Half a boob feed - offer that boob next time?

[MrsHD]

Sorry, but of a crap title!

DS has just had 15 mins on one boob feeding pretty actively, then pulled off. So far so good. I gave him a little break, propped him up just in case of wind (he's been a bit windy today) then as he was rooting against my shoulder put him to the other boob. Bit random really as the other one still had milk but hey. He fed for a while on the other side but not 15 mins. So my question is, next time he wants a feed (and he's a frequent feeder, I struggle to make him last an hour between feeds when he's awake but he feeds so much better when he does have that brief wait, not the feed-doze-nudge feed-doze-nudge affairs we had been having) should I offer him the half-finished side first to finish off, or am I effectively starting from scratch with the next feed? And does a boob ever really run dry anyway? Mine don't seem to despite the odd early hours formula top-up when my milk though plentiful doesn't seem to satisfy him.

Thanks,

Heather

[LaTrucha]

I don't thikn your breasts really run dry, although I'm no expert. IF the baby sucks, you produce milk, I believe.

Is your bf established? Once my one was my boobside offering became much less restricted by me. I don't think it mattered greatly.

[MrsHappy]

I used to put my DD back on the "unfinished" breast at the start of her next feed, then offer the other as "pudding". It's probably bolleaux but someone was going on about reaching the hindmilk or something so that is what I did.

As for whether breasts run dry, most people say not but mine did seem to sometimes!

[JodieO]

The time when you produce milk the fastest is when baby is feeding, so you won't actually have nothing there. If you top up with formula then that can alter your milk supply as you produce enough your baby will need and baby encourages more milk supply through sucking.

Personally I'd offer breastmilk at night and swap sides if need be, even going back to first side if baby still needs more. It's normal for the feeding to vary

[watershed]

Both my kids were such frequent feeders that I lost the ability to decide any other way than just use one boob for two hours - whatever the feed demand was like, and then swap and use the other for two hours..
It worked....

[fishie]

just feed away. good idea to keep it fairly even so that milk production is equally stimulated but don't worry too much about it.

don't give formula if you can help it, will interfere with teh supply / demand process.

[CantSleepWontSleep]

I think that you're probably over-analysing a little. As both boobs got 15 mins this time you could happily give either next time.

[fishie]

heather i wonder is everything else fine? is your latch ok? does anything hurt? is your ds filling nappies