HELP OVERPRODUCING

alikins7927

LO is almost 10 weeks and I might sound a little ungreatful here   but I am producing a lot of milk with a very heavy letdown.  Everytime I nurse him (EBF) my letdown comes so fast he chokes on it and I have to have an extra towl for the other breast because it squirts out like crazy.    I have tried to pump a little before he nurses and I have about 50 oz of milk frozen (which I love in case of an emergency) because of that, but I would love to nurse him without giving him a bath in milk or using a towl for the other side.  I'm a mess by the time i'm done nursing.  I dont have him on a set schedule but he usually only nurses off one side because i'm so full all the time.  After nursing i can pump 4-6oz extra but try not to to regulate my milk.  If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.  TIA

Jessie0706

I've heard expressing some into a towel or bottle before feeding helps.. Also, you could look into these for your other breast when you're nursing: Milk Savers.

HTH! And, btw, I'm uber jealous! I'm trying to figure out ways to increase my supply! (One 'problem' is I'm EPing and not BFing...) Good luck!

haleymay18

I would quit pumping and go back to bfing exclusively.

Winter*Mommy

I had the exact same problem when I nursed DD... I did a few things and it fixed the problem.

-Keep a burp cloth handy and immediately after the letdown, unlatch DS and catch the spraying BM from both sides in the burp cloth until it stops free-flowing.  Then relatch him and nurse him.  Doing this over and over every single time until it doesn't happen will tell your body that its coming out too fast and to slow down.

-Nurse flat on your back exclusively for a few days.  Lay DS on top of you and latch him on so that he's laying on you and you are parallel to the floor.  I don't know why this works (something about going against gravity), but I read it on kellymom.com when I was having overactive letdown and it worked in about three days.

-Stop pumping before and/or after.  Just completely, cold turkey, stop.  The more you do it, even if its not after every feeding, you will tell your body that you didn't produce enough for the nursing session and you need more.  It will take about three days to make your body adjust.  When you pump before and/or after you nurse, that is the quickest way to tell your body to produce MORE milk... it will not help with overactive letdown and overproduction, but it will make it worse.

Hope that helps. 

thehimwithher

i agree with limit pumping but everytime i stopped cold turkey...i got mastitis.  be careful as this can be hard to fix (as it was with me) and i used the help of a lc b/c mine was so severe.

what FINALLY worked for me....benadryl and Green cabage leaves to breast several times daily for a few days.

you will like bfing SO MUCH more once you get this fixed! 

Han17nah39

I completely understand where you're coming from.  I had an oversupply too, and it's no fun at all (for you or your LO).  I JUST got mine under control, and it wasn't hard at all.  I tried the pumping a little bit before feeding LO, which helped him, but my body kept on overproducing.  Try kellymom.com and search for "oversupply" or "overactive letdown." I followed the advice on there and now BFing is SOOOO much better for me and LO!  My supply has regulated and it's incredible!  Good luck and really check out kellymom.com.  Tons of great advice on there! 

alikins7927

Great tips, thanks guys and i'm going to start tomorrow with some of the tricks... something has to work