When to switch boobs

[Maggie111]

Aside from a couple of occasions I've never felt that my milk is full to bursting. Occasionally if he's been a while betweens feeds I can just tell which one is fuller by squeezing them.

I don't feel a let down or anything and I have very soft boobs already so I can't visually tell when they're full of milk.

I'm trying to fully feed him to stop the "hungry 10 minutes later"

For 3 weeks now I've been trying to feed him completely one boob at a time till he falls asleep, then I put him down. I kept thinking of the advice "offer both breasts when he's feeding" but when I did switch he is always too tired to feed off the second boob.

I realise that he struggles with his latch and although he can hang on for 15-20 minutes now when he comes off we have a struggle to put him back on again... A lightbulb when off and I realised that maybe he's finished that breast so now when he comes off on his own I don't put him back on, I move him over to the other one... But this has stopped him having 30 minutes feed / 15 mins sleep / 20 minutes feed followed by 1-2 hours sleep....

Now he seems to be having 15 mins eat / 5 mins eat / 30 mins sleep.... I wonder if actually I'm just giving him more watery milk and he's not getting enough fatty milk??

Now I swap between thinking I'm starving him either way!!

Any advice or tips? Sorry if this doesn't make any sense...

maggie, the best suggestion is always to follow what your baby seems to want to do, offering both breasts but not worrying if your healthy, thriving baby doesn't want them both.

It sounds like you are trying to 'engineer' the length of the feed, the frequency of it, and worrying about the content of it too :( You're judging the quality of your milk and the adequacy of feeding by the length of his sleep - and making yourself worried as a result.

His change in sleeping and feeding pattern might have happened anyway - it might have nothing to do with the way you changed.

The pattern you describe now - 20 mins feed and a 30 min nap and then waking to feed again - is well on the normal spectrum for a young baby, and he will change again at some point.

If he's growing and thriving, you are doing fine. Feed him on side one until he seems to be slowing right down/has lost interest, and then offer him side 2. If you don't want to do this because you really feel he's happier on one side only, then that's fine, too - and if he is growing well on that regime, then no need to change :)

I'm interested in answers to this as am currently only feeding 4 wk old from one side per feed to try and quell my over supply. But eventually want to go to offer both sides but don't know how or when to switch as lo seems to not come off until she's done anyway (or full).

Btw - a lactation lady told me some women only ever feed from one side per feed and that that's ok. I also heard they get to a point (6wks+ ?) where they can obviously pack more away per feed and it becomes obvious if you need to offer another side

All so confusing!

Advice I received from lactation consultant (ad always worked for me) was to feed from one side until asleep/ finished (comes off and not wanting to go back on), then change nappy and offer other side. If not completely full, nappy change will wake DC up enough to have a bit more.

You can't really judge by length of feed, IME. But I always try to make sure DC is completely full at each feed, to avoid 'snacking'.

I only have only ever given one side due to massive oversupply. It's only now at nine months she is wanting two breasts at her morning feed. I would just go with what your Lo wants in response to what your body is supplying. If they are hungry they will let you know my LO fed every 1-2 hours during the day and every hour from 6-10 pm for the first few months, but rarely I overnight.

I used to feed from one side and do the nappy change thing and then feed from the other.

My DS mostly took two boobs to fill him up but he was and is still a big chap.