Let's Breastfeed

Yes, this is a tricky little problem as your body will control the flow of milk, not your baby. Usually a baby will learn to cope with a fast flow, but if your baby can’t manage a speedy let down, you may find yourself in a pickle.

A fast let down is not the same as an over supply problem, so whilst tweaking your feeding pattern may help a little, it is not going to resolve the problem completely.

So let’s have a look at some of your options.

• Spray away. Allowing your baby to come off the breast and your first let down to spray into a muslin instead of baby’s mouth has helped many moms. Pop a muslin over your breast to catch the milk and pop baby over your shoulder at the same time for a touch of winding. When both the baby and your spray has calmed down, return to breastfeeding. Repeat as needed.
• Emergency stop. Applying pressure with the palm of your hand to a spraying breast (over the nipple) will stop the milk flow in its tracks. This will give your baby a moment to recompose before latching on for round 2.
• Put a lid on it. Using a nipple shield will break the flow of milk and generally slow things down, giving baby more time to drain the milk without swallowing an ocean of air at the same time.
• Going bottle. Your baby will be able to cope and regulate the milk flow from a bottle more readily. Some moms find introducing a bottle feed in the mornings when supply is highest (therefore fiercest) reduces the amount of wind baby swallows and sets them both up for a good day. Naturally, if you have missed a breastfeed, you will need to express.
• Apply the hand brake. Reducing your supply slightly can often help reduce the speed of your let down and result in your flow being more managable for baby.

I have found that a fast let down is usually related to the size of breast but this is not always the case.

Make sure that you wind your baby properly at each feed – whatever you are doing, add one an additional 5 minutes and introduce a winding aid if your efforts are not resulting in burps and a relaxed baby.

Much love,

Geraldine

This entry was posted on Monday, July 13th, 2009 at 12:08 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.