Oversupply syndrome / Overactive letdown and Colic

[CollieandPup]

Hi, ds and I seem to have hit a bit of a wall bf and i've come across this site which talks about oversupply syndrome. It pretty much describes my ds to the letter- gassy, stuffy nose, 5-7 min length feeds, puddle of milk on bed, Rapid weight gain, poor burper, grunting on the breast, choking.....I could go on.

I wondered if anyone knew anything about this? He has started to appear to suffer terribly with colic and over the past few days and in the past week his feeding patterns have changed. He feeds for much shorter periods and over all for less time. He often wakes hungry, spends a minute or two on the breast and then fights his way off.

He has also had mucus issues/ a cold which so far I've put all this down too.

I'm planning to see the GP today and don't know whether to mention this. I'd really appreciate any information on this as I'm still trying to understand what it is, if it could be our problem, how it effects Breastfeeding and how to 'fix' it, so to speak.

Here's the link.... here

Thats interesting collie, it seems like similar behaviour to my DD2 (9 weeks) who has dreadful colic. I do have oversupply issues or at least fast let down which really annoys her and the fast weight gain was something my HV commented on.

I don't know enough about it to comment. I think block feeding is recommended for oversupply but I found with DD1 that it sorted itself out eventually.

For DD2s colic we've seens quite a big improvement with Bio Gaia drops and her crying has steadily increased since I stopped them last week so she's back on them again today.

How old is your DS?

He's just over 4weeks kelly. I'd read about block feeding. How did you establish you DID have fast letdown?

Oversupply is probably well out of your GP's sphere of experience unless they have bf/their partner has bf as GPs don't really get any bfing training. It's obviously worthwhile getting baby checked out to see if there is anything medical wrong with them but an IBCLC or BFC would be a better choice to resolve oversupply.

Kellymom.com has some good self help tips here that you can try at home.

Oh gosh, I can't remember. I think I posted on here about it and the read about it in The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding. I would start feeding, feel my letdown, DD would gulp a bit then scream. I think my milk was coming faster than she could cope with. DD1 also had some blood in her poo (small amount) and green poo. I have just looked at WAB again and it recommends just feeding from one side at a time or for a few feeds in a row.

DD2's colic started at about 2 weeks. We also noticed her poos smelling a bit vinegary and since the drops that has gone.

I agree with Truthsweet about seeing a bfc, I only ever found one GP who knew much about BF and that was an emergency appointment when I was visiting my inlaws. She had fed her DC into toddlerhood so knew quite a bit.

You could call one of the helplines?

www.laleche.org.uk/pages/about/helpline.htm

0845 120 2918

sorry - each post getting progressively more helpful

Thanks for your replies, I did start to reply earlier today at the GP but we got refered to hospital for ds's breathing for monitoring and still here. I didn't mention it to the GP for the exact reasons you said and I didn't want to confuse matters more but I will definetly ring my local bf specialists once we are home or a helpline- thanks Kelly for the links I'll look when i've got more battery on my phone.

The more I reflect on his behaviour the more I think it sounds like what you're describing Kelly. Also the other thing that strikes me is my boob leakage. It's moderate in the day, but at night if his feeds are short (and at the moment they are barely 10 min at night) I leak like crazy. My top and bed is literally wringing. Also I noticed today when ds fell off the breast after about a minute that the milk literally sprayed all over the place like a water fountain and only stopped when I added pressure for several seconds. This happened twice. Does this sound familiar?

Just looking over bus feeds the past week, I've realise he's on the breast every 1 to 2hrs apart from at night and the very odd gap that might be a tad longer. Does this sound normal for a 4 week old? It actually suprised me and it seems very frequent. No wonder I'm shattered!

Thankfully no choking today!

I don't notice how frequently DD2 feeds but that sounds about right for a 4 week old tbh.

Leaking - yes! I forgot about that. I am the most ridiculously leaky person. I only have to look at DD2 or think about her sometimes and I start leaking but it's never a little patch, always pouring down the front of my top (if I've forgotten a breastpad), soaking the mattress, spraying on DD2 which annoys her hugely. I always leak out of the spare boob when feeding too.

I hope things go well at the hospital.