Baby hates right breast

[cww]

Our daughter is almost 5 mos old, and my right breast has always been a lower producer than the left one (although I think it's actually normal and the left one has a bit of oversupply) - when I pump, I usually get only 2 oz from the right side, but can get 4-6oz from the left, and the left one often gets very firm and engorged between feedings.  The problem is that our daughter loves the left breast, but hates the right one, I'm guessing b/c that left breast basically pours tons of milk into her at a rapid clip, while the right one has a more normal flow rate.  So that the right one doesn't get even worse, I always try starting her on the right side, and keeping her there for as long as she'll tolerate, and then we go on to the left (which she rarely empties completely b/c it's so full), and then if I can, when she's relaxed and full, I try to put her back on the right one again; however, I don't think she's actually getting much milk out of the right side, and I'm concerned it's production is going down and down.  My left breast will actually be much visually larger than the right one most of the time.  But most of the time when I try to feed her on the right side, she fusses and pulls off and cries, so I don't want to push it too much and make BF stressful with her so that she starts to have bad associations. 

We've had a bunch of BF challenges (undiagnosed posterior tongue tie corrected at 3 mos) and BFing is still a bit painful, so I'm not nuts about the idea of extra pumping on the right side, but I could do it if necessary. 

I'm currently taking Fenugreek (started when she wasn't gaining before the tongue tie was corrected) and b/c the left breast seems to be suffering from some oversupply, I think I should try weaning off of it now, but the problem is that my daughter is so accustomed to the super fast flow of the engorged breast (I never had a low supply, but started taking it in the first place to just increase the flow rate to get more milk into her since she was having such trouble BFing before the tongue tie was corrected) that I'm super nervous that if I do that she will start flipping out and refusing to eat, since that's what she does on the "normal flow" breast now.  (I'm also nervous that my right breast will really slow down badly if I go off the fenugreek.)

Maybe I shouldn't even be worried about this, since she seems to be getting plenty of milk now and gaining well, but I'm worried that the right breast could just stop working at some point and then I won't be able to get my supply back on that side, and then maybe she'll start to have problems getting enough milk?

Anyone have any tips about how to get her to happily drink from the right side?  Or any knowledge about whether or not it's really a problem if she doesn't drink very much from the right side?

Thanks in advance for reading my post, and for taking the time to offer tips or experience with me!

[Taryn237]

My DD weaned to one side around a year... so it's not uncommon.  She would do the same thing and fuss if I tried to get her to nurse on the side that produced less.  I am fairly lopsided anyway so that didn't help much.  lol.  As long as she is gaining the only real issue is the lopsidedness.  You could always nurse on the right side with a supplemental nurser like the Medela SNS so you would still be getting the stimulation and she would be getting the milk like she is accustomed to.  Or just pump the right side while she is nursing on the left.

[cww]

Taryn237, thanks for the response.  I'm pretty sure I'm too lazy to pump just for the sake of improving my lopsided look (unless maybe I should be worried about uneven back strain or something?:)), so if it seems that it's not a concern in terms of my supply, I think we may just keep doing what we are doing...  (We just had her 5 mo appt today, and she gained a whole kg in the last month, so luckily weight gain definitely doesn't seem to be a problem anymore - I think she's still catching up from the slow weight gain pre-tongue-tie correction... :)

Thanks again for your response!

[CookAMH]

Glad she is gaining well :). With my DS (now 2) we had the same thing and by 6-7 mo he was exclusively only on the left and the right dried up. A couple months later, it was impossible to pump anything from it.

I have an 11 week old, struggling with weight gain, and we're heading down the same road again with one side vs the other side. I'm not sure how to change it unfortunately, so I don't have any help to offer. With DS, I wasn't interested in pumping to keep supply on a breast that he never even nursed from anyway. He could have gotten more milk over all - I have never produced 6 oz in a feeding for either of my children. With my daughter, 11 weeks, I'm not sure what approach to take.

[cww]

Just thought I'd post a quick update - this week I've noticed that if I nurse on the right side by lying on my right side she seems to nurse on that breast longer?  (Also, if she's sleepy and/or otherwise relaxed, she's more willing to nurse on the right side for an extended period of time.)  Just thought I'd share, since this seems to help a little...

[Ravin]

I have the same issue but reversed (my right produces more than my left), and night nursing is my main weapon to keep supply up on the left. I do subconsciously tend to hold DS on the right and it's often easiest to offer first, so I have to consciously focus on offering the off-side. My DD didn't do this so early and I wasn't pumping much in the early months; she did eventually wean to pretty much just the right side, but not until she was around 2 I think.

DS doesn't seem to mind nursing on the left usually, and tends to choke on the letdown on my right, so the preference seems to mostly be driven by my own habits rather than him.:b

[crunchy_mommy]

I had this issue for about 1.5 years (now, at almost 2.5, it's mostly evened out!!)

What I did was use the less-preferred side as a pacifier... like for middle-of-the-night comfort feedings, for ex., or really whenever he just wanted to suck. It ended up being that I used my right side all day and my left side all night (and occasionally still offered the opposite side based on supply fluctuations, his hunger cues, etc.)

I never lost all my milk in that side, like I said, they eventually evened out, probably because at some point after he turned 1, he started wanting both sides at each feeding.

I did find it helpful to get control of the oversupply on the other side. I still have plenty of milk... but I don't think there's anything wrong with keeping the oversupply if it's not causing you/your baby any issues!!