One breast or both?

[FruitSaladIsNotPudding]

Hello,

I'm due to have dd2 in a week or so and am just thinking about bfing - I fed dd1 for 10 months but seem to have forgotten loads.

I'm clear on how to latch on etc, but what I can't remember is whether it's a good idea to feed from both breasts at every feed - I know it's a good thing to do when they are really small, but how long (roughly) should I keep it up for? Or should I just watch my baby to make sure they are growing and happy etc?

I had supply issues with dd1 so fed her from both sides for a long time, but tbh, it was a bit of a pain, especially if we were out or I was feeding in a sling. Would be interested to hear how others did it or hear from any experts out there!

Thanks.

Always offer both - they may not want both, but its good to offer the second when they come off so they have a chance

I've been wondering the same. DD is 3 weeks old and the MWs in hos

Pital and community said offer one and treat it as 'starter, main and pudding' if they feed for more than an hour then switch to the other side. However BFing counsellor and HV both said to switch halfway thru so that confused me. Am still offering one as she seems happy and is gaining weight. There is do much conflicting advice

I was told to offer both sides, but after two bouts of mastitis in three weeks I was advised to only offer one side per feed to make sure the boob was totally drained. DS2 is just 7 weeks and I've been offering one side at a time for the last 4 weeks & my supply and demand has definitely sorted itself out as I've had no more mastitis even when he does long stretches at night (I'm hoping this will continue!). Good luck, breast feeding was the one thing I didn't stress about second time round but I must admit I'd forgotten everything! I assumed I'd remember about a good latch but actually I really struggled with cracked, bleeding nipples and needed a lot of support. As a midwife told me, each baby needs to learn how to feed when they are born, even if you know what you're doing. So my advice would be to take some time to get the latch checked as the first few weeks were very painful for me!

Thanks for the replies. Think I will start by giving full feed with one and offering second. And then maybe seeing how we go after the first few weeks. I certainly hope I will be able to stick to one at least some of the time because I'm not going to have nearly as much time to just sit and feed as I did with dd1!

Offer one til they come off, then offer the other side. Follow the baby basically - so long as you are not restricting them to 1 side, or swapping over arbitrarily at x time before the baby is done, you can't really go wrong.