Is it worth giving 19 month old expressed milk for newborn?

[Ricekrispiesquare]

Hey all

I stopped breast feeding DD1 at Xmas last year when she was 8 months old.

I gave birth to DD2 last week and I am producing so much milk that I'm expressing 2 times a day to give myself some relief. I can easily express 10oz in 15 minutes. As I'm not keen to give DD2 a bottle yet, I've been giving DD1 the expressed milk in her cups. She seems to enjoy it and drinks the lot.

Is there any health benefits for DD1 me doing this?

I'm not sure on whether there will be benefits to your older child as the milk will be formulated for the newborn. Certainly won't do any harm so I would give the milk to older child.

If you have an over supply though you could try only expressing enough to take the discomfort away. If you keep expressing so much as well as your baby having full feeds you'll just keep up that massive supply, rather than regulating to the amount your baby actually needs.

Agree that you need to slowly cut down on the expressing or this will carry on self-perpetuating! The more you express, the more you will produce.
Make sure you cut down slowly or you'll get engorged. Watch out for mastitis. I had a massive supply as well, but DS was a piglet, luckily.

Thank you for the replies.

Would it be best to cut down the expressing oz by oz or just take the edge off the fullness?

I had mastitis before and it was miserable so keen to avoid!

Not sure so bumping for you.

I think just take the edge of. Just so you're not rock hard and there's a bit of softness. If it feels uncomfortable you could always do a little bit more.

WHO says you should ideally breast feed until 2 years.

I would just take the edge off otherwise you risk encouraging more of an oversupply. Of course it would be beneficial for your older child, you probably wouldn't think twice about giving her cow's milk so why not human?

If you have such an oversupply you could consider donating milk to NICU or SCBU so it can be used for premature or sick babies. My daughter (born at 33 weeks) had donor milk because she needed to be tube fed and before my milk had come in I couldn't produce enough. If not she would have had to have had formula which is more difficult for premature babies to digest and puts them at an increased risk of a potentially fatal gut infection. I know that's not what you asked! But it is an option if you continue to have an oversupply that you don't know what to do with. Your milk could be invaluable to another baby.

Thank you.

I know it would be more beneficial than cows milk as it is obviously human milk made for a human baby but wasn't sure if it is so beneficial as she's not physically drinking from my breast (I heard that's how the antibodies are made- the saliva contact with the nipple?)

Unfortunately I can't donate- I had chemotherapy in the past and my nearest milk bank can not accept any donar milk from me. Otherwise I would have loved to!

I had the same issue - huge oversupply but couldn't donate because of the medication I was on. Such a shame!
You could freeze the milk and use it later on, either in bottles or when you start weaning. But for your own comfort cutting down pumping is your best bet.