Please help-FTM with over active letdown?

midwestFNP · August 2014

Hi ladies,

I had my baby girl a week ago today! Breastfeeding has been going great so far and my plan was to EBF for the first month and then start to pump as well to build up my supply before I go back to work. I'm feeding every 2 hours or so and on demand. Trying to feed from each breast, etc. When it's time to nurse, it's like a pinhole in a water balloon. BM squirts out but if I put some pressure on my nipple it will slow a little so LO can latch on. My baby seems to get a little choked from the flow and starts coughing. She recovers fine but this is distressing to me. Is this normal or something she will catch up with as she gets bigger? Thanks in advance!

midwestFNP · August 2014

@casey78‌ Thank you-I will give that a try and checkout the link!

Lhageme85 · August 2014

Congratulations! Sounds similar to what we went through. For us it improved as my supply started to regulate and definitely as she got bigger. She is 6 months now and very rarely chokes. It probably was noticeably better around 6-8 weeks?

Definitely try the burp cloth suggestion above. Even though I wasn't a huge fan of having her latch more than necessary in the beginning, I would latch her, wait for letdown/her to start gulping or coughing, unlatch, wait for the spray to slow down, then relatch to finish the feeding. If you are using a pacifier, you may need it to keep her calm while waiting for the flow to slow down. I had trouble with fully laid back nursing until she got a little bigger but nursing in the recliner helped. Also trying to position baby as upright as possible was helpful.

Good luck and keep up the good work!

TheBorg7of9 · August 2014

My DS2 is 7 months. I crack up when he unlatches and I'm distracted then I look down and realize he's getting sprayed all over his little frowning face. Lol

midwestFNP · August 2014

Thank you all for the advice! Definitely going to give these suggestions a try!

flcl · August 2014

Congrats OP! You've gotten great advice from PPs. I had to do the burp cloth bit for awhile until I got my OS issue under control. That, coupled with LO getting bigger helped a lot. GL!

Amores0121 · August 2014

I also have an oversupply/overactive letdown. I found that only using one breast per feeding is best. This will help slow down milk production. I still have a crazy let down and usually pull LO off a few times in the beginning. I also lay back to help with gravity though I haven't really noticed much of a change in his gasping/gulping as he eats. He's very noisy and I'm sure it's because the milk is coming out so fast. If I am very engorged, I hand express a bit first. LO is almost 3 weeks. It is getting better but still hard b/c the gulping causes him extra gas.

Knottie30597254 · August 2014

Hand express a little bit and will not happen again!

midwestFNP · August 2014

So far I have tried just nursing one breast per feeding and using a burp cloth to suppress the flow a little in the beginning. This is helping. Should I be pumping the other breast? I hate to waste BM that I could be stashing but I don't want to contribute to the problem either.

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Please help-FTM with over active letdown?

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