Nutritive and non nutritive sucking

[@llli*joe.s.mom]

I would get it longer than 10 days and I would do shorter blocks and to avoid the engorgement issues. Do two feedings (or until that time frame) on same side and then change. What you are trying to achieve is a happy medium. 8:30, 10:30 on same side and any other feedings before 1:30. 1:30 and anything else before 4:30 on the same side (try to make sure it's at least two) and then all your night time feeds on the same side hoping that by the time you are doing the dream feeds it's a lighter less disruptive flow.

You can also try hand-expressing a bit before you latch her onto the "fresh" (fuller) side, or unlatching her when she gets fussy and letting your milk stream into a towel or cloth diaper, and then trying again. My guess is that the fussiness is caused by OALD, rather than your oversupply as such, but it makes sense that your OALD would be worse when you've been trying to block feed and avoid feeding on one side for a while. I agree that you may want to back off the block feeding slightly, to reduce your engorgement - you want to GRADUALLY increase the length of the blocks. You may be slightly overdoing here. You do need to feel "full" for your body to get the message to make less milk, but you don't want to be painfully engorged. It's a tough line to walk sometimes. So maybe try feeding twice on each side and then switching? Or set a time to it - one breast, two hours.

I saw on your other post that you were considering taking BCP to reduce your supply. DON'T DO IT! When you are breastfeeding, your body is making hormones that help you lactate. Regular BCP contains enough estrogen that it can completely eliminate your supply, even if you have OS, and the change is not always reversible. It doesn't do that for everyone, but it's not uncommon. I don't think the risk is worth it. Block feeding is a better way to reduce your supply, and it's generally reversible - if you block feed too much and your supply goes down too much, you just have to nurse more frequently and it will come back up again.

[@llli*jah73]

I would get it longer than 10 days and I would do shorter blocks and to avoid the engorgement issues. Do two feedings (or until that time frame) on same side and then change. What you are trying to achieve is a happy medium. 8:30, 10:30 on same side and any other feedings before 1:30. 1:30 and anything else before 4:30 on the same side (try to make sure it's at least two) and then all your night time feeds on the same side hoping that by the time you are doing the dream feeds it's a lighter less disruptive flow.

Thanks for the advice, really appreciate it, beginning to feel like I have no option but to stop BF, hate seeing my babe so distressed! Bit confused, followed you up to 4.30pm, then do you mean feed on same side after that until 8.30am, don't think that is what you mean as other side would go 16hrs without feeding? Can you explain what you mean to do after 4.30pm please? If I go back to doing the 2 feeds each side, I will still be very engorged, I think, to get my boob in a state that she can feed on it, I would have to hand express about 2 or 3oz, this would only take a couple of mins. The problem is, I try to avoid taking off that much, as don't want to increase supply more but if I don't(which I haven't been) she won't feed, so I end up even more engorged and then it is impossible for her to feed! Help, I don't know the answer, just go round and round in circles. Express= more milk, don't express=can't feed, more milk=impossible to feed, not feeding= engorgement, engorgement=have to express, expressing= more milk, more milk= can't feed etc etc. thanks for advice re pill, I'm just desperate and don't know what to do as nothing seems to be working. Thanks

[@llli*jah73]

Also, forgot to ask, if I feed 8.30 and 10.30 same side, if she wanted to feed 12.30, you say use same side, then she may go till 3.30pm, so other side won't have been fed on since early morning and will be bursting, this is what really confuse me with bloc feeding! If she wants to go back on later in block, other side will go ages as she won't want to feed again hour later. Am I not catching on to this or what? Sorry for all the questions but it is really important to me to get this sorted, don't want to give up, my baby means too much!

[@llli*mommal]

Yes, if you use only one breast for several feedings in a row, the unused one is going to get really, really full. This is how you control oversupply, by allowing milk to build up in the breast. The longer a breast has unused milk sitting in it, the more the body gets the message that that breast is making too much milk. Eventually, that feedback from breast to brain results in lowered milk production. (Remember, milk production is controlled by the brain.)

Conversely, when a mom wants to increase supply, she should empty the breast as often as possible. The brain reads an empty breast as a sign of high need for milk, and makes more.

[@llli*jah73]

I understand that but my baby will not and it appears cannot feed on a breast that full, so I have to hand express ALOT for her to feed. I haven't been and she refused to feed from 9.30am till 6.30pm today. Surely if I express that much, it defeats the object of what I'm trying to do. Also it appears that keep feeding on one side at a time, stimulates it loads. My body does not seem to get the message to slow down production, is that possible? And what should I do? Thanks

[@llli*mommy2lilah]

I'm sorry you're going through this! Has she eaten yet today? Have you ever tried a pacifier for her to see if she can get her comfort nursing done there?

I think what people are saying is to feed twice on one side and then twice on the other, which I understand is causing you to have breast refusal issues.

When you were feeding from one side each time - so only block feeding per feeding - she was able to eat but you were getting really engorged? Is that right?

[@llli*jah73]

Thank you for replying. When I was doing one side per feed, initially (I had previously been doing 2 feeds a side) she seemed to cope, although seemed uncomfortable after feeding and not very settled. However, after a couple of days, my boobs seemed to catch up and just filled up quicker and quicker and we couldn't keep up, so then I was getting engorged really quickly and she just couldn't cope. She fed today at 6.30 pm, I hand expressed about an ounce and a half and then she popped on and off for 2hours, crying and refusing, but at the end had softened my boob a bit. I then fed her on the other side about an hour and a half later, before bed, I hand expressed about 2 oz and she fed and fell asleep. Both sides had been badly engorged all day!

[@llli*mommy2lilah]

I had trouble trying to stretch things out to 2 feeds per side when I was block feeding for the same reason, I would just get too uncomfortable. I don't think my oversupply was anywhere as bad as yours though. I read another mom talking about taking altoids to try and lower supply. Something else that might give you some relief is cold cabbage leaves in your bra, that's a common "old wive's" tale way to dry up your milk, but I don't think it dries it up, it probably just gives you some relief from the pain.

Are you eating oatmeal or anything else that is used to stimulate milk supply, do you think?

[@llli*mommy2lilah]

I am sure you have seen this website: http://kellymom.com/bf/got-milk/supp.../fast-letdown/

but I noticed that it says to apply cold compresses to inhibit milk. And it says something about using cabbage leaves for extreme cases.

http://kellymom.com/bf/concerns/moth...ement/#cabbage

[@llli*jah73]

Yes I am taking loads of peppermint and sage. Have been using cabbage leaves and cold compresses. How did you stretch out to 2 feeds per side?