North Carolina Babies

BF ? - Letdown

We have been having a few problems lately with letdown.  I am not as "fully loaded" as I used to be, so it is taking a little longer to let down and Caroline is getting mad and frustrated about it to the point where she gets so worked up that she won't even try anymore.

I have tried warm washrags, pumping, etc. and nothing really seems to make it go faster.

This happened with Kylie too (thought it was at about 4 months for her) and I made the mistake of just giving her a bottle when she would get so mad and it led to the end of BFing eventually.  I pumped for 3.5 months to make it to 7.5 months because she just flat out refused to nurse.  

I do NOT want this to happen to Caroline, so I did not give her bottles.  She went 8 hours on F, Sa, and Su morning before she would finally nurse.  I called the Dr. and they said there was nothing else I could do and as long as she had wet diapers (she did) then she would eat when she was ready.  I just hate it.

I guess this is more of a vent than anything, but if you have any amazing let down techniques, I would love to hear them. 

Re: BF ? - Letdown

  • I don't know the answer, but I would talk to an LC for help, or maybe even a LLL leader.  I don't know that doctors have all the breastfeeding education that LCs have (and FWIW, I'd make sure to see an IBCLC if you can). 

    Here is some info on Kellymom: https://www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/letdown.html

  • Ugh, how frustrating! Letdown issues are a pain.

    I wouldn't call it an "amazing technique," but sometimes when Nolan starts pulling on and off because the milk isn't coming down, I will press down and squeeze so a little comes out and put him back on. I think being able to smell/taste just a little makes him more willing to be a little more patient and work harder for it. GL and HTH!

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  • You are a kellymom search genius.  I looked for it over the weekend and could not find what I was looking for.  It is great information.

    I do have a call into my LC and she is IBCLC.  I am just waiting to hear back from her.

    Thanks for the advice.  She did actually eat as normal this AM, so that made me really happy.  She had a cold and was stuffy, so maybe that was part of it.

    I just *really* want to make it to a year this time, so I get nervous/upset when things are not going great and that makes it worse, like the article says, it creates a cycle. 

  • I know what you mean about getting really anxious when things aren't going great.  BFing was SO important to me that it really upset me when we had any issues at all.

    And for the kellymom searches, I just google "kellymom" and whatever the issue is I need info on.  So I googled "kellymom" and "Letdown" for that page.  Kellymom itself is a PITA to search, but google does a good job of finding the info if you search for it that way!  HTH!

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