Is it possible to over feed a breastfed baby?

[Hope54321]

Is it possible to over feed a breastfed baby?

What if you have oversupply and fast letdown?

No not possible. Baby will take what they need and your supply will adapt. The only thing with fast let down is that they might struggle a bit when small.

@oohmyback

No not possible. Baby will take what they need and your supply will adapt. The only thing with fast let down is that they might struggle a bit when small.

Interesting, my GP seems to think it is possible and has advised to feed baby every 2.5 hours and only for a maximum of 15 minutes due to oversupply.

No, they take what they need then stop. Because the milk comes out more slowly than a bottle the baby has time to realise they are full, and decide the effort needed to extract the milk isn't worth it.

If you're having problems with fast letdown, try hand expressing the first bit of milk before latching baby. It usually slows down a bit after the initial rush, the baby will manage better. After the first few weeks your supply will adapt to match what your baby needs.

No. Your GP doesn't know what they are talking about.

@ForeverBubblegum

No, they take what they need then stop. Because the milk comes out more slowly than a bottle the baby has time to realise they are full, and decide the effort needed to extract the milk isn't worth it.

If you're having problems with fast letdown, try hand expressing the first bit of milk before latching baby. It usually slows down a bit after the initial rush, the baby will manage better. After the first few weeks your supply will adapt to match what your baby needs.

My flow doesn’t seem to slow down for some reason. I expressed for 5 minutes and it was still flowing fast. Also wouldn’t hand expressing make the breast think baby is feeding so the oversupply will continue.

Nope. And sadly most GPs are clueless about breastfeeding. They get barely any training on it unless they choose to do it. Why have you seen the GP? What does your HV say? And how old is your baby?

No!!!! Is your doc male? Do they have boobs?

Have you thought about using a Hakka to draw down the oversupply/let down on each breast for a few mins prior to feeding??
It does get better and my baby is now rapidly gulping all the let down.

You could order one on Amazon for delivery tomorrow

Just don't forget to properly suction it to your boob

No its not, baby takes what they need.

No. The GP is talking rubbish.

@AnneLovesGilbert

Nope. And sadly most GPs are clueless about breastfeeding. They get barely any training on it unless they choose to do it. Why have you seen the GP? What does your HV say? And how old is your baby?

I contacted the gp because baby was vomiting and bringing up milk after every feed and baby was also grunting all day and night and gasping during and after feeding as though he is trying to catch his breath. I wasn’t sure if it was reflux or fast flow.

No.
The only time I stopped feeding mine was when I knew they had fed for long enough, and they were just using me as a dummy.

Why is he (assuming doc is a man) talking about this? Is there a concern about DC weight? My understanding is, no they can't.

@MrsSmith2020

No!!!! Is your doc male? Do they have boobs?

Have you thought about using a Hakka to draw down the oversupply/let down on each breast for a few mins prior to feeding??
It does get better and my baby is now rapidly gulping all the let down.

You could order one on Amazon for delivery tomorrow

Just don't forget to properly suction it to your boob

Lol! He most certainly is a man.

I was under the care of a breastfeeding specialist at hospital when established feeding with my premature twins - your GP is talking rubbish. Your supply will adapt. Is one boob more high pressured/faster flowing than the other? I found one side of mine is so put the bigger twin on that one as he cope with it better than little twin. After a couple of weeks the supply has evened out

@ivfbeenbusy

I was under the care of a breastfeeding specialist at hospital when established feeding with my premature twins - your GP is talking rubbish. Your supply will adapt. Is one boob more high pressured/faster flowing than the other? I found one side of mine is so put the bigger twin on that one as he cope with it better than little twin. After a couple of weeks the supply has evened out

They both seem to flow fast. Also, he had his tongue tie cut just over a month ago.

Cross post, my first used to bring up a little bit of milk with each feed but I think he was a tiny bit refluxy - stopped when he got a bit older and started solids.

How old is baby?

What is this "oversupply"?

Are you saying baby has a problem feeding because your let down is too fast?

I don't understand what problem the Dr thinks they are addressing here. And no, you can't over breastfeed a young baby.

I contacted the gp because baby was vomiting and bringing up milk after every feed

I had this with little twin - hospital procedure in this instance was to reduce her feeds to 2 hourly intervals so she'd be having less in each feed and this stopped the vomiting. After a week or so moved back to 3 hourly feeds

It's normal for newborns to grunt when strain - pretty much every baby does it for the first few days weeks

@Evidencebased

How old is baby?

What is this "oversupply"?

Are you saying baby has a problem feeding because your let down is too fast?

I don't understand what problem the Dr thinks they are addressing here. And no, you can't over breastfeed a young baby.

Gp seems to think baby is vomiting after every feed because he is over feeding and doesn’t know when to stop feeding.

No, you can't.

How much is he vomiting? My DD went through spouts of vomiting after each feed - usually not much but it always looks like a lot over a Muslim/your shoulder. I called my HV/GP about it on several occasions but nothing was ever 'diagnosed' as such. She gained weight fine, is currently 15m and using my boob as an all you can eat whilst her actual dinner is cooking.

What I'm trying to say is keep doing what you're doing, ask for a second opinion by a different GP and try not to worry too much!

Oh my word. Muslin. Not Muslim.

What kind of vomiting?
like, a regurgitation down himself and you? Or projectile vomiting?

Some babies puke a lot. DD threw up at least 3 times a day every single day until she was 6 months on the dot. It never bothered her and it mostly wasn’t violent, it just happened a lot. No harm done except an awful lot of laundry.

Grunting may be wind, it takes quite a while for their digestive systems to mature.

Your supply should settle down. When I first expressed I could do a bottle in about 20 minutes and thought something was wrong when I tried a few months later and could only do 20ml at a time (stopped bothering at that point, too much faff and then she started refusing a bottle anyway) but I had over supply to start with and then we synced up better and I was producing what she needed.

It’s a lot at the start, you’re both learning how to do it in the best way and it can be daunting. It sounds like you’re doing a great job.

Definitely get a haaka, so cheap and convenient, easy to use, clean, store. If your baby is still quite young and doesn’t wriggle too much you can express one boob while feeding off the other.

X post. Your GP sounds clueless!

When does supply settle? My baby is 7 weeks currently.