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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Single-side feeding - does my HV know what she's on about?

14 replies

Moorhen · 08/11/2007 13:31

Mentioned to HV on Tues that DS (14 weeks) had started sleeping very badly and refusing to go back to sleep after night feed at 4am.

She said it was because he takes both sides at each feed (I only offer the second when he's totally lost interest in the first). Practically ordered me to feed only from one side, stating confidently that this would settle him at night and also cause his weight to rocket.

Am trying it, tho nervous because he put on weight v slowly in the first weeks so generally I get as much into him as possible. He woke at 3am today (hour early) but did go back to sleep till six.

Also HV told me to stop expressing and topping him up at night as was pointless for weight gain, being mostly foremilk if it's two lots of 2ozs at two daytime feeds.

She's said other things I know are b*llocks, so am unsure. Anyone informed who can advise much appreciated!

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Isobella123 · 08/11/2007 13:36

All I can say is that I fed DS1 one side one feed and then the other side the other feed and he went off the growth chart scale at one point.

The difficulty is trying to remember which side you did last.

orangehead · 08/11/2007 13:39

I always offered both sides at a feed but has been about 3 yrs since I bf. I think you best taking to nct bf counsellor

tiktok · 08/11/2007 13:52

She's talking rubbish.

She's misunderstanding how foremilk and hindmilk work and how babies gain weight.

Keeping a baby on one side only reduces the volume of milk the baby takes overall, and reduces the volume of milk made.

That might be a good thing - sometimes mothers overproduce and get all sorts of probs, and 'one sided feeding' can indeed help resolve this.

It might be a non-thing ie it doesn't matter if you use one side only at each feed. Some babies are happy and thrive on one side, and because most mothers are generous producers (given the right circumstances), they make sufficient milk anyway.

It's not necessarily a good thing to do this deliberately, though, as a few mothers do need the 'double sided' approach to make enough volume for the baby, and on top of that, leaving one side untouched for a while can lead to engorgement and worse.

It is volume of milk that keeps babies thriving.

The whole foremilk and hindmilk has bamboozled people into being worried about the 'balance' of foremilk and hindmilk, and they think (wrongly) that the baby can't gain weight unless he gets hindmilk.

This is what lies behind your HV's useless advice - she thinks the baby will gain more calories feeding one side only and he will not, I promise! His net intake of calories will reduce , as the volume of milk he takes in will lessen, and your supply will reduce - not what you want.

Foremilk is still good stuff, and packed full of calories - she's talking as if it is water!

Be guided by what your baby seems to want, and if he takes that second side after showing you he's had what he wants off the first side, you can continue giving him that second side.

And change your HV if you can - she sounds the worst sort....thinks she knows it all and yet she will damage breastfeeding.

www.kellymom/com has tons of stuff on all of this with references.

Moorhen · 08/11/2007 14:07

Tiktok, I thought what she was saying sounded weird but didn't have the facts to contradict! I am going back to offering the second side as of right now.

The kellymom stuff is fascinating, especially about the composition of breastmilk.

I just don't understand why, when this stuff's so readily available online, no HV I ever meet seems to research or read it?

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tiktok · 08/11/2007 15:02

I dunno....sometimes, the rubbish is actually what they are trained in. I come across this misunderstanding a lot, from HPs who have been told it on courses. Also, they could read books that get it very wrong as well, and which describe the milk as if it is separate 'layers' in the breast and the baby has to somehow remove the layers to get to the hindmilk.

I could mention Gina Ford - who thinks it's all a matter of timing, and that the baby has to be on the breast 20 minutes (in other parts of the book it's 25) before 'reaching' the hindmilk.

I could mention the Baby Whisperer who thinks there is also something called (I think) 'quencher milk' which is unknown to anyone but her.

It's a fair bet your HV thinks she is ever so clever and advanced in knowing the terms 'foremilk and hindmilk' in the first place. If no one challenges her, then she will continue to misinform mothers again and again.

Evenhope · 08/11/2007 21:18

I've only ever fed on one side at a time- that's how I was told to do it 21 years ago. Is that wrong?

(DD 7 mo now about 19lb 2 oz having been 7lb 1oz at birth)

laura032004 · 08/11/2007 21:31

Just to add my two pennies - I only feed from one side at a time, and DS2 is a terrible sleeper, so don't expect any miracles

Has anybody commented on the expressing bit yet? Didn't see any replies. Do you feel that you need to do this? I'm sure that you could just feed directly rather than expressing, and having the extra hassle involved with that. If you're expressing at the end of a feed, then that will be 'richer' milk, than if you express from the side that hasn't been used for a feed, or if you express before the feed. Try it and see - I love to see the difference in consistency of milk from the start and end of a feed.

My lovely MIL, assumes that if DS2 is on less than a minute, he just wanted 'a drink', whereas if he's on a bit longer, he was 'hungry'. DS2 can drain a breast very quickly if so minded, or take his time. I can estimate how much he's had by 'weighing' the breast in my hand (rough guess!). I've been feeding for 38months now though (DS1&2), so after a while, it becomes second nature.

laura032004 · 08/11/2007 21:32

BTW - DS2 is a porker - 99.8 centile for weight last time he was weighed, so feeding from one side works for him. DS1 always fed from both sides, but then that's what I did with him, so I guess my breasts and milk production adapted to that?

uberalice · 08/11/2007 21:43

I was given the same advice early on by my midwife, and it caused me quite a lot of distress in the first few weeks. DS2 just wouldn't settle no matter how long I fed him for, and I was afraid to swap sides for fear of "running out" of milk for the next feed. I even offered a couple of ounces of formula one night in desperation . As soon as I'd realised that swapping sides would help settle him, I never looked back. He's coming up to his first birthday soon, and still exclusively BF.

I really despair of the awful advice that mums are getting from so-called professionals in this country.

shreksmissus · 08/11/2007 22:50

Message withdrawn

tiktok · 09/11/2007 10:31

uberalice, could you complain about this bad advice?

lemonaid · 09/11/2007 10:36

laura and Evenhope nothing at all wrong with feeding from one side only at a time. It works well for many people. But if supply and weight gain is an issue then it's totally the wrong advice. Feeding from both sides at each feed will tend to increase supply and boost the baby's calorie intake not something you need to worry about doing if you have a porker and an abundant supply but if (as in this case) the baby has been experiencing only very slow weight gain then it's clearly a better option than feeding from one.

monkeybird · 09/11/2007 12:24

Just to add my twopennorth...

I think it depends what's going on - as Tiktok said, if oversupply is a problem then one-sided feeding works well as it did for me- very 'sucky' baby who'd get quite cross when more and more milk came - about 3 weeks in, I switched to using one breast in every 2-3 hour period and ALWAYS had lots of milk/letdowns in that peroid. This was on the advice of a BFN phone supporter. But I guess if the issue is not oversupply but weight-gain and needing to build up the supply/calories then it's not going to work.

Should also add that now DS is 12 weeks, he pretty much feeds from both sides everytime but I leave it up to him - sometimes he wants both, sometimes he doesn't but I pretty much always offer now, except if he's completely comatosely asleep!

Moorhen · 09/11/2007 19:22

Hi all,

I started topping up because DS started on the 50th centile, then pootled along slowly until he rested on the edge of the Failure to Thrive zone.

Got my latch corrected and that helped, but also started expressing during the day and topping him up with it at night, just to get a few extra calories into him.

Don't know how much difference it makes, but having seen his weight gain increase so dramatically I am reluctant to give it up.

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