one sided feeding - why?

[bodenbetty]

At the moment when I feed DD, I do 1 side, tehn burp her when she's finished, tehn offer teh other side - she usually feeds longer on teh second side than teh first. next feed i do teh same thing but start on teh last side that I used.
I'm sure I've read about people only using 1 side per feed but can't remember teh reasoning/logic for this.
does this mean you end up feeding more frequently? does it help with wind? have posted separately on this issue as having huge problems with this.
grateful for any enlightenment!

BB, will try to help on your other thread but need more info.

Feeding one-sided, two-sided, is not a big deal. What you are doing is what most people do....mothers with generous milk supplies may find they only feed one side. Occasionally, mothers with v. generous milk supplies, a powerful let-down and baby who is gaining weight hugely well but seems miserable with wind, can be making too much milk, and one-sided feeding helps them.

I used to feed both sides all the time with both boys except in the morning - I had so much milk then (DS2 slept through early) that I expressed from the other breast.

I think there can be a worry that your baby does not get enough hind milk if you feed from both breasts, but DS2 would empty them both. I had lots of milk, and he drank a lot.

We did have the problem early on that Tiktok mentions - in fact I used to have to take him off the breast and give him my finger to suck, because he wanted to carry on sucking, but didn't want any more milk, IYSWIM. And I had lots of milk. This was particularly the case at bedtime when he would double or triple feed in the few hours before he went down. I'm talking very young here, before 6 weeks.

tiktok do you think i could fall into that category? dd 7lb 3 at birth now 8.8 3 weeks later & oh so miserable with wind at night. just wondering if 1 sided feeding will muck my supply up & is she will want to feed more often? just want this discomfort to stop.

I've always just done one side - no idea why though . It seems to be what works for us. I do seem to have very active breasts though, so maybe I am one of the generous supply mums?

BB, that weight gain does hint strongly at over-supply....one sided feedng does not restrict the calories the baby gets but it does stop the supply becoming over-stimulated. There is loads in the archives about this. Might be worth a try if you think it deffo is wind that's making her upset.

Tiktok - that's so great to hear. I've been really worried because one side seems really empty compared to the other. DS is putting on weight well but I'd been worried about whether it's ok to feed from one side only. I still put him on 'crap boob' first (as DH and I refer to it) to keep the supply going there, but I'd been thinking that I must have done something wrong for it to fall so short on that side. The same thing happened last time around when I fed DD. It's really interesting to hear that it can be caused by oversupply. Thanks for putting my mind at rest.

can i just ask - if I try 1 sided feeding for a while & then decide that it isn't helping with wind/colic etc, will i then be able to go back to using both sides at each feed or wil it be too late? ffel i have to try something after being with veryy windy unsetled baby from 1am until 7 am this morning.........

would 1 sided feeding explain why she fed every 2 hours last night - because she wasn't getting teh same volume as when she gets 2 sides - even if she was getting more calories? am confused!