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?

I had a fast let down. I would latch baby and then pop him off and catch it in a muslin until it stopped squirting out and was just dribbling down and then re atta ched him.
Sometimes I would start off the flow by hand first. It settled down when he was bigger. The grunting sounds like your baby is taking in a lot of air and needs winding/burping properly.

@YoComoManzanas

I had a fast let down. I would latch baby and then pop him off and catch it in a muslin until it stopped squirting out and was just dribbling down and then re atta ched him. Sometimes I would start off the flow by hand first. It settled down when he was bigger. The grunting sounds like your baby is taking in a lot of air and needs winding/burping properly.

This is another issue we are having. It’s really difficult to wind baby. We have tried all sorts of positions. I’ve tried, so have my mother and husband. We can’t seem to get him to burp.

Best advice is to find and contact a local breastfeeding consultant or la leche league. Look up the website kellymom to find out how to help with fast letdown. Laid back nursing really helped me. Message me if you like, I'm a bf peer supporter so can ponit you to some useful resources.

Breast feeding is only easy if you know more about it. Your gp should have found you some help!

You need breastfeeding advice - nhs, Nct, Abm. More details are needed before any understanding of exactly what is going on for you. There are ways to deal with fast flow and oversupply. Be very wary of the Hakka as that may well just stimulate your supply more. Your gp may have a point about the vomit ish - too much milk, too quickly with too much air or may have no point as babies can be very sick anyway. Speak to a bf specialist as they will help you understand what’s happening, what you could do and how not to get mastitis with any changes you make.

Another suggestion- follow be my breast friend and balanced boob on Instagram.

They are both lactation counsellors and they have been so helpful to me. They have highlights which show how to attach a Hakka, manage oversupply, deal with fast flow etc. All for free

Without these accounts I would have given up feeding!

My first baby used to sick up a lot of milk, frequently. Sometimes it was seemingly large volumes a while after he'd fed.
I obviously made a lot of milk, he drank a lot, some of it came out. He always gained weight nicely, was a lovely round baby, no health issues, just the way he was.
Always had lots of muslins close to hand, probably stopped around 4-5 months.

I always had muslins to hand initially with dc2, took a while for me to break the habit as he hardly ever vomited/posseted.
That are all different, and snuffly.

I used to pop DS on, wait for the let down to start and then pull him off, and hold a muslin loosely over my boob until the milk slowed down a bit or at least stopped spurting out, then pop him back on. We went through a lot of muslins but it really helped!

My dd literally never burped as a baby and it did seem to cause her discomfort. There were certain ways we’d hold her to help with wind /digestion and that helped a little. She liked being held in an upright position against the chest with her head looking over my shoulder if that makes sense. She brought up milk quite a bit because she fed a lot. We just muddled along as best we could and her digestive system gradually became more mature and there were less issues.
I’d take the others’ advice about coping with the fast flow when you first start the feed but I wouldn’t start scheduling the feeds. I think it can just lead too easily to messing up supply and demand in terms of your milk and what the baby needs.

Two of mine have been like this - perma-grunting and difficult to burp! Agree with unlatching baby during let-down. Other things that have helped me: slow him/her down by breaking to burp every 5 mins then switching sides; feed baby while reclining back, so that milk flow naturally slows.

My DS loved to feed would often vomit then start again! He got chicken pox at 10w so we spent week in house feeding I went to HV weigh clinic so I didn’t know HV and they came over aggressively and said “he’s jumped from 50th to 97th centile your over feeding how many bottles is he having” I said EBF to which the reply was that’s great keep going - I was so annoyed how with no background made assumptions. I think my little man may have over feed a bit as I let him use me as human dummy when he was twisty - but we both enjoyed it - I’ve gone off on a tangent but hope you get sorted x

I had a fast letdown and my lo had reflux too. I saw the infant feeding team a couple of times. They gave me some tips for bf with a fast letdown - using laid back feeding positions, lying down feeds (this one worked best for us) and if she's struggling with the flow pull her off and press firmly the breast with a clean muslin until the flow reduces.

I think between 8 and 12 weeks she started to handle the fast letdown better - less gulping and didn't need winding as much. The reflux has only improved with high doses of meds and me removing dairy, soya, eggs, coconut and tomato from my diet. This has changed her from a very unhappy refluxer to a fairly happy spitter.
Our GP and HV were only concerned with the reflux when it started making her miserable (screaming all day and I had to be paced around the house continuously - I didn't sit down for 2 months!) otherwise they would do a light touch approach as she was gaining weight