of a real improvement

wombat - how old is your ds and is the reflux getting better with time?

oh and I've had the first non-tidal-wive let-downs ever!

i block fed for a few days - did two or three feeds of the same boob. DS's poos went much yellower and he didn't choke as much. and his poos weren't quite as explosive!

Thanks Ruby. Did you go back to normal feeding after that and all was fine?

yes. all was fine. sometimes he needed to up the milk supply and was fussy and seemed to want to feed all the time so i just fed him more often. i let him lead. it just seemed that at first there was a bit too much milk maybe. my boobs would be massive anyway and full of milk and the let down on top of that made it shoot out a couple of foot! after i block fed there was less milk in the boob when he started so the let down was less powerful. i do remember a time when the supply was never quite right for a regular routine. sometimes there was too much and then sometimes there was too little. he seemed to really vary his intake due to teeth/growth spurts/general distractability not entirely sure as you can never really tell what they are getting but the block feeding seemed to calm things down a bit when there seemed to be too much.

apparently if you feed them a lot early on you have lots of receptor thingys so you can increase and decrease your supply as needed and it doesn't matter. (amateur science bit!)

that's really interesting re the science bit, ruby! i demand fed DD and it was all the ruddy time pretty frequent for the first couple of weeks so hopefully i'll have plenty of those receptor thingies!

my let down deffo seems to be less scary as the day has worn on and DD has had her best day for weeks - more smiling than crying at last

thank you everyone who posted here.

the block feeding has totally changed our lives . dd is now a very happy baby - literally no wind or reflux symptoms for days. we can't quite believe something so easy and simple could completely end all the problems she was having.

why oh why did no health visitors or doctors ever tell me about this when i had all the same issues with ds?

oh and i've been feeding 'normally' for the past two days and my supply seems to have stayed reduced and dd is still wind-free.

Cake that is amazing :)

It would take so little effort for HVs and GPs to aquire some knowledge about BFing so that they could at least give women struggling an idea where to start. It's a shame.

Hope your happy feeding continues for a long time!

exactly, ali. i feel so sad for other women with the same issue. it's made me think about doing some bf support.

That is fab, well done! And thank you for posting, i'm glad to have learned about this.