block feeding advice

[feekerry]

Hi. I have identified that I have quite an over supply going on at the moment. Prob my fault as I have been so laid back about feeding that I haven't paid any attention to which boob i've been using and have been switching whenever I felt like it. I noticed few days ago that I was starting to leak and spurt and poor dd was starting to choke and splutter when feeding and generally not as happy to feed. Poo has also been green. She has been putting weight on really well and is 4 weeks so decided I prob need to block feed to get this under control. I'm confused about best was to do this as there is no pattern to her feeding at the moment so its not like I can say every 2 hours then i'll switch boobs. Sometimes she might feed once in 4 hours then 3 times in 1 hour so how do I effectively block feed? Secondly when I do start on the new boob it may not have been fed on for a good few hours so its like the flood gates open and makes her choke and splutter more! How should I go about it? Thanks

I went straight to 12hr blocks as I think I was v extreme! It does make it v easy as I have a dayboob and a nightboob I swap morning and evening which coincides with her really hungry phases, althoug got to pace her in the evenings as she gets very burpy/possety then. Before offering the fresh boob, I massage it and let the worst leak/spray out until it stops doing so. Even on this regime we still get some spraying and gulping though

oh yeah, i also get her feeding on the old boob while massagin the fresh one to help more leak out.

Ye thats what I was thinking of doing is just a morning and night swap. I dont think we've ever emptied one boob fully so maybe we'd be fine doing it in 12 hours stints!

apparently, and it does seem to be the case, boobs never really empty as such, the more they are sucked, the more they will produce so there's always a little dribble there. I've never known her to go on and get nothing, she seems perfectly sated always going at the same one, with milk round her chops at the end its also handy in the colicky evening stage because she can suck to comfort and feed herself but no overdo it and make everything worse - paces things.

joyful do you mind me asking if you have big boobs? its just that i do and I wonder if the extra storage capacity is what means i can go hours and hours without getting uncomfy, despite there being so much milk there? or i must just have Boobs of Iron!

I had quite bad oversupply and used to feed from one side for 6 hours, then swap over. It doesn't matter how many times your LO feeds from that one side in that time, what matters is the fact that you are not using the other boob for a longer period and therefore sending the message that less milk is needed. It takes a while for your body to get the message and you can extend the blocks of time if you feel it isn't working. My LO had the green, explosive poo which is a result of consuming such a high volume of foremilk - at such a young age the digestive system does not contain enough of the enzyme lactase to break down all of the lactose in the milk. What you have to remember is that this is a temporary thing and will continue for a while until the oversupply is under control. Stick with it for at least a week, that's when I started to see an improvement. Also, as hard as it may be, try not to express any milk off as this just signals the body to make more milk. Using warm compresses can help if you feel yourself getting engorged and painful boobs. If you feel you are at risk of blocked ducts/mastitis then just express the tiniest bit for comfort/to reduce the risk.