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Infant feeding

My right boob has dried up!

8 replies

Polglas · 24/06/2009 13:34

Having breastfed easily and comfortably (lucky me!) for 14 weeks and baby growing well, eating, sleeping well etc, suddenly my right boob has almost entirely dried up. No pain or swelling and the left one is fine and production normal. I have changed nothing in my diet or lifestyle. I have drunk fennel seed tea since the beginning, have upped amount I drink now but no improvement. Please please help!

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Oblomov · 24/06/2009 13:58

How long has it been dry for ?
Stimulation may bring back. If that is of interest to you, let me know and I will post what to do.

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Polglas · 24/06/2009 19:06

That sounds very interesting! Has been reducing slowly over the last 3-4 days. Last night there was hardly anything so expressed this morning to ascertain how much I was producing (used to be an easy 4oz of a morning) but I could bearly get 1oz.

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jasperc163 · 24/06/2009 20:17

hi there,
my DD2 is 12 weeks and I have had a poorly producing right boob for about 5 weeks. Unfortunately nothing has really sorted it out (i get about 1/4 as much out of it when expressing and it is obvious DD thinks there isnt much there). However I have tried to keep the stimulation going by always offering that one first when I feed (when DD is likely to feed more enthusiastically) and i suppose this may have stopped it drying up any more. I would also suggest trying to express from it after every (or as many as possible) feeds to further increase stimulation.

I am on domperidone from GP (fenugreek didnt have much effect and gave me an upset gut) but I am not sure how much difference it makes and it doesnt really readdress the imbalance.

Has right boob always produced less than left?

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Polglas · 24/06/2009 20:36

My right boob infact was my (and her) favourite as reliable and seemed to yield more!!! Thanks for the tips, I will feed her on it first and will try extra expressing.

Have not come across fenugreek as a remedy, how do I take it? Should I refer this to my doc as health visitor has no suggestions?

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Oblomov · 24/06/2009 20:37

Right, before I go any further, I have to tell you, that this method is a REAL kerfuffle. BUT, you only need to do it twice. Say once, when you are relaxed, have a bit of time( yeah, like when does that happen), say evening, 8pm. Then again the next day, say mid morning, or mid afternoon.
It may take a day or so, to see results, but generally the results are VERY significant, thus worth it.
It is basically manually expressing. Have you manually expressed before ? If not I will try and explain it in symplistic terms.
You will need a tiny cup, or small bottle, say the one I have from my medela pump, to catch any drops of milk. You will get some. Becasue basically it is a method of manually expressing, so you are supposed to get some milk.

It is based on treating the nipple like segments of an orange, and each segment gets stimulated.
Or think of the nipple like a clock. and you go around stimulating each, 5 mintes.

So, use your thumb and forefinger. put thumb on top of areola, where the brown part meets the pink of your breast. put it there at the number 12 on a clock. Now place your forefinger on the bottom half of your areola, where the outer part of your brown nipple, meets the pink part of your breast. Put the forefinger there, on the number 6. Now squeeze gently. and hold for the count of 2. release and do it agian. do it for as many times as you can be bothered, ideally 20.
Then you move round the clock, Thumb on number 11, finger on number 5.
so you do 6 o'clock, 5 to 5, 10 to 4, quarter to 3, you may like to change hands here and use the other hand, or swap thumb and forfinger.And you work your way round, all of the clock, as it were.

On some of the squeezes you will get drops of milk. on others you get nothing.do not fret.

It does take a bit of time. and it is a total pain. but it is very very effective.
Claire kedves , who is the Bf specialist at Kings college hospital, and is worldwide known as a secilaist, and also known as such on MN, gave me this advice, said to manuaaly stimulate and then to use an lectric pump, for a few minutes.

she says that if you do it twice, you will notice a signiciant difference within 24 hrs.

I know I have. I have done this 3 or 4 times, a few months ago, and noticed a significant difference.
There we go.
they do say that nothing stimulates supply, like a baby themselves. thats why they advocate putting baby onto that particular breast as much as poss. and they do say that pumping alone will not keep supply going.

but this method, is highly regarded, to actually stimulate supply 'MORE'/ further.
Hope it helps.
Let us know how you get on.

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Polglas · 24/06/2009 21:10

Thank you very much indeed... am going to try it right now!!! I'll let you know how I get on.

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Polglas · 25/06/2009 20:48

Hi Oblomov, thank you for this advice. I've been following your instructions and although there has been no noticable engorgment, I was able to give dd a limited feed. I'll keep up the stimulation and feeding her on it and keep my fingers crossed. It's very weird though, I'll be gutted if that's it. Thanks again

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Oblomov · 26/06/2009 07:54

No problem, hope you get some success.

I don't know anything about fenugreek, so can't help there. but what I would say, is that both GP's and HV's, unless they are very very pro bestfeeding, are useless in this area.
You need to go to a bf specialist. Your Hv should be able to advise you where closest one is. Please get some proper support.
Love to you.

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