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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Original poster

Can I just run this advice by you lot please?

16 replies

BollocksToThis · 05/02/2011 09:49

OK, looong back story but basically I have very extreme oversupply issues, so much so that we've been considering dietary intolerances too. Despite block feeding and cutting out dairy and soya (under a dietician's guidance) and then also wheat, DD is still having problems with reflux, disturbed sleep, painful gas and horrible mucusy green poos.

So eventually after being bounced around HVs, GPs and breastfeeding helplines I got an appointment with the infant feeding advisor at the hospital. She looked at a nappy and watched a feed and we had a chat and she agrees with me that DD isn't ill, she's really, really thriving in fact (read: enormously fat) , but she's unhappy so lactose overload is the most likely problem.

So her advice was to express off the foremilk - just until I see the colour change - before letting her feed, to try and reduce her lactose intake. I can understand the logic of this - DD will then be taking in satisfying fatty hindmilk, produce less gas, sleep better, be more comfortable etc. Great. But this is surely just going to perpetuate the underlying problem? I said "Won't this just make it worse by increasing my supply?" but she said no, women who've had similar problems have had good results from doing this.

I'm going to phone her next week to check whether she means this for a few days or for a long term thing - but it seems totally counterintuitive. But this woman's job is purely to help BFing mums - she's got to know her stuff, right ...?

OP posts:

CharlotteBronteSaurus · 05/02/2011 10:58

i am far from an expert, but bumping for those who are.

we did some block feeding to reduce supply, but i would recommend that you seek further advice on this as you don't want to overdo it.

Original poster

BollocksToThis · 05/02/2011 11:17

Thanks Charlotte. Yes, I was concerned about block feeding to begin with but I seem to have a freakishly enormous milk supply and despite some long long blocks it keeps on coming. Driving me potty!

OP posts:

CharlotteBronteSaurus · 05/02/2011 11:27

you've probably tried this, but what about looking for a feeding position where your dd is working against gravity, so shes not overwhelmed by milk, and can go at a slower pace?
dd2 is also fat and windy, with interesting nappies, as a result of my supply, but stopped being bothered by this by about 8 weeks.

Original poster

BollocksToThis · 05/02/2011 11:44

I do a combo of reclined feeding and letting the letdown run into a muslin, and the adviser suggested pressing on my areola to slow the flow. But rather than the letdown it's the excess milk and resulting sore guts that's troubling her. Thanks though :)

OP posts:

BlameItOnTheBogey · 05/02/2011 11:56

I'm surprised by this advice because I thought the latest thinking was that the foremilk/ hindmilk things was a myth...

But am not an expert at all.So hope someone else can help.

tiktok · 05/02/2011 11:57

Bollocks - this is worth trying. It is a known response when block feeding does not seem to be enough, and the issue is lactose overload.

You'd be doing this in combination with continued block nursing. It's actually a way to make block nursing work better.

tiktok · 05/02/2011 12:00

Foremilk/hindmilk is not a myth - oh dear, where has this come from? :( :(

What is a myth is the idea most mothers need to engineer their babies intake of either. Only a very few mothers do - the OP is one.

Check out www.kellymom.com for info.

BlameItOnTheBogey · 05/02/2011 12:04

That's really interesting to hear tiktok. I had my second a year ago and saw a lactation consultant who told me that the thinking now was that actually all the milk was the same (huge difference from when I had my first 3 years ago). I've heard this repeated since by others too. I wonder where it did come from then?

juleswill · 05/02/2011 12:05

If this is any reassurance for you, my baby had green poos until I weaned him - I tried everything. Cut dairy out of my diet, block feeding, allsorts. Nothing fixed it, but he was always happy and thriving and remained above the 80th percentile. I still don't know what caused it to this day, and DS has no intolerances or allergies.

juleswill · 05/02/2011 12:07

The only thing I could maybe put it down to was acidic teething saliva irritating his stomach - the poos were green and slimy, not like the frothy foremilk/hindmilk imbalance ones.

Original poster

BollocksToThis · 05/02/2011 12:15

Ahhhh I was hoping you'd spot this tiktok, thank you :)

Reassuring to know it's "ok" - and sad that there's so many NHS people giving crap advice about BFing that I felt dubious about this woman's knowledge. I'm hoping that this and ranitidine will help - and finding some way, any bloody way, of settling her that isn't feeding . I easily got 2.5oz before the colour changed this morning, and I'm not sure that freezing it for when I go back to work in 3 months is a great idea in case it upsets her all over again :(

BlameitontheBogey, IMO the best way foremilk/hindmilk has been explained is that when the milk is made by the lactocytes (milk-making cells), the watery stuff runs down the ducts quickly, while the fatty stuff sticks to the sides. So when the milk lets down, the watery stuff runs out first ("foremilk") and the fatty stuff ("hindmilk") takes longer, and more active sucking on the baby's part, to come down and out. In my case the ton of milk means DD fills up on the watery stuff which then ferments in her gut and makes her sore and farty and gives her diarrhoea. There's so much there she doesn't always get to the fatty bit before she's had enough. Does that help? :)

OP posts:

reikizen · 05/02/2011 12:25

I'm not sure that the advice is necessarily 'crap', just in my experience that different things will work for different people and that you may have to try a variety of positions (for example) before things work well. HCPs are not magic/evil, they are people like you.

tiktok · 05/02/2011 12:28

Good explanation, Bollocks.

The milk is all the same when it's made.

But it separates :)

After separation, it becomes foremilk/hindmilk but the distinction is not sharp - it's gradual.

Original poster

BollocksToThis · 05/02/2011 12:29

Didn't mean to NHS-bash, sorry . I've just heard some crackers in my time from people who really should know better :(

OP posts:

reikizen · 05/02/2011 18:40

sorry BollocksToThis, just a bit sensitive about this atm! MN is a bad place to be as a midwife sometimes, I take it all too personally at times I'm afraid!

doricpatter · 05/02/2011 19:17

Not at all, it was flippant of me and I'm sorry. I have to say on the whole my own experiences with MWs have actually been really good and I've no complaints on that front - I did encounter a GP a few weeks ago who had lactose confused with cow's milk protein though . And it isn't the fault of the staff if they've never actually been trained about this stuff. :)

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