Breastfeeding and letdown

[Ami100]

Hello everyone. So we’ve had a tough few weeks. My son will be 11 months old in a few days. Biting starting again 2 weeks ago with teething, so he fed less which led to lower milk supply which led to more biting! Fast forward to now I’m sure my supply is up again but my letdown reflex is so so slow when it never used to be. I’ve upped the diet and exercise to try to lose last of the baby weight plus my period is due in a few days. Could it be because of that? What can I do?

Your period can reduce supply. Calcium supplements can help with this.

@Thatwentbadly thank you it would make sense. When does it return to normal?

On biting.

With mine I said a firm no. And took them off the breast.

That seemed to stop it.

I can't imagine that things would stop supply? But I didn't exercise etc. Your body would prioritise feeding your baby surely.

Mine got bitey at that age I seem to remember. An early asserting thing?

I just said NO and took them off. Then put them back. That worked for me.

Good luck.

Your period can reduce supply. In some the effect is barely noticeable but for others it can be quite dramatic.

As for dieting, it's hard to say. People often say to breastfeeding mothers that they must eat a lot in order to keep up their milk supply, but when you go digging around in the research it's really difficult to find any evidence to back this up. Perhaps they should do more research into it.

When my DD was 5 months old I started intermittent fasting because I was desperate to shift the baby weight. I was consuming nothing but water and black coffee 2 whole days a week and it didn't have any noticeable effect on my milk supply. I was pumping so I could easily see how much milk I was making.

So the issue is he bites you because the milk doesn't come fast enough?

You can't do anything about periods and unless you've started a very sudden restriction of calories or upped the intensity of exercise then it's reasonable. I think all you can do is try and reinforce no biting. My best tip is smoosh them into your breast so they have to let go, don't pull them off and damage yourself. Babies get it, they just might not like it.

[quote Ami100]@Thatwentbadly thank you it would make sense. When does it return to normal? [/quote]
For me before the end of my period.