Breastfeeding

Decreasing Oversupply & Maintaining Milk

My LO is 10 weeks and I feel like I'm in a weird limbo position. My son breastfeeds overnight and usually nurses every 2-3 hours. He will nurse between 8pm to 8-9am and he gets 4oz bottles of expressed milk during the day, again every 2-3 hours. I'm only pumping twice during the day (10am & 5pm) for 15 minutes each session, and I'm getting anywhere from 20-24oz daily. I'm struggling with oversupply and already have enough in the freezer to feel comfortable. I've read Sage tea helps, cabbage leaves etc. but haven't really believed the hype. The only advice I've read that I feel could work would be eliminating one of my daily pumps but my boobs are so engorged and painful that doesn't seem like the right answer either. If I don't pump by 5pm my boobs stay too full and LO won't empty a breast & he usually nurses for 20 minutes or so.

Anyone successfully decrease their supply to match their babies daily needs? What did you do?

Re: Decreasing Oversupply & Maintaining Milk

  • In my experience I did oversupply big time haha its a pain and a blessing at the same time but at 10 weeks it could be that your supply is still trying to find its happy place. Mine didnt subside until about 6 mo and at that point ds refused bottles and we just ebf. How many times a day are you nursing or is it just at night? Could be that your emptying to much when you pump maybe try and only pump for 5-10 minuts or only enough to release the pressure.
  • Does he not nurse at all during the day? Are you away from him?
    This early in the game I definitely wouldn't cut out a pumping or nursing session.... your body is trying to adjust and it's confusing to nurse every 2 to 3 hours during the night but only pump twice during the day. The oversupply and engorged feeling sounds completely normal :(
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  • delujm0delujm0 member

    I wouldn't cut a session or adjust until at least 3 months in.

     

    For me, I decided I wanted to get my oversupply under control at 6 months (I wanted a healthy freezer stash first).  At 4 months I cut the middle of the night pump (when DD slept through) and at 5 months I stopped pumping before I went to bed (which was about 3 hours after DD).  At 6 months, we went out of town for a week for the holidays, and so I tried to not pump at all and only nurse DD so that my body would get in line with her actual daily requirements.  I think I wound up pumping one boob on two occasions - one when she took an unusually long nap, and another one morning when she slept in a bit.  That took me from a place where I was making sometimes almost double what I needed to a more comfortable 0-5oz daily excess (which I used to further pad my freezer stash when I had extra, and to mix her baby cereal with instead of water).

     

    I wouldn't cut pump sessions if I were you...I'd just make them shorter.  Right now, at 10 months, I just cut down from 3 daily pumps + 2 nursing sessions down to 2 daily pumps + 2 nursing sessions.  As I've been cutting back I'm operating at about a 5-10oz deficit daily, but I'm ok with that at this point since I want to use up the freezer stash.  I won't cut out another pump session probably until 11-12 months, and then i'll go about cutting the pump out entirely (FREEDOM!).

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