baby prefers one breast - worried about supply

[cantthinkofagoodname]

My baby definitely prefers my left breast and always has.

This isn't helped by the fact that her sidecar cot is on my left, so night feeds tend to be taken from my left breast unless I remember to switch sides. But usually sheer laziness means she feeds mostly from my left at night.

Now she's started only feeding for a couple of minutes from my right breast during the day. My left breast is making tons more milk than my right. Obviously supply is dwindling in my right breast.

Is this a worry?

Should I force my baby to drink from my right breast more, and how should I do this? (she cries and fusses after a couple of mins and keeps unlatching)

one of mine was like this so I 'tricked' him by using the rugby ball hold so he was nearly in the same position but on the other boob IYSWIM

a long time ago mind you

That trick was recommended by my HV.
Also using the cradle hold, instead of turing her round to switch breasts, just slide her along so she thinks she's still on the preferred one.

LOL - I started a thread on this earlier today !

A friend of mine who had twins gave each baby one boob that was 'their' side - so our bodies can obviously produce enough from one side to feed a baby

True - lots of people for various reasons just feed from one side with no problems for the baby.
I'm guessing it's just a risk of lopsidedness. I have a bit of that after the abscess surgery so I think you should at least try to avoid it!

From my personal experience with dd (who only fed on my right side from 5 months until she weaned at 2.3), I wouldn't worry. Your left side will make enough. As fourlittleducks said, our bodies can make enough for twins, and it's also possible to breastfeed successfully if you've had a mastectomy on one side. You shouldn't, once you've got past the stage of getting engorged, be too lopsided either. Obviously there'll be a bit of a difference, but it does settle down.

I only feed ds3 on one side, and have done since he was about 3 months ish. He's now 10 months and it works fine for us. Like my other 2 he had a strong preference, and I couldn't be arsed fighting him all the time to take the other. The only thing is having to put up with wonky boobs sometimes, especially if I go out for the day or night without him!

I did the rugby ball thing aswell

Surely there should be someone out there who wants to do some research into why this is. A friend of mine reckons her DS actually prefers the EBM from one side - so nothing to do with flow rate/positioning ! it must taste different

Perhaps they don't produce equal quantities of hindmilk? I don't know. I'm pretty sure with me it was a flow rate issue - it's always been pretty slow from the left side and dd was impatient

I read somewhere that it's perfectly possible for one breast to have as many as three times more milk ducts as the other. My DS wanted nothing to do with my right breast from about 3 months, however much I pumped it to try and boost supply, always put him on the right first, sneaked him on there in weird holds etc. etc. I eventually gave up on the whole affair and had no problems exclusively breastfeeding him to 6 months from the left side, and while I was markedly lopsided at first (they became known as Laurel and Hardy...), they've evened out a lot as time has gone on (and Lefty is still going strong at 3.4!)