Milk too fast, 4 week old gulping in air when breastfeeding - any advice?

[surelyyoucantbeserious]

DS is 4 weeks tomorrow. I think I probably have 'an overabundant milk supply' - when he feeds the milk is v fast making him gulp in lots of air as well as milk.

He nearly always falls asleep at the breast. I wind him a bit, put him down, and then he'll wake up 10/15/30 mins later red faced, back arching, crying etc. Sometimes he'll cone off the breast mid-feed nearly choking.

How do I get out of this cycle? Considering giving up breastfeeding although last night DH tried him on a bottle and I think he was still taking in lots of air.

Trying to get him latched on really well but he doesn't do what the babies in the diagrams do i.e. tilt head back and open mouth wide. Perhaps this is what's causing the problems?

Also trying to express a bit before especially the morning feed so the flow slows down. Worried that this will mean I just produce more milk. And anyway it doesn't seem to slow the milk down much.

Any advice welcome.....

I had an overabundant milk supply - she would be on, then off and would be quite windy.
I phoned the LLL helpline & spoke to a lovely lady who advised me to do two feeds on one side and then do the next two feeds on the other side. My supply did stabilise itself around 4 mths and I managed to keep feeding till 16 mths. But I would suggest that you speak to a BF councellor & phone one of the helplines.

Good luck!

I have this problem - DD (and DS did) chokes and splutters and gets very angry with me! She is also very windy.

I would echo shivs- try using the same side over a 2 to 3 hour period rather than always swapping sides - or express a little off if you are very full (but dont do this too much or could create even more milk).

I also found position helps - if you think about it if you feed in the usual position gravity is also helping the milk into the babys mouth. If you feed lying down the force of the milk is less. If things are really bad try nursing "uphill" so you lie on your back and the baby is on top of you so the milk has to travel upwards and therefore the force wont be so strong. This can be really tricky to get the hang of. Try latching on normally and then sliding down the sofa so you are lying down - takes a bit of practice but tends to work.

Things also sort themselves out during the first few months - if this is the only reason you want to give up I would certainly try and perservere for the next few weeks and see if things sort themselves out. I know its already easier with DD being 6 weeks old compared to 2 weeks ago.

xxxx

You might have a very fast let down - i did and poor ds used to choke and splutter during feeds especially at the start. There have been a lot of threads with advice if you do a search. I would express a bit off before feeding and then try and feed leaning backwards. Using the same breast for 2 feeds in a row helped too. It didn';t go on too long and I carried on BF for months afterwards - by then a fast let-down was great beciase ds would feed really quickly.

Have a look here:

www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/fast-letdown.html

I had this - one-sided feeding helped. And it gets much easier as they get bigger and better able to cope with large amounts of milk.

The upside is that if you need to express it is a doddle - I got loads in very little time.

Thanks so much for all your advice. Don't want to stop breastfeeding really but it's stressful when he's clearly finding it distressing. Every feed today and last night has involved coughing, spluttering and the latest ended in lots of sick.

Ironicly I thought feeding on one side only (mistakenly thought I should start doing this to ensure he got both foremilk and hindmilk but apparently that's not how it works) started the problem in the first place because it meant the breast not being fed from was fit to burst by the time he got to that one!! And expressing in the middle of the night wasn't something I wanted to start doing...
but I will try doing 2 feed sin a row on one side and also try different positions.

Thanks everyone - feeding is getting much easier.

Quick question for those that did 2 feeds on one side - how long did you continue this for?

Thank god for mumsnet. I know this is an old thread but I wanted to say thank you for your advice!

I've been having this problem and although I plan to go to a BF drop in session tmw, I just had a terrible hour with my DD of 4wks. Her screaming and choking to the point of stopping breathing. Me with tears streaming down my face and swearing that from now on it's the bottle (for both of us ;-)). She's exhuasted herself so much she's asleep now.

Bizarrely, I fed her at a friend's house at the same time yesterday and it was an amazingly relaxed feed. I can see that yesterday I was unwittingly following most of the advice on the kellymom site, and today doing the opposite.

Fingers crossed for a more relaxed evening ahead of me.