Massive over supply of breast milk

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Feeling really crap about breast feeding at the moment. My ds is only 6 days old but I already have an over supply and feeling mastitis coming. I had an oversupply with my dd and it didn’t settle down until she was about 6 months old. Right now I feel like I want to stop breast feeding cos I can’t bare it happening again. I’m constantly engorged and uncomfortable. Choking him on every feed and he’s probably only getting fore-milk which is going to lead to yet more problems. Has anyone battled through this successfully? I’m trying block feeding but they fill up far too quickly and it’s not really working.

Could you try and pump? I’ve never Breast fed, so that may be the wrong question!😕🙂

I had to let a lot of fore,ilk go into a muslin square before DD could latch on.

I found it helped feeding DD more upright than the usual across the chest position, it helped with the drowning in in milk as well.

Expressing will make it worse. Need to stimulate the breasts less. Block feeding is a good way to bring it under control. How long have you tried it for? Do you have a local la Leche league Facebook group for support?

Oh I’ve just seen baby is 6 days old. Keep going with block feeding.

There's some new research about the fore and hindmilk thing. It might be worth googling as I think the outcome was that it's not such a big deal...
I had a huge oversupply with DS1. I donated milk to the milk bank. Made me feel a bit better about it.
DS2 started of similar but if petered off much quicker. Hope you have a similar experience! It's really tough and you have my sympathy.

I recommend a Hakka breast pump - they don’t stimulate the breast. They suction on and passively catch the let down. Some people use them before breast feeding to catch the initial big let down and then BF after to stop the choking. They’re only £12 I think!

You could pump and then donate to a breastmilk bank. You’d help save lives of sick or premature babies who can’t have formula.
www.ukamb.org/

Congratulations on the new baby!
I really struggled with breastfeeding for different reasons to you but I know the feeling of being fed up and ready to give up. I bet you are exhausted at the moment so I just want to say hang in there, you've got this!
I gave up breastfeeding first time round, but second time I was determined to do it and I read alot of articles by Jack Newman and they really helped. ibconline.ca/information-sheets/

Also have you tried feeding lying down this helps slow milk flow.

Good luck xxx

My boobs settled down much more quickly with #2 and 3 hopefully it will be more like weeks rather than 6 months

Donate (sell) it!!

Don't express to store - you'll overproduce and you'll possibly be stuck in a vicious circle.

Hand express a little before your feed. Relives the pressure for you and it'll make it easier for your baby to latch on.

Not sure about the fore/hind milk debate. I generally went by nappies - if they were super frothy, then I knew DD was getting too much foremilk.

to you.

@booandbumpp I have one of these actually someone gave one to me. I’ll get it cleaned and start using it tomorrow.
@reluctantbrit this is what I’ve been doing but I have to let quite a bit go before it makes much difference so not sure if I’m just making it worse!
@iano I wonder if they’re still taking donations at the moment. Definitely something to look into if it doesn’t settle soon!

Get some breastshells and collect the excess to store in the freezer. I had awful oversupply too, nothing worked except ice packs for pain relief and eventually it settled down but i got loads in the freezer by collecting it without amy pumping

@Vik89 thank you. I’ll give that a read when ds has his party at 2am
@RandomMess I hope so!

Have you tried cluster feeding?

Hakka still stimulates supply just saying... the suction means more milk is drawn out than would leak during letdown, meaning you'll end up with more in the long run, but compared to a pump it's the lesser of 2 evils...
Best thing to do is latch the baby, wait for letdown, unlatch baby, place hakka over the breast (no suction) catch milk (either store or bin) and then latch baby back on, a good position for feeding is reclined back as working against gravity.

I dont think you'll get mastitis from being really engorged. I didnt anyway, I just had to keep an eye out for clogged ducts and get on them ASAP.

Hopefully will settle down for you soon xx

I know everybody says don't pump at all or it will increase supp,y but I just used to express a bit into a hand pump to make it possible for DS2 to feed. To be fair my oversupply was so bad I could just squeeze the boob itself and milk would come shooting out! I'd shove the spare milk straight into the freezer, and by the time I went back to work I had an absolute treasure trove. Sending good vibes though, everyone thinks oversupply sounds great but it's actually a PITA.

@LemonDrizzles

Have you tried cluster feeding?

Cluster feeding is something the baby does, not something the mum can initiate really.

Block feeding worked for me. But at only 6 days old it might just be that your supply hasnt levelled out yet. Very common to get engorged and spray milk in the first few weeks, not necessarily a sign of oversupply.

Any sort of pumping including the haakaa pump will just stimulate you to supply more, so it not advised for the first 6 weeks or so.

I'm pretty confident that they'll be taking donations. The milk is pasteurised and tested before given to babies.
Ask your MW about it or contact them here

www.ukamb.org/find-a-milk-bank/

It really made a huge difference to how I felt about the problem

I had this with eldest DC and thought expressing to take the excess off would make the oversupply worse so didn’t try it, and had predictable issues with too much foremilk. Block feeding didn’t work either for the same reason as you, OP.

This time I was driven so crazy by the engorgement that I got the pump out. Did both sides (aaaaaah!), then let baby get stuck in to the hindmilk. It was fine and my supply settled down to bearable levels quite quickly. I still make a lot, but the bigger baby gets, get the more they can get through each feed.

Might be worth giving it a go?

My DD is nearly four months and my supply still hasn't settled down. Now she's bigger she copes with the fast letdown better but still does splutter at times. I find the best way to feed her is with me leaning back on the sofa and her kind of on her belly. So gravity is going the other way. It was messier in the early days as the milk that was too much for her would typically run down me but it stopped so much spluttering, which I found emotionally challenging.

Things are a lot better than they were. I did pump periodically to relieve the worst of the engorgement because it was just so painful at times, and if DD was asleep I knew she wasn't likely to wake any time soon to relieve me.

Congrats on your baby. At 6 days you may find it settles down a fair bit over the next few weeks. I found nipple shields also helped stem the flow a bit.

Lactation consultant advised a super-supportive bra which helped. I’ve noticed if I lean forward in a light support bra/no bra, it’s like pressing the refill button.

Truly, oversupply is not fun.

Anyone else getting an ad about ‘mycotoxins affecting your dairy herd’?! Udders is about right in my case (and I’m usually a B/C cup!).

I used breast shells and just filled up the freezing bags. No stimulation but no waste.

Hi there, I also had this issue and was told not to pump as it would make things worse but tbh I found a quick pump when needed not only relieved the pressure enough to allow easy latching but also made the beginnings of a great stash in my freezer. I discovered the Hakaa with number two which was a godsend and by numbers two and three was so confident I was able to donate to the milk bank too.
Most importantly though i found things settled down pretty quickly so if you want to continue feeding please give it a little bit more time and hopefully you will find the same!
Sending positive vibes though, I totally know how uncomfy an issue this is before it settles down. Good luck op with your milk and your little one.