Milk leaking to excess - what do you do?

[Charleesunnysunsun]

I'm breast feeding DS2 and co sleeping which is fine but the problem is my boobs are leaking so much!

I don't want to have to wear a bra in bed as i heard it can be bad for you plus its uncomfortable and just easier not to wear one when getting up for the night feeds.
But without a bra i can't wear breastpads without a bra but my milk is leaking all over the bed, me and poor DS2! Anyone got any tips on how to overcome this? ould i express some of the milk off each evening would that stop it leaking so much?

I never had this,but my friend did and she went to bed with a towel folded across her breasts.

I had excess milk but i wore a night feeding bra and double pads to soak up the leaking. If you express then you will keep producing the milk at that time so probably need to leave them to adjust on their own - which is annoying i know.

I put a care-mat underneath the sheet, and slept with a towel wrapped round my norks. Later on, when it was happening less, I just had the care-mat or a towel under the sheet.

As far as I know it's not bad for you to wear a bra in bed, if you could find a comfortable one, but I didn't find it helped - the pads moved around as I moved in the night, and I still ended up soaking.

I know it's not much consolation at the moment, but it does settle down.

I used a towel at night and would regularly have to change my nightdress at night. It does get better. I don't think expressing will help, you'll only end up making more milk!

No personal experience but Twinkle on the Web sell some breast pads called LilyPadz which are silicone and stick on their own apparently. They do look like a miracle solution but wonder if anyone has tried them?
Worth a go to save on your washing???

BTW I agree that expressing might produce more but on the other hand it does work forsome people. If you do give this a try have a look at the breast milk bank threads is you want to donate some of your pints to SCBU units...

Message withdrawn

Def don't express more as your body will think you need more & therefore produce more. I leaked alot at night at the start & I don't think you have much choice but to wear a bra & breast pads. I doesn't stay like that for too long - have forgotten how long now tbh. If you buy a b/feeding bra you don't have to take it off.

Just remembered another tip from leaky SIL for daytime or nightime if you wear a bra....put a collecting cup thingy (from Boots) in your bra and you can harvest many ounces for the freezer without going anywhere near a pump! Sounds marvellous to me especially with my dismal 2 oz expressing record.

I leaked loads when bf ds1, not so much with ds2. A bra in bed is fine as long as it isn't underwired, although I found it had to be fairly snug otherwise the breastpads moved around too much . I used to wear a /link{http://www.expressyourselfmums.co.uk/Bravado-Basic-Nursing-Bra/prodnum/36/areanum/209\Bravado bra} with breastpads, and have a towel underneath me and ds too. Bravados are a pull-on design and have poppers instead of fiddly fasteners so much easier to undo and do up at night. After buying my Bravado bras I wish I'd never spent so much money on those silly Emma Jane bras or the Mothercare or M&S own-brands.

I used an AVENT breast shell (scroll down for description) on one breast while feeding from the other, and I agree that it is a good way to collect up milk, either for your own baby or a milk bank. Sleeping with my breast shells wasn't a good idea because they are the old design, with a little spout on them, so spill all over the place when full. But even with the new ones I wouldn't advise use at night. Your nipples will be sitting in breastmilk for hours and this could really encourage thrush.

If you're really leaking this much, are you using disposable or washable breastpads? I got through boxes and boxes of disposable ones before I bought some washable ones (Avent and Bravado both do them). I still needed 3 or 4 packs but at least I wasn't contributing to landfill quite as much!

Oh btw I thought about Lilypads too but did a search on mn first and apparently they aren't great if you really are a copious leaker.

YOu can get those Nighttime feeding bras...which are like loosish Tanktop things....I used them, and even though they didn't hold my norks (oh this term always makes me giggle, but is growing on me more and more, lol)in place, but at least the Breastpads stayed semi in place, lol!

Mummypig, I had a vision of you leaking from 16 piggy nipples - no wonder you went through lots of pads!
I meant to use the collector cups when feeding at night as this was the only time an occasional drop drips for me. i agree that they wouldn't work all night.