Q&A: oversupply causing strange feeding schedule

Normally I don't diagnose a lot of breastfeeding issues because I feel like that's something that's tricky and also a little dicey to do when you're not in the same room as the persona with the problem. Plus, I'm not trained in breastfeeding issues. But I got an email from Angel, who has a 5-week-old, and in her very long email she was convinced that she was somehow overstimulating her baby and making him nervous. As I read the email, it hit me that all the symptoms she was listing were classic symptoms of oversupply. I'm not going to publish the email because it was long and kind of made my heart hurt that she was blaming herself for creating a neurosis in her infant, when it was just a physical issue and easily resolved.

Instead, here are the symptoms Angel listed:

* nurses ravenously
* but for only about 10 minutes, and then he falls asleep
* eats every hour and is crying and starving if she tries to make him wait (and it was all day long, not just in the evening or late afternoon, which is classic cluster feeding and is comnpletely normal)
* he'd gained a lot of weight very quickly
* she also described a kind of "heh-heh" noise he was making that sounded like a "nervous tic" to her

All this sounded waaaay too familiar to me from my first son. Some of you may recall that he was 9.5 pounds at birth, so I just thought it was normal that a big baby would eat so often, so fast, and fall asleep in the middle of a feed. Then, I was hanging out at a breastfeeding support group (just to get out of the house and see some other human beings who wouldn't judge me for being in maternity pants and not having any makeup on), and the lactaction consultant heard these little "heh-heh" baby goat-like noises he was making and diagnosed me with oversupply.

Apparently, when you produce a lot of milk, the baby gets the watery foremilk first, which is high in milk sugars. So the baby falls asleep while nursing from a food coma (the same reason we all fall asleep after a big meal), but it's not fatty hindmilk so it runs through their stomach quickly and they need to eat again in an hour.

In the meantime, all the milk sugars make them grow really quickly.

The solution is to do "block nursing," which means you pick a block of time, say from noon to 2, and every time you nurse during that block you nurse on the same side only. Then for the next block, nurse on the other side, no matter how many times you nurse.

Within a few days you supply will match up with your baby's needs better, and the baby will get the right ratio of watery foremilk to fatty hindmilk.

Sure enough, Angel got back to me a few days later that he was going 3 hours between feedings and wasn't making the "heh-heh" noise anymore.

For most of us who have it, oversupply isn'tr such a big problem that we'd even realize anything was wrong. But your quality of life changes radically when your baby can go longer than 60 minutes between feeds!

Also, I wanted to put this out there as yet another example of how many things with babies are NOT YOUR FAULT, and that you're doing a great job.

Readers? Tales of oversupply or any other little odd things you thought you were doing wrong but were really just flukes or the way you or your child was built?

Comments

[Chris]

Moxie-It's so hard when it's your first time around the block on this mothering thing. Thank you for being a soft place to land for so many women!

[MrsHaley]

This is the first place I ever heard of Block Feeding and it is such a great tool. I'm so glad to hear it helped Angel satisfy her baby better and kept her from feeling like she's doing something wrong. She is clearly an engaged, concerned mother. Good job, Angel!!!!

[Ellen]

Oh my gosh, my baby is doing the heh-heh thing too. And growing really fast. And all the other signs too. Starting block feeding today!!!

[Sara]

Wow - this is an article that I REALLY wish I had 14 months ago - as I can look back and see this is why I breastfed every 1-2 hours, even as my baby turned 9 months old. Right. Good to know for next one, I guess...

[paola]

Both my kids fed every hour during daytime from around 3 weeks until they were 6 months old.

My elder (son) grew really fast in the first 4 months then slowed down but still continued to feed hourly if I was around. Otherwise he 'could' go a couple of hours without needing a feed after he was around 4 months old. He, however, managed to get to the hind milk and didn't fall asleep at the breast unless it was the middle of the night.

My daughter did exactly the same thing, but she did have difficulties with too much fore milk until I started to block feed her. She was not a big baby. In fact she had trouble gaining weight and was in the 3rd percentile till she was 18 months old. Again, she would go an hour or so between feeds if I was aorund, a couple if I wasn't.

For both children I got the impression it was more of a case of having the cow at their disposal ( I was a SAHM) and so they nursed continuously for this reason.
I honestly do not think there was a 'problem' here. My son was just voracious. He devoured my milk to the point that I actully went 5 kgs ( 12 lbs) under my pre-pregnancy weight. Sure my life would have been easier if he hadn't fed so often, but I wasn't doing anything else with my time ( if you know what I mean) and it was as though he was tanking up for the night 'cos he started sleeping 12 hour nights at 10 weeks old.

[TTS]

I definitely had an over supply issue. The kid would basically choke if I fed him in the classic nursing position. He gained so much weight, so quickly, fell asleep during feedings, nursed for 7 minutes max. I thought something was wrong because he wasn't doing 1/2 hour on one side, 15 minutes on the other... or some other bs i had read... so i kept waking him up to feed him, worried that he would somehow perish in the night from malnutrition. I took him to the doctor and he had gained 2 pounds in 4 days or something ridiculous like that. I had to sit up, slightly reclined, with the baby facing me so the milk wouldn't over power him! It was a riot... once my ped assured me (in her office with tears running down my eyes), that everything was okay. Thank you moxie for your ever wonderful advice.

[amberjee]

Moxie, it's cool that you talk about oversupply. I feel like sometimes it's a bit taboo because a lot of women are afraid of not having enough, so it's almost not sensitive to rave on about having sooooo much milk, even though it can cause it's own special issues. i didn't block feed, but would only feed one side per feed, and that seemed to do it for me.
the other thing is, it's just plain embarrassing, was alwasy leaking, soaking through breastfeeding, squirting milk out everywhere if i tried to feed in public. god, it took a long long time to calm down too.
the midwives were always having a go at me too, because they seriously couldn't believe that my son never fed for more than 5 minutes at a time. if i tried to make him take more, he'd just get really annoyed wiht me.

[AmyinMotown]

My somewhat interesting data point: I had, if anything, an undersupply with my daughter. With my son--oversupply. He did all that stuff you're describing, I actually squirted milk sometimes when I got my bra off (had never happened with my daughter) and had green poops and gas. Our pediatrician, thank God, suggested block feeding although she didn't call it that and it fixed the problem.

So, you can even be a little bit of an experienced mom and STILL be baffled by these little creatures! Every kid is different.

[Brooke]

You should start the clock on the second block when you start the first feeding after the first block, not when you finish the first feeding.

For example: Right side from noon to two. Baby doesn't eats at two, but not again until 4:30. Left side from 4:30 to 6:30.

That might be obvious to most people, but it wasn't to me in those first weeks of sleep-deprived haze.

[N]

My sister had the same problem with oversupply, too. Her baby cried a lot at first and didn't seem to want to latch on, and she almost gave up on breastfeeding. Apparently, the first lactation consultant she saw at the hospital told her to nurse 10 minutes each side. Fortunately, she called a different lactation consultant who said to block feed. That fixed things in just a few days!

My kid nursed every 2 hours 'round the clock for the first few months. The sleep deprivation almost did me in, not the nursing! He drained a boob each time, so I'm pretty sure he was just a voracious baby who was tanking up because he knew he would be too busy to eat much as a toddler....

Yay to Angel for not giving up!

[pennifer]

I had oversupply too. Block nursing was very important for me too - I think it helped to manage my engorgement issues as well.

It was a challenge for my son to deal with the oversupply initially, a lot of sputtering and fussing around not being able to suck it down as fast as it came out. Eventually, he got pretty skilled at it, but then the oversupply went on until he was about 3 months old. At that point, it seemed like production went down a bit, and then he complained about not getting as much as he wanted as fast as he wanted it!

It all balanced out in the end, but I don't think he ever nursed for more than 10 minutes at a time, something that made me wild with anxiety in the very early days, when my doctors and the books were telling me I needed to be nursing longer in order for him to be getting proper nutrition and accessing the hind-milk. Arg.

Apologies if that's disjointed. Tired today.

[Summer Frace]

Oversupply/forceful letdown here as well. I always feed only on one side per feeding. Sometimes I would do two feedings in a row on the same side. Every time I went to the pedi and the nurse would ask, "How many minutes does she nurse?" I would say "five, only on one side," and she'd look at me like I was nuts. But my daughter gained a TON of weight in the beginning. She was pretty tiny too (a little over 6 lbs.) but she packed it on.

It took about 3-4 months before my daughter could really keep up with my flow. Even then, she had lots of burping, coughing, sputtering, gas, etc. I was told by an LC to avoid cradle hold and even try feeding her while lying on my back with her face down - tummy to tummy. We still nurse that way sometimes (she's 10 months now).

I will also say that if you exercise, once you start working out again, be very careful about swimming and lifting weights. Too much arm workout makes the milk go MAD. Every time I swim vigorously, my breasts are bursting.

[Summer Frace]

Er, I should have said avoid the football hold and ONLY use cradle hold. Sorry for the typo.

[Sheila]

My milk was late coming in and my baby had trouble latching on since I have flat nipples (who knew?...the things you discover after having a baby). So a lactation nurse gave me a nipple shield, which was an absolute lifesaver. Finally my baby could latch on! However, with nipple shields they worry about the baby not getting enough, so the lactation nurse put me on a pretty rigorous feeding/pumping schedule that I think led to a serious oversupply problem. Apparently I made my body think that I had twins. Combined with an overactive letdown, the oversupply led to a fussy, choking baby.

The nipple shield helped here too, because milk could pool in the shield when my baby needed to pause. Early attempts to wean her off of it didn't work partly because milk sprayed all over her face. So then we went to the block nursing, which for me meant going four hours on one side before switching. I also pretty much stopped pumping - clearly I didn't need to keep building up my supply!

Finally we got to a place where everyone was happy, and even though "experts" say that nipple shields should only be used as a last resort and you should wean babies from them ASAP, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. As I told the lactation nurse, it's really hard to say, "Hey, now that things are finally going well, let's make them difficult again!" So we kept using the shield until she was about four months old. Before that, occasional attempts to latch without it didn't work very well, but she seemed to just figure it out all of a sudden.

Before she was born I had told myself that I would try nursing but not beat myself up if it didn't work. Somehow I didn't expect it to work. And yet, even though we had the late arrival of milk, latch problems, overactive letdown, oversupply, and using/weaning from the nipple shield, it actually seems like things have been pretty easy. I guess that's thanks to a great lactation nurse who focused on providing encouragement and helpful solutions.

Wow I am just going on forever and not making a lot of sense, I fear. The result of six weeks of daycare colds and accompanying lack of sleep, perhaps. So the short version:

-I agree that people don't talk as much about over supply partially because it feels like bragging or it's not a "real" problem like under supply, but that leads to new moms not knowing what the problem is

-nipple shields are not of the devil (like some lactation resources can make it seem) and can be a huge help

Thanks as always for talking about these things!

[bkwyrm]

Good advice, Moxie! I had an excellent LC who diagnosed my oversupply when my daughter was a month old, and breastfeeding was SO much easier after we started block feeding. I had enough milk to feed the free world and even if the kid didn't wake up to eat every two hours, I needed to wake up and pump because the engorgement was painful. I'm expecting kid #2 in August and we'll see if I experience it again!

[Kristen]

Something I thought I was doing wrong:

My oversupply masked the fact that my son had a posterior tongue tie. My milk came so easily and majorly that he didn't have to really work for it until he was about 2 months old and my supply dropped a little. So initially I had a pretty easy breastfeeding experience. But because my poor little guy never drained my breasts fully (and bc I naturally had a lot of milk), from month two on I got a total of 33 blocked ducts (actually I stopped counting at 33) and two full cases of mastitis in months three and four of breastfeeding. I basically sat on the couch in pretty intense pain while feeding my son, I think, every 45 minutes from September-November. Looking back, I can't believe I didn't stop, but my baby and I had been separated in the NICU for the first week of his life and I was really damaged by the separation and was going to walk through fire to breastfeed on demand to try to right some of what seemed wrong about how his tiny life started.

Anyhoo. For months I wondered why nursing hurt me still, why I had to hold my baby on my breast to make sure he didn't fall off (helping him maintain a latch), why it wasn't getting better, but worse and harder, why most women I knew were able to go for more than a half hour without nursing by the time the baby was four months old. Because my baby was a remarkably healthy, happy, unfussy little guy nobody was worried about him.

Finally, exhausted, crying, having read everything on every website there was I found a post on mothering.com by a woman who said she stopped getting plugged ducts when she had her baby's tongue tie clipped.

I had seen a IBCLC right after he was born and she said everything looked great, so we called someone different and she said OH MY GOD you poor thing and gave us a referral to a pediatric surgeon. I agonised about clipping the tie because it might hurt my son and might possibly not be helpful but my husband persuaded me to do it just to help me. The minute we did it, my baby latched on the "right" way, I never got another blocked duct, he stopped spitting up (until teething, blerg) and now he's 9 months old and we have a really beautiful nursing relationship. In fact, he has no interest at all in solid food yet. Heh.

So, be nicer to yourselves than I was to myself, and check for tongue tie!

This is my first post here but I've been reading for about a month now. You guys are awesome. Hi!

[kelly]

Oversupply here too. I wore pads constantly and changed them very frequently. I would be dripping as I lined baby up to the boob, she'd latch and start to nurse, and once the milk let down, sometimes she'd actually choke. She'd pull off, milk would spray everywhere, and I'd simultaneously towel off and reposition to latch her back on. I used to nurse with a bath towel next to me. Nursing in public was . . . interesting.

Like others, I eventually only nursed on one side per feeding. I kept reading about nursing taking 20-30 minutes, and we were always done in 5-7 minutes. I worried that baby wasn't getting enough, especially hindmilk, which is why I started doing the one side thing. She was gaining at a textbook pace, but I was still worried because it wasn't like it said in the baby magazines! Clearly I was doing something wrong! Snort.

Eventually my supply dropped a bit, though I still had plenty of milk, and it was so nice to no longer be spraying! My Mom had the best comment, I think, after watching me drip, latch, remove, mop up, spray, and relatch: "Well, I guess you'd be the one they'd put out to wet nurse." This struck me as hilarious, and also let me know that maybe this was normal.

[Sarah V]

Reading this post made me realize that I had some oversupply at first.

A weird thing about my body that I thought was wrong but is no big deal 9 mos later:

My two breasts are very different. Lefty is like a big vein- a large volume high flow low pressure system. M can get 4-6 oz in like 5 minutes flat. Righty is the opposite. More like a small artery, high pressure but lower volume. Takes 10-15 minutes to get 2-3 oz. Same when I pump- righty squirts out like a clogged shower head spurts but lefty flows out quickly and gently like running a nice bath. M much prefers lefty and would probably be fine if we let righty dry up, but because I am vain and would rather my boobs be even I encourage her to start on the right side every time we nurse. What usually ends up happening is by the end of the day righty is a bit engorged because even when I start her on righty every time we nurse she will only nurse for 2-3 minutes then demand to be switched to lefty. So most nights I pump righty before bed and the whole cycle starts over. A pain but also kind of nice to have the extra milk, you know?

When M was a newborn (9 mos now) she would nurse FOREVER on righty. I thought this meant that righty produced more milk. I also thought this because righty was painfully engorged and had plugged ducts for a week when my milk came in. She couldn't even nurse off of righty unless I pumped some off first to relieve the pressure. It wasn't until I started pumping regularly at work that I was able to quantify the differenced between lefty and righty's production and figure out what was actually going on.

I attribute this to the natural assymetry (sp?) of our bodies but sometimes I wonder if something is wrong with righty. I plan to ask about this at my next midwife visit. I think sometimes that if there were some sort of "boob snake" like what plumbers use to unclog toilets and drains righty could be clog free and flow like lefty. I also wonder if my anatomy was like this before the plugged ducts and engorgement on righty postpartum or if this was caused by the plugged ducts. Will it be the same next baby?

Sorry for going on and on with my silly analogies...I probably think about my boob plumbing way too much. I am a nurse now but maybe was a plumber in a past life...

[Ann]

I think I had a slight oversupply, never diagnosed - my son was a fast eater, and by the time he was about 2 months old, we would nurse only on one side per session -- we just hit on that on our own.

My real "non-textbook" baby moment doesn't have to do with nursing, but with the other end! Until we started him on solid food, my son only pooped every 10-14 days. That was normal for him -- honestly normal. I think he ramped up to that span; I think it was every few days when he was brand-new, and he added more days in until it was reliably every 2 weeks. He was fine, though - no straining to go, his belly was soft, and the poop was the proper consistency when he went. And when he went -- oh, it was definitely 2 weeks' worth, every time! We would whisk him to the changing table at the slightest whiff of poop, and get him nekkid on the table. And we'd have a second and third diaper available for when the first one got full. And I still got very, very good at removing baby poo stains from clothing.

It was here, actually, that I got the courage to tell his doctor that, no, I don't need to bring him in when he doesn't poop for 4 days -- this is my kid, and this is his normal.

We did steer clear of the rice cereal, though when we started giving him solids - didn't want to slow things down further!

[Luann]

@Sarah V, you have me lol at the boob snake idea! I can relate. I agree with amberjee that oversupply is often left out of the discussion because so much attention (rightly so) is put on those having trouble with undersupply. It seems like gloating - it's not of course, but there is so much emotional pain and guilt about BF in general that the discussion gets loaded v. quickly.

I had oversupply and frequent plugged ducts. I too had been told "10 minutes per side" by someone. Eventually I figured out that 5 minutes on one side only was plenty. My body quickly adjusted to one feeding per side as well. We still nurse @28 months, once at wake up and once at bedtime. Lefty in the evening and Righty in the a.m. If the boy forgets to nurse in the morning, I swap them until we catch up. When I was pumping, I could always get 4 oz. more from Lefty.

In the first month or so my chronic engorgement was originally diagnosed as mastitis. The nurse said use heat to soothe, when ice packs were what I needed just to back things off. I'd get stablized and the boy would have a growth spurt and my supply would skyrocket again. I actually looked into milk bank donations at one point because I was producing so much, but couldn't give because I'd had a transfusion after giving birth. Still feel sad about having more milk in the freezer than my son could ever drink.

FWIW the best remedy for me & plugged duct problem was hot baths, massaging the breast under water for relief, and making sure to get plenty of flax-sourced omega3s (advice from Moxie that helps lots of other things too.)

Another symptom/result of oversupply that nobody tells you about: green poop. From 3 weeks to 3 months my son's poop was almost always green, Kermit green. Doctor and NPs said not to worry "If it's not red, white, or black, it's okay." I would periodically search the internet or baby books for answers (usually at 4:30 am after everyone fell back asleep except me, one of the things I *don't* miss about having a little baby around.) The only place I ever saw a reference to it was here at Ask Moxie, thank God. Once again saving my sanity.

[wealhtheow]

@Brooke--I wouldn't have been able to figure that out, so thanks! No oversupply problems here, in fact @ 18 months we are a l m o s t done weaning. Nursing from one side every other morning, so mama needs to help the little man wind up in the next week or two, because my body is not loving such infrequent feedings.

[hedra]

No time to read, again (still)...

Oversupply first time, but juuuust at the margin. Grew like crazy at first (and slowed WAY DOWN in the later part of the first year), nursed a lot, but had normal stools, at least.

Oversupply second time so bad we had the horrible diarrhea thing. Block feeding worked.

Oversupply with twins. Uh. How do you block feed with twins????????? AHHHHH! You can't. Best I could do was swap sides (by baby) every 24 hours, so their different feeding patterns would shift things back and forth (one at more than the other), and hold my breath until 5 months, when they finally caught up to my supply... sigh.

I did worry about the sudden brakes on the growth after 6-9 months, but reading up learned about oversupply and growth patterns, so I could ease up on the worry and fret. He gained 1-1.5 lbs a week in the first three months (EACH WEEK), and in the entire three MONTHS from 9-12 months, he only gained three ounces. Totally freaked me out.

Just an FYI - even if you didn't have oversupply the first time, ON AVERAGE, supply goes up by 30% for the second child. Fortuantely, the higher your first-baby supply, the less it goes up for the next go, and the lower it was the first time the more it goes up. But still, average increase of 30% is worth being VERY aware of signs of oversupply for second babies!

For what I thought I 'caused'... I forget a lot that developmental stages run more than I think. I'll get into a disregulation stage or a rough year (like, seven years old) and be part-way in, feeling crazy and frustrated and worried and angry, and only after I've been angry and me, them, and everyone for a bit, I'll realize that it is not my fault - and it isn't their fault, either. That's the kicker for me - I'm okay with it being not all on me, but I end up putting more of it 'on them' as a result (why are you being so RUDE! Wait, that's developmentally normal, never mind!). I have to remind myself that 95% of everything is stuff they'll grow out of... heck, I remind my kids of that on each other, you'd think I'd remember it myself. But it still catches me by surprise some days.

[ACJ]

WARNING: Bald-faced post hijack

So BF 5month old son is broken. Gas of a 75 year old man with a diet of sauerkraut and draft beer; rather regular (tho' still minimal) spit up maybe 2 out of 5 feedings; no poop for days (4, 5?) at a time; persistant peripheral cyanosis around the mouth (attributed to gas at birth by midwife); sleep worsening all the time (bed at 7, up at 1 & 4 has turned into bed at 7, up at 11, 1, 3, 4, 5:30).

Each on it's own, totally fine. Even sleeping (4 month sleep regression, right?). But he wakes up SO uncomfortable, the gas is shocking and I just think something is amiss. Oh, and teething.

Anyway, he is on a diet of breastmilk, gripe water & tylenol and I am doing my best to keep him and his sister alive to at least her 2nd birthday but I swear in the name of all things holy, this could be my last straw.

Any ideas or solves???

And sorry to the OP - the early days are hard enough without problems like these. And mothers who steal your HELP ME thunder...

[Brooke]

@ACJ--Have you tried giving up dairy? When I did (at 3 months, same week I went back to work, don't recommend that) it helped a ton.

Babe spat up all the time, had a lot of gas, held his legs rigid, and would cry a lot at night.

I really wish I'd done it sooner. He was SO MUCH happier. Within a week he slept a 7.5 hour stretch (of course, he only did that once, but we did get into a much better overnight pattern). The spit-up disappeared. His pooping become more regular (he used to have little streaks often, but was totally irratic with pooping otherwise). He also stopped needing to be burped after feedings.

It could be something else, but giving up (major) dairy was a miracle for us. I never needed to check labels, but no milk, yogurt, cheese, etc. The good news is that at 7 months I can eat some and he's fine.

[ACJ]

@Brooke - gave up milk early on because friend said it may help with baby acne. It totally did. I did keep cream in coffee and milk in tea and cheese. Perhaps I need to commit more completely? Ugh. Coffee has been my salvation and it's only drinkable with cream. But then sleep... sleep would be nice too.

Does this mean if we cave and go formula that he has to have soy formula?

[alisha]

Since we're on the overall topic of breastfeeding, I thought I'd chime in with something I discovered somewhere on the web (maybe I read it here?) I had many clogged, painful ducts for the first half year of nursing. Most consultants I spoke to mentioned massage, heat, etc, but nothing was helping. My baby also had lots of gastric distress and the infamous green poops. I eventually started taking lecithin supplements from whole foods, and I never had a duct problem again. Apparently the lecithin, found in many foods, acts as an emulsifier to thin the milk. Perhaps it is just coincidence and my supply was changing on its own, but for 6 more months of nursing I was pain free. Thought I'd throw that out there for anyone struggling. This site is such a haven!

[Charisse]

@ACJ, we found simethicone (the stuff in Mylicon) really helpful for gas. It doesn't enter the bloodstream, just breaks up small bubbles so that they can be expelled. Also, if I put Beano (the enzyme stuff) on my food so that I would metabolize the gas-causing compounds better, that seemed to help Mouse. In our case, it was just an issue when I ate the usual things that gave me gas (broccoli, beans, cabbage, artichokes, real spicy food). But I don't know about the super-stinky gas, that sounds more concerning to me.

The no pooping for 4-5 days can be normal for an EBF baby if the poop that then comes out is of normal consistency.

But all together it might worry me too--still, give the Mylicon a try for the symptoms while you're working on it. We found it a godsend and still use it on occasion (Mouse is 5 now and doesn't really get gas pain, but she can't seem to sleep with a gassy tummy so we'll be looking at her and going "wtf, why are you still chattering away at 10:30 after you've been in bed for an hour...ohhh wait a minute, you had a bean burrito and an artichoke and all the garlic bread you could get your hands on"--quick dose and a few poots and she goes down).

@oversupply people, I am slightly jealous! Not because of undersupply but just because the concept of a baby nursing in 7 minutes is wild to me. Mine (who still gained fast and all) used to nurse for 45 minutes at a time until she was close to 6 months old--she was on the boob 8 or 9 hours a day.

[Erin]

To all of you with oversupply: I also had oversupply, and once I had filled my freezer with milk, I couldn't bear to dump it down the drain. So I did something with it - I became a Milk Donor. It was fabulous - of course required effort and commitment, but it wasn't terrible, just an extra pump a day and filling the containers they sent me. I could give over 100 oz a month. Donor milk goes to babies in NICU whose mothers can't express or whose milk hasn't come in yet. If you have oversupply, and especially if you are a SAHM (not necessary but does make it easier) please consider this amazing program. You can make a huge difference in a preterm baby's life!

(I posted on my experience as a milk donor over at thebreastfeedingexperience.)

www.hmbana.org

[Priscilla]

I had oversupply; I could have fed twins. Spiderman was a big boy at birth; almost 9.5 lbs. too. At the hospital, he was hijacked by the NICU because his APGAR was 3. He wasn't allowed anything orally until 18 hrs. post-deliv. & they required a bottle. Then he BF great! Then the NICU nurse gave him a bottle & for the next feeding, a delay in shift change meant he was too overwrought for BF. By the third attempt, he was done with BF and wanted a bottle. The NICU released him at midnight (32 hours after deliv.). I think he was so tired from getting poked & prodded (dextrose sticks every hour in the heel) in the NICU that he wanted to sleep so he only nursed about every 3 hours for the next day. Then the pediatrician comes in a yells at us for not feeding him enough. We could barely keep him awake to nurse.

When we got home, we got onto a good schedule, then the 1-wk growth spurt hit. OMG. nursing every hour for 14 hours. My MIL said that if he cried, I didn't have to feed him. Huh?!!? Bilious poop & everything. He put on 2.5 lbs in a month.

At 2-months, I went to a BF support group run by a medical doctor who is a LLC. She said I had oversupply. Who knew? I only went because my nipples still hurt. I began block feeding for FOUR hour periods & only pumped the odd-side to relieve pressure. Apparently, I was pumping too much. 7 oz. in 5 min. is too much. Feels good but feeds the problem.

Then it got worse. Spiderman would latch on, take a couple of sucks, come off wailing in agony, suck a bit, come off and SPIT OUT a mouth full of milk. I was changing my breast pads every hour. (After an 1 1/2 I could feel a let-down regardless of if I was with Spiderman or not.)

The lovely Dr. LLC suggested that problems were worse than she thought. BTW, I was THE ONLY MOM AT THE BF GROUP WITH THIS PROBLEM. I felt bad for the other moms but I was crying too. So I had to BF lying flat on my back tummy-to-tummy with Spiderman in addition to 4-hr. block feeding. This helped a lot. Of course, with all the spitting out of unneeded milk, we always needed to take baths. I started getting more sleep this way. I would roll towels under my arms and sleep with the little one locked in my arms on my chest and I just let him nurse all night long on one side. I also had to take several doses of sage oil & pepperment which help reduce milk supply.

At 4 months, he was 18 lbs. By then, I was able to nurse in an upright position and he slept in his crib waking 2-3 times per night.

Nursing lying down made my PPD worse because I felt imprisoned. I could only nurse lying down, not something to do at the mall and it was quite messy.

So I eventually compounded my problems. He was on his way to being a better sleeper (waking 1x/night) when we had him co-sleep with us at 8 months due to construction in the house. By the time he got back into his crib, I started back to work. Bam. He was 9 months old and waking up 5 times a night. I think he got used to sleeping with me again and he just turned 2 and I still haven't gotten him out of my bed. I can't give up BF because he has a milk allergy and I'm the only good fats/proteins he gets. He tolerates Rice milk. sort of.

But, we are surviving. He is two and weighs only 28 lbs.

[LouLou]

First time mama with oversupply here. Unlike some of the comments I have never had the spraying milk when baby releases the nipple, but my boy has gained almost a pound a week since birth: (7#10oz at birth, now 18# at 12 weeks) and has overwhelmed us with diaper changes, sometimes 15 per day. He nurses for 5-10 minutes, always on just one side, b/c when I got a plugged duct early on that was the suggestion so I've stuck to it. Our trouble is that he is so UNHAPPY while nursing, pulling off and crying and squirming and coughing and gagging and spitting up... god it is just traumatic for both of us. And his DR suggested I was feeding him too often, but of course b/c of the foremilk/hindmilk imbalance he is really HUNGRY after 90 minutes. Block feeding doesn't seem to be reducing my supply one bit, and I've tried going 12 hours (yes, 12) on one side and still they are like firehoses. And get really engorged during the night.

Anyway, the question I have for people is this: Everything I've read suggests that this problem "works itself out" around 3 months - so do I bother to take any further action or do I just try not to cry when he cries and hope he won't wean in protest before this resolves itself. Suggestions?

Many thanks. My awesome doula sent me the link to today's site, I've never visited before.

[LouLou]

And thanks to pennifer for the info about swimming. I've been actually TRYING to increase my arm strength and have been swimming to do so, guess I'll cut that back for awhile. Wow, who would have guessed the breast would be so TOUCHY!

[Brooke]

@ACJ--I never completely went dairy free (half and half in coffee and butter with toast), but had to completely give up cheese since it was the biggest culprit. I could cheat a little with baked goods, but a little cheese and he felt it. Oddly goat cheese seemed to be worse than cow's milk cheese.

[LouLou]

Oops, I mean Summer Frace. Sorry, read it wrong.

[bethp]

Just like this website is such a godsend - so are breastfeeding support groups! I rec'd so much help from a great LC who led our local group and the other mothers, and the yahoo group they have. Priceless.

For anything else, my go to breastfeeding source was (still is - they have nutrition and illness info, too) kellymom.com. Highly recommend it for any issue - there is balanced information with source links and source articles to back up everything and help to make your own decisions about what's right for your baby and family!

[Christiana]

I knew I had a very healthy supply - bordering on over supply - but this might explain why my daughter always wanted to eat every 90 minutes! I always did the only one breast thing, though I switched back and forth every other time unless she ate more frequently than 90 minutes. It also allowed for a really easy way to pump off extra so that I could stock up for when I went back to work eventually (something that never really happened). But it was really nice to have that stock in the freezer!

[zenjen]

Moxie, you are such a life saver. I had this EXACT problem with my son when he was a newborn (he's 2 yr 4 mos now, weaned at 20 mos). I remember scouring through your blog and then the kellymom website to finally get information on what to do. Block nursing also really helped me with oversupply and with the constant, all-day-long nursing issue. It was such a relief!!

[jbq+h]

May I ask what could be considered a silly question?

With my first daughter (8 lbs 1 oz at birth), she nursed 15-20 mins on each side as a newborn--5 mins total by 3 months through 20 months. My second daughter (9 lbs, 1 oz) nursed 8-10 mins total as a newborn, and at 16 months goes 5-8 mins total. (With #2 I did block feeding for a few months because the oversupply was choking her. Yay, block feeding!)

The question is this--is it likely that if I were to have baby #3, he or she would nurse as quickly as #2 or is it possible that s/he would go back to the 40 mins sessions?

I ask as I have idea how to keep other children occupied for 40 minutes while tied to the baby. Ten minutes--easier. Forty minutes ten times a day is so daunting that it's one of the things holding me back from even thinking about a third baby. (I didn't worry about it when going from one to two--but now that I know what having more than one baby is like, I am overwhelmed at the thought of it.)

Thanks!

[Kate]

@ jbq+h: totally no way to know. At LLL the saying goes "Every baby is a new beginning." #3 could have a completely different style from #1 OR #2, something that you never in all your parenting years dreamed of (good or...not so good).

[LindaC]

For Pricilla, I had an oversupply issue, and both of my children had reflux. We had the same scenario you described...coughing, choking...gagging. Both girls were preemies, but the first also has a slightly exaggerated gag reflex. None of these problems were "diagnosable" by the pediatrician since neither child spit up consistently or voluminously; I strongly advocated for trying reflux meds and they have helped. We have experimented with Mylecon and Gripe Water, which also helped. I have had to do the block feedings, and now baby usually feeds two times on one side and then one time on the other, b/c the breasts have different capacities and milk flow.

[LindaC]

Oh, and I also had to give up dairy. And very acidic food - like citrus fruits and tomato sauce.....

[pnuts mama]

i self diagnosed oversupply (never an issue w/ the pnut) with the bean after he had regular green poop...just another data point on that for anyone who keeps opening up the diaper expecting the yellow curdy mustard and finding that frothy green stuff. started the block feeding, stopped taking fenugreek at that point and it took some time (also cut back on my dairy) but it went back to normal after a while.

also, i don't have "oversupply" in the sense that i produce so much it's spraying or i can pump extra ozs or anything- it was just too much foremilk before he'd fill up. which is different than having just too much milk in general. i wish i had the endless supply of milk, would have made pumping much easier.

also, fwiw, the pnut was a "camp out at the boob for an hour" eater and the bean is a "make it quick, lady, i got things to do (even if it's sleep)" eater. so, all kids are different. great job, angel!

ps. @wealhtheow- it's so nice to see you around here again!

[Julie]

Um yes. With #1 oversupply and a forceful letdown combined with my son's low muscle tone in his upper body made breast feeding incredibly difficult and traumatic for me. I had no clue what was going on, and by the time he was 3 months old I had given up on my expectation of having this blissful time to connect with my baby. I did not get the "happy, drunk sailor" baby after feedings - my sailor was an angry and ill-tempered drunk prone to swearing and chair-throwing. I tried block feeding, but that didn't really help resolve the issue because I did not know about his low muscle tone until he was like a year old....so I decided to pump and feed exclusively with a slow flow bottle, which was bliss after 3 months of these battles. And btw, pumping and giving bottles isn't that much work when you are producing 6 oz on each side in a mere 10 minutes of pumping. A pain in the ass to haul the pump everywhere and to wash all the parts, but like many unpleasant aspects of parenting, once you accept it it's not that big of a deal anymore. It just is what it is.

With #2, I knew what to expect and what to look out for, plus he does not have the muscle tone issues #1 had. Most of the time he can handle it fine. The only difficulty I have these days (almost 4 months old) is that at the beginning of the week I have to work a bit harder to pump a full feeding - and often have to pump both sides simultaneously to get a full feeding....by the end of the week I'm gushing again and he's struggling to keep up. It's amazing how the body adjusts in so little time....but it does. So if you're a working oversupplier like me, be mindful of over-stimulating your supply with pumping during the day and adjust accordingly with block pumping.

Also keeping an eye on the poop - when it's green you know you have an imbalance of fore/hind milk and you need to make some adjustments.

Finally, breastfeeding is f*cking HARD. So be nice to yourself.

[caramama]

@LouLou - I've not had this issue, but I would suggest continuing to try the block feedings. Also, I've heard others suggest pumping prior to feeding so that you get a lot of that oversupply foremilk out of the way so when you feed him he'll get more hindmilk and it might go easier. I'm not sure how that would affect the supply/demand issue resolution. I wish I had more to help, but that's all I've got.

[CaliBoo]

I was feeling all nostalgic for the breastfeeding days, but these posts are helping to bring back the stuff I think I mentally blocked (for my own sanity). I had what could generally be considered oversupply at the beginning as well, which created a bunch of latching problems and the associated raw/sore/etc nipples. I remember that DD used to make some sort of funny noise but can't remember exactly what it was. One of the coping tricks I used was to not latch her until after I had let down, just kept a towel handy to catch the first gush. Messy, but it solved a couple of issues for me.
And YES YES YES to the bfing support groups, keep searching until you find one that is right for you. The local LLL group was *not* right for me, and I think I would have felt really bad for not fitting in with them if I hadn't already gone to the hospital-based group and loved it there. Mad shout-out to Kay the LC!

[in_ca]

We're still having oversupply issues with our 5 mo: reflux/copious spit up, waking every hour to eat, gaining like crazy, yup. We do block feed and I avoid dairy (except half-half in coffee). I will say that block feeding helped tremendously when I learned about it at 8 weeks.

'Been weaving in and out of "the fog" of PPD due to the issues above (namely lack of sleep); this post and comments have given me the nudge I need to visit LLL for a more holistic approach and perhaps alleviate some of the guilt. Thanks to all.

[hush]

Amen, @ Julie, breastfeeding is effin' hard!! And I'm here to say it's ok if it doesn't work out exactly like we planned. Formula is good, too, and my son with FTT would have died without formula supplementation. So kudos to both those who breastfeed, and to those who couldn't for whatever reason - and to me, pretty much ALL reasons are valid, especially those of the "it made my life a living hell" variety.

Amen, @Sheila, nipple shields are lifesavers for those of us with flat nipples. And I agree, the standard LC advice to wean off of them ASAP doesn't always fit every situation.

Amen, @Erin, milk donors like you deserve many, many thanks for your invaluable service.

Oversupply vs. Undersupply - let's face it, neither is a very happy, secure place for any of us to be, and this need not be yet another source of fodder for the media-invented "mommy wars." That's why I love Moxie!

[clucey]

I had oversupply with my son (now 2.5 years) and actually called the Parenting Center where I took my "Breastfeeding Class" and told the instructors my story and asked them to mention it in their classes.

As all of the above have mentioned, all focus was on UNDER SUPPLY and I was at a loss until I went to an amazing LC (who should be getting paid a million dollars) and diagnosed me.

At least others can learn from me!

[abby]

I'm not sure if this has been posted, but poop can also be a sign of a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance (which is a symptom of the oversupply)

If your baby's poop is watery and greenish, rather than a bit like thinned out mustard with 'seeds' (this is the pooped out fat) then it could be this as well.

[abby]

sorry, should have done these together. I was a LLL leader, and oversupply is super common, especially since it is misdiagnosed as other things.

Reflux is the biggie, b/c babies cry during the feedings, so often they get put on something like zantac, even though it doesn't address the real issue.

also, really gassy babies, since they need to burp or fart out the air they gulp while trying to deal with the heavy flow.

[Brooke]

The seeds are the pooped out fat?! I always wondered. Thank you for adding that.