Switching sides?

[beautifulgirls]

Please can you tell me, should you allow the baby to "empty" one side before you offer the other side, or should you try and offer both sides during a feed to help try and keep up supply to both sides? I am small chested and really felt I just couldn't keep up with DD#1 and her demands - I know it is a demand supply thing, but just wondering if I start off with a different pattern it might make a difference to my supply sooner? With her I would feed from one side each time when she was newborn, swapping sides for the next feed. As she got a bit older and it was clear that she was still hungry and things felt "empty" to me on the side she had fed, then I started to offer the second side at each feed too. In the end she was "draining" both sides and screaming for more. Downhill slope for me to formula from there.
Does it matter if you only offer one side at a time early on - does it matter if you offer both?
Thanks

For the optimum outcome you would feed one side until the feeding slowed, and then the other side, until the feeding slowed, and then back again until the baby either refused to go on or fell off in a deep sleep.

You can start the next feed on whichever side you like, but usually it would be the one that was fed less on the time before. However, in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter.

Milk is made by demand and supply. This is regulated by 'frequency' therefore it is better to have both sides 'triggered' with each feed.

hth

Offer 2,3 or more sides if you want to increase supply, you can keep swapping and this gives your body the message to make more. It's called "switch nursing" and is a known method for increasing supply.

Offering one side only is outdated advice - in fact it is a method that mothers with oversupply sometimes use to reduce their milk supply!

Your baby will stop when she's had enough so keep offering - and you can always try breast compressions to increase her intake too.

Do you have a new baby? How often do you feed?

I was always told to offer both sides, but stopped fairly early on because (as verylittlecarrot refers to) I had oversupply issues and didn't need both. I think you just offer one side until your baby seems 'done' and then swop. If they don't want more then that's fine, if they do then off they go.

Thanks - will try more swapping this time around and see if we can do better. Baby not due for another 3-4 weeks so plenty of time for me to do lots of research.