Breastfeeding oversupply/foremilk imbalance? What to do

[Shanivy]

I would post in breastfeeding but I've never even looked in there so not sure how busy it is.

So long shot. Long post too. Does anyone have any experience with an oversupply or foremilk imbalance? At the end of my tether

Basically baby is 12 days old. Breastfeeding councillor gave me a medela symphony pump (amazing) to express because my baby stopped latching at around 4 days old. Couldn't get her on at all, no known reason, everyone tried everything. So I pumped to keep up my supply and bottlefed. Anyway she decided to start latching on again two or three days ago.

But I've discovered due to the expressing I have an oversupply that means baby is getting too much foremilk and not getting to the hindmilk enough. This leads to too much lactose (think that's right) and gives her frothy nappies on and off, hiccups, wind and makes her gassy and very unsettled.

She also chokes a lot and pulls herself off of me because of how much milk there constantly is, before she's finished. Which leads to her getting mad and wanting to re latch again instantly. I've tried expressing some off and block feeding to try and let her get a breast drained more. And feeding laying back against gravity to ease the flow. but still having problems. They've said it will sort itself out eventually but right now I have one very unhappy baby.

Has anyone actually had this happen? Or have any tips...I'll take anything I can get at this point. Formula feeding is looking very likely.

 

[kanga86]

Sorry to hear your having so many issues with breastfeeding, I have breastfed 3 babies each with their owns problems. With oversupply I had to feed from the same breast for 2 feeds in a row before switching sides. If your other breast starts to get full, just hand express enough off to reduce the fullness, but not too much to make your body think it needs to produce loads more milk.

It might also be worth looking at going to a breastfeeding group, I found them so useful to get tips and support xx

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[Princess81]

I would contact la leche league, they are amazing. I had similar issues with a huge supply my son nearly drowned at his feeds and had breast milk shooting across the room as soon as I whipped my boob out
You could express for a couple mins first then latch her on, but this may exacerbate over supply issues xx

 

[Shanivy]

Thanks princess it was their website that made me realise what my issue was. I was expressing some off but like you said I'm not sure if that makes it worse or not.

Kanga thanks, I did have a breastfeeding councillor but I haven't seen her since last week. She calls but hasn't seen my issue firsthand so I don't really feel she's all that helpful now.

I will try giving le leche a call, it's so frustrating. She's feeding sometimes for less than 5-10 minutes and I'm getting myself so down over it all. I didn't even know this could be a problem! Xx

 

[snowbee]

I was told the fore/hind milk was a myth. If you can see a lactation consultant that could help.

I had very forceful letdown, which he would choke on until he got the hang of it and then my breasts calmed down (well the still have the odd whoopsie moment but not like they were). I just had lots of cloths to mop up the spillage in the mean time.

If you can I would stop expressing and let your supply readjust.

 

[Shanivy]

Snowbee that's interesting, though I'm not sure I agree totally about it being a myth.. It's my breastfeeding councillor and hv giving me the info. I mean I know there's not two different types of milk. But I have so much in each breast that baby is not emptying each breast at a feed. She fills up before she gets the the more fatty milk at the end. So I'm block feeding and it seems a bit better as time goes on...

I also have a forceful letdown it's a nightmare! Baby does exactly what you described too, choking etcI didn't even know it was a thing until now. She pulls herself down and clamps down on the nipple to try and slow the flow. Then I have to start all over again and re latch.The bf councillor has said she'll learn to sort it, plus breast will calm like you say. They say I'm doing all the right things but it's slow progress and very frustrating! Xx