Help please! Fast letdown/abundant milk supply

[Vickymcintyre]

Hi all, I am new to Mumsnet and wondered if anyone might have some wisdom they can share with me. My son is 5 weeks old and we had real issues getting him to feed to start with, from me or from a bottle. Combined with a very traumatic birth and me still taking a long time to heal this meant I have been using shields to breastfeed. We just cannot seem to get the latch right without them (small boobs and nipples don't help either)! At about 3 weeks my son started to develop incredible distressed noises overnight. It is literally impossible to sleep through the noises he makes as they are so loud and he sounds on so much pain. Loads of people told is it was normal baby noises or just wind but then we were given medication for reflux. However recently I have discovered about fast let down/abundance of milk. Everything about this rings true,including explosive poos and green in the poo plus me dripping milk and being engorged every morning. I see the recommendation is to feed from one side only but I am scared that I get so engorged that this would lead to mastitis. Also I don't know whether the shields are contributing to the problem. Does anyone have any advice on this please?! Many thanks and sorry for such a long thread. Just feel such a failure when I am trying to give him the best in life and it is resulting in his being in pain! Thank you!

Sorry I don't have much helpful advice op but didn't want to read and run. The noises at night and difficulty feeding does sound like reflux - my 11 week old has it and nights are really tough. But it does also sound like you have an abundant supply - is your lo coming off the boob lots at the start of feeds? Bfing lying down or lying back is supposed to help with this. Have you thought of going to a bfing group? I know they're not always easy to get to. I have paid a private lactation consultant to come round when I was struggling- this is great if you have the funds. I think there is a breastfeeding helpline you can call too.
My only other thought would be to express a bit but I know that can be a viscous circle with stimulating supply. I've joined a facebook bfing group which is great for advice as lots of knowledgeable people on there. Hope it improves for you. Hang in there you are doing a brilliant job, it's so so hard when feeds are a struggle.

Oh also I think you do have to be very careful about block feeding from one side - best to only do this if you've had expert advice on how to do it I think. x

My bfeeding counsellor gave me a paper on block feeding. Empty both breasts fully with pump. Offer only one side for three hours, then only other side for three hours. It was certainly uncomfortable for a bit but really helped. Good luck!

This was me, down to the shields. I did use to feed one side only per feed, the other did get engorged at first but quickly got used to it, although I always had to be careful. Shields encourage overproduction, but if you have the kind of letdown where milk sprays our horizontally like I did they can help, as the baby doesn't choke on the force of the milk. If you can get to a BF group that might be an idea. I did also try and get DC to feed without the shield on occasion with the aim of cutting them out totally - this worked in one out of three children! Good luck

I had this with dd1, it was because she had tongue tie and so was working too hard to get milk and overstimulating my supply. So check for tongue tie even if weight gain and feeding seems ok.

I did block feeding too, by my top tip is frozen peas! Really calmed down my milk supply, especially when I was getting engorged overnight. Put peas on after a feed or generally whenever you feel like it (I used to have two bags of boob peas in the freezer for reusing)

Thank you so much all for your help! Datsuncogs, could I ask, did you find that your breastfeeding sessions were really long. My DS won't feed for less than an hour at a time and I wasn't sure if that was just him, or the shields slowing everything down? Thanks again

Not sure I'm much help as haven't had a refluxy baby but with my first baby I used shields constantly until 12wks due to severe pain/cracking and then weaned off them over a few days and fed easily and happily until 7.5months. So - it can be done! Good luck.

DS grunted a lot and was very windy due to fast letdown/ shallow latch

It passes. I didn't go get medication for him as it's normal and has settled

As for block feeding, I wouldn't so early while your supply is still establishing and without consulting a properly trained BF consultant (i.e. NOT the midwife or GP!)

Sorry Vicky just seen your message - my feeding sessions weren't especially long, from memory that might suggest tongue tie as a pp suggested, have you had it checked? (Disclaimer - not an expert!)