May Mamas With The OAL...

[mamacatsbaby]

What techniques are you using to curb your enthusiastic letdown? My poor baby is gassy, fussy, can't eat a lot of the time w/o choking 1st, sometimes even when we're side-lying.

I've started giving him the same side 2-4 times until that side seems fairly empty.

I don't think I have oversupply. I don't spray or anything, although I did get him in the eye the other day. I had to relatch him and when I grabbed my breast milk shot out. But this doesn't happen too often and only if I grab the boobie. And it seems to only be the one on the right side where that happens. But he chokes on both. And also the opposite side of whatever side I'm nursing on drips a ton, making quite the mess.

Do you guys nurse until a side seems empty? Do you just do hours of blockage? What all's working for you or has worked for you in the past?

I'm trying to find out all kinds of info about this and would like the May Mamas opinions. I'm trying everything I can think of to relieve this discomfort for my little guy and I'm sure that this is a contributing factor if not [U]the[U] reason that he's so uncomfy.

[mamacatsbaby]

Ack! All I can say is no flippin' wonder my babe is choking! I was nursing him a little bit ago and have been expressing also so he can get more hindmilk (apparently I've got tons of foremilk) and egad, the milks coming out in rivers!

[Momto1and1ontheway]

: I've got the same issues with my ds (gassiness, fussiness, won't stay latched on more than 7-10 minutes, etc..). I'm curious to see what responses you get since we had similar issues wth dd and she ended up having reflux (not that this is what I necessarily think is happening with our fussy babies )

[Peppamint]

I would stop the pumping asap... that will make things worse unfortunately- doesn't sound like you need any stimulation to make more milk. I would keep up the block nursing and see if that seems to help.

LilyPadz really work IMO... they keep the nipple pressed in so I don't leak from the other side anymore while dd is nursing.

I'm actually not doing block nursing right now because dd cluster nurses and then takes a long nap, but I did block nursing with ds and it worked well.

Let us know how it's going! Gotta go, dd's nap is over and she's hungry!

[peypeymama]

My OAL is finally starting to relax a bit. I've been having to press a prefold to one boob while dd nurses from the other.

I just wanted to : what busybusymama said about stopping the pumping asap. Nursing is a supply & demand situation. The more you pump AND nurse the more supply you will have... which will leave you having to pump just to relieve the pressure.

You might try (if you are not already) nursing from only one side each feeding. Your supply is obviously not an issue and you can make sure DC is getting fore & hind milk.

[mamacatsbaby]

Whoops! I should have been a little more specific!

I'm not pumping, as that seemed like a disaster waiting to happen with this whole issue, like you guys have said.

I would let DS nurse till I felt letdown then I would hand express some of the foremilk off then relatch him once it seemed to calm down a bit.

Do you guys think that that would have kind of the same outcome of creating more milkies as pumping?

So I block nursed all day yesterday and have had some success already. Which I certainly wasn't expecting so soon. We went to the Jazz Festival here in the park and DS only choked twice, and not even that much. Yay! Then when we got home, I was in a slight reclining position and he didn't choke at all on either side! It was great. And the leaky faucets seem to have subsided.

I'm going to go back to trying to nurse him on just one side per feeding and see if things stay on track. I was doing that before and he would pop off of one breast and I'd think he was done with that one and wanted more as he would keep rooting around so I'd give him the other. A lot of times he would fall asleep at the other boobie after just starting , and I think this may be where the whole thing started to get even worse with the leaky nipples etc. I'm thinking it was the fast flow that was causing him to pop off before he was actually done.

Before the whole gassy/fussy issue blew up I wasn't too worried about things. I figured that they would level off soon and that DS was getting enough hindmilk as we weren't really getting the frothy, green poops and he wasn't too too gassy. His are usually bright yellow and seedy to tan and seedy. Maybe some greenishness thrown in there every so often. Crazy, silly mama...

He also isn't fussing as much anymore and is waaaaaay less gassy and his little tummy doesn't seem to be getting all crampy as much when he eats. : We all were up till about 3 in the morning the night before last as he was a crying, unhappy babe. Then he let rip this crazy long, monster poot along with a little poo and just like that, conk, fell asleep and slept like a log. I may have my slightly fussy, mostly happy and smiley little butterball of love back!

Thanks so much for the input ladies! Let's see if things stay on track!

[mamacatsbaby]

Oh, and he hasn't thrown up again yet! Sweet I tell ya. I'm hoping that will continue to be. Though he still likes to be burped.