does this sound like i have oversupply?help?!

[Marilynmarshell302]

I really hope someone can help me as im really getting down about bf and feel guilty for not being able to make my baby happy!

I EBF and she is a very windy baby , massive adult sized burps and trumps!, I often have to burp her mid feed. she is often fussy pulling away from my nipple or shouting whilst on it. I have quite a painful let down which causing a fountain from both nipples regardless of which one shes feeding from. I have to change tops several times a day due to either my milk leaks or from her sick, which is frequent. She displays colicky behaviour and always wants to b upright on my chest or over my shoulder.

I have tried block feeding which seemed to work after a week but the last two days the problem has come back.

I am a FTM and don't have anyone to ask, my HV is useless, is this normal? my DD is 7 weeks today and this has been a problem for 4 weeks.

please help I really want to carry on bf but I feel im making my baby and me a miserable milky mess.
x

I had similar, expressed both sides 'empty' (a purist will explain you're never empty though) then did 3-4 hour block feeding, I only did it once but I read that in some cases it'd be necessary to do it again. Also leaned right back when feeding so baby doesn't get drowned in milk. It did sort itself out after that - and we stoppd having explosive green nappies every hour!

arh so drain them to almost 'start' again with your milk. ill try that. we haven't had green explosive poo.......just normal colour but still explosive!

I had something similar and had overactive letdown which meant my DC would be taking in too much air when they fed as my milk came out so fast. This lasted a while and during this time I started to express a little milk (maybe an ounce or two) before I breastfed. The problem eventually resolved itself.

I think part of the reason drain-and-start-again works is because if you are in a vicious cycle of fussy and windy theyre not taking a proper feed but feeding little bits constantly, that means they're getting the higher sugar lower fat 'foremilk' (it's not really different milk it just that alot of the available fat you are producing isn't released into the milk until the volume of milk in the breast starts to reduce alot) which makes them windy. If you can reset the system so they get a higher fat milk it'll settle their system so hopefully they feed a bit less often but a bigger feed and so keep getting all the way down to the fattier milk.

I'm not an expert but this is what I read when I was having problems, it makes sense scientifically IMO and it certainly helped us.

Good luck OP!

I had oversupply as well as overactive letdown which resulted in my baby refusing to feed for upto 6 hours at a time. I was beside myself as he wouldn't take a bottle either. What eventually worked for me, alongside lots of support from kind mumsnetters, was block feeding for 7-8 hours. I did this for a week and initially had to express a bit from the unfed breast as it was so engorged. After the week my oversupply seemed to be under control and he now feeds from one breast per feed with no problem. I do think as they get older they get better at dealing with it and I really noticed an improvement around the 12 week mark. I also feed with him lying on top of me whilst I lie back on the bed or some cushions on the sofa.

Good luck and keep persisting. My son is four months and I really do love feeding him now.

Having similar problems here... Just to clarify, does block feeding mean feeding from one breAst for severAl feeds?

Lots of really helpful post on here. Thanks all.

guyropes yes you feed from one side for about 3-4 hours before changing over.

Here is the thing I read which if you like understanding how things work is really enlightening!
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2075483/

Thank you fluffy, that article is very informative. I guess the groaning and grunting baby does while sleeping is part of it too. And the desire for a finger to suck instead of the breast.