4 week old EBF refusing one breast? Feeling fed up. :(

[everythinghippie29]

I'm demand feeding my 4 week old. He has been gaining VERY well ( a right little chubber )

We've had some issues with what I assume has been a fast letdown. He quite often chokes at the breast and always has lots of milk on and around his face!

He generally won't take two breasts per feeding, he stays on one varying anywhere between a few minutes to over half an hour.

The past two days however he's been fussing and refusing to latch onto my left breast for anything longer than a minute or two. I keep trying to get him to relatch but after 5 mins stop before he gets frustrated and instead put him to my right breast where he feeds normally.

I've tried expressing a little (about 30 seconds into let down) before putting him to the left and have tried different holds to see if that works any better but no joy. My breast was quite engorged this morning but no sign of mastitis.

I'm worried that my supply in this breast will start to decrease. Currently I've been just trying him on the left boob each feed (so getting a few minutes on it fairly frequently which helps with any engorgement) but not sure if this is the right thing to do and he seems to be constantly hungry today however he gets so worked up every feed feels like a struggle.

PLENTY of wet nappies both today and yesterday and he's also had 2 fairly generous poops this morning too, so I'm not worried he's not getting enough but would LOVE to have him feeding well on both to maintain supply and give poor righty a break! Its making feeds really frustrating and much more tiring so although I'm trying to remain calm I'm getting a little fed up and literally can't do anything as he is feeding so frequently.

Any advice/ideas on what the issue may be and what should I do to counter it?

Thanks in advance

[everythinghippie29]

anyone?

[Mnippy]

You might want to ask Mumsnet to move this to 'Breast and Bottle Feeding' (or start another thread - the forum is under the ''Feed the World" section. You'll get more traffic there.

It really is an important issue, great that you are trying to fix it. I had to stop on my left for only a few days due to pain, but it really affected production (three months later my left produces a fraction of my right).


Can you get a breast feeding expert to look at why he's not feeding well at the left? The only reason I ask is because the internet/phone lines/midwives did not offer the support I needed. Only a proper lactation expert (which I found for free at a local support group) observing the latching process gave me the right advice I needed.