Balancing supply/oversupply and forceful letdown

[Persuasion]

I've had a read on kellymom and around the Internet but am struggling to find a clear answer to my problem, can anyone help?

My baby is one month and exclusively breast fed. My problem is with oversupply and fast let down which is much worse on the left. She gags often, fusses on and off, often screaming and when she comes off I spray. It's heartbreaking because when we do have a calm feed I love it but I hate it when it's making her upset, and start fantasising about bottles (I really don't want to give up). I have been expressing about every third day to keep myself comfortable and because it makes the feeding so much calmer for a day or two but I suspect is making things worse in the long run?

For background - We struggled a little with latch on the right when my milk came in as the nipple is slightly flattened. There was a twenty four hour period where she only feed from the left and I expressed from the right to keep it comfortable until I eventually managed to latch her on that side. Latch is now fine.

She lost only 3% in the first week and had regained it on day ten, and has continued to grow well, with lots of wet nappies and daily massive poos, so no problems there.

How can I balance my supply more, and ideally settle the oversupply?

Just bumping really. Sorry it's so long

Well first of all, congratulations on your lovely baby and well done for making it to one month!

I have big problems with oversupply and one of the things that can help is to wear nipple shields (the medals ones are the best as baby's nose and chin still touch your breast, so they're more likely to latch on with them). The nipple shields act as a sort of barrier and regulate the milk flow. You should do a feed every day without them, just so baby doesn't get so used to them that she won't go back to feeds without them, and in a couple of months when she's bigger start to gradually stop using them altogether, as she should be able to take letdown when she's grown a bit more.

I hope that helps!

Yes. The pumping probably is making things worse. Have you tried hand expressing on that side just before a feed to try and get past the most forceful part of the let down before latching baby on?

Thanks for responding. I haven't tried either of those suggestions yet so will have a go with the expressing first. I'd like to avoid shields if I can manage it another way but it's better than giving up!

Any thoughts on how to balance the left and right more? I can't work out of I tried block feeing from the left that would make things better or worse?

I would try and find a local lactation consultant to help you through. You can reduce your supply to a more comfortable level but don't want to damage your supply long term.

I had massive oversupply and very atring let down it would spray a good few feet when she popped off!

It will calm down over time! By four months we had few problems and now at 1 year no issues at all and still feeding.

Single sided feeding helped is a lot.

I did lots of block nursing, rarely expressed unless v v uncomfortable, if she popped off let the spray soak in to a muslin then pop her back on.

I had problems with forceful letdown and oversupply.

Pumping will increase your supply so i stopped doing that.

I found that left alone my supply did sort itself out and if I was absolutely overfull I would hand express a little in the shower as a last resort. But not much.

In terms of the letdown DD choked just like you. I found I just had to take her off the breast and then re latch her when she had recovered. As a side benefit I list a bit of milk each time. I had read that if you wait until you get letdown then take them off and mop up a bit then they can find it easier to carry on but DD really struggled with latching on initially and could take up to 10 times on a bad day so any unnecessary latching on was too much to face.

Over time the choking stopped. I don't know whether my let down slowed or DD learnt to cope. I suspect the latter as the speed she gulps at is pretty fast.

On the positive side, feeds are nice and quick!

I had massive oversupply, and still do in one boob 9 months on .

I blockfed for a couple of days from the massive boob which helped in the short term.
I squeeze off a bit of milk in the shower (only place I can express, weirdly) for comfort, but not enough to make them make more milk, iyswim.
I sleep with a muslin or flannel down the front of each bra cup sexy.
I take a spare Tshirt everywhere, and get through 3 a day.
I use washable breast pads as was spending £££ on disposables.

Bit fed up of it, but at 9mo DS is still a boob fiend .

Good luck!

Oh and I second the quick feeds! That is a bonus. And DS rarely chokes on the flow - they learn to down it pretty fast .

Oh yes I agree with lots of breast pads. And I have found that time times when I'm more full such as morning are when I leak most from the non feeding side so I'm just prepared.

On the plus side we sailed through a few growth spurts without batting an eyelid.

I did however end up with mastitis at 10 weeks but the antibiotics worked well so it's just worth being aware of the symptoms.

I did lots of block nursing, rarely expressed unless v v uncomfortable, if she popped off let the spray soak in to a muslin then pop her back on.

This was my tactic, plus also leaning back when feeding made a huuuuge difference to my letdown.

Thanks guys. I've tried a combination of these things today and it has made the feeds easier. Particularly waiting for the let down then popping her off and letting it spray out and Expressing a little into a muslin before relatching. And block feeing seems to have balanced the two sides a little, superficially at least.