Forceful letdown and Oversupply

[bella99]

So I have a question of the ladies who have had this issue.

My first daughter I had to use a nipple shield so although I had a forceful letdown, it didn't really affect her because she was draining the milk from the reservoir of the shield.  We dropped the shield at 11 weeks and by then she was able to handle the letdown easily.  With her, I started pumping once or twice a day to start building up a freezer stash for when I went back to work when she was around 6 weeks.  By the time I went back to work when she was 12 weeks, I already had about 150 oz frozen.

So on to now.  My second daughter is just over 2 weeks.  We haven't needed the shield this time around, so she's nursing straight from the breast and my letdown is clearly bothering her.  When my breasts let down she pulls off almost immediately, does lots of coughing and sputtering while nursing, and is very gassy with a lot of spit up.  The 20-30 minutes after nursing, she is clearly uncomfortable until her belly settles.

I am considering block feeding to help with the letdown and what might be a bit of oversupply, starting off in two hour increments.  

But my question is this.  I don't have any plans to start pumping regularly until she is 5-6 weeks when I want to start building up my supply.  Will the block feeding now affect my supply too much and what I get from pumping?   I obviously want to help her feel more comfortable, but I am nervous about negatively affecting my supply in regards to pumping.

[crystal_buffaloe]

I had a little oversupply at first, and when that finally was resolved (though block feeding) I was (naively?) disappointed in my reduced pumping output, though I've been reassured that what I get now pumping is "normal." Filling up those bottles quickly and easily while pumping is the ONLY thing I miss about oversupply, though.

[PatioGardener]

I had over supply for about 3 months, and worked hard to control it. I can still pump 4 oz in about 8 minutes with a hand pump from one side, so my 10-hour a side block feeding hasn't damaged my supply at all. I did have MASSIVE oversupply though, so results may vary! For what it's worth, I didn't pump at all until baby was 6 weeks old, and then only because he had to be hospitalized for a bit and just could not handle the let down, so I would pump then feed from the (slightly less full) breast.

We also nursed upright (me slightly reclined) or side-lying, which really helped DS cope.

Good luck!