Oversupply and tandem nursing

[Nekawa Ma]

We've got too much of a good thing here.

My dd had issues with my forceful letdown/oversupply until she was 3 months old, so I recognize the symptoms in my ds (he's 5 weeks old). He's gassy, has reflux-like hiccups and burping, fusses at the breast, pulls off constantly, has green poops, etc. The poor guy is just awfully uncomfortable most of the time.

Now, I know the thing to do is to try to reduce my supply. But I am currently also nursing my 21 month old dd. She asks to nurse really frequently since ds was born, and she always nurses until I'm empty. So my supply is HUGE right now. I do try to put ds to whichever breast dd has most recently emptied, but they fill back up pretty fast and I just don't always have a "tame" breast to offer to him.

I'm leery of pumping/expressing before ds nurses to relax the flow, because I really, really don't want to further increase my supply.

We do use the positions suggested on kellymom.com to try and use gravity to our advantage. I hate to say it but it doesn't help much.

Weaning dd is not an option.

Has anybody been here that can offer some advice? I'll bet that it gets better on its own around 3 months like it did for dd, but I just hate to watch ds suffer for another month and a half.

[detroitgirl77]

NAK. i am currently tandem nursing a 27 month old son and a 2 month old son. i have an oversupply as well--i have to go back to work in less than 3 weeks, and i already have 600 oz of milk in the freezer, and thats from only using a hand pump to relieve engorgement.

What helped me was to assign each kid their own boob. that way i didn't worry about the older child draining my boobs out. this helped with the green poopies- now its the mustardy yellow. i don't have to pump as much, except at night since my oldest is night weaned.

[Ruthla]

Maybe give them each one breast? This way, Leftie can "quiet down" to meet DS' needs, and Righty can have a huge supply to meet DD's needs. You might end up lopsided, but I somehow doubt that's a priority right now.

[Nekawa Ma]

Thanks! I don't know why it hadn't occurred to me to give each baby their own breast. I remember reading that many tandeming mamas do that in Hilary Flowers' book.

Since I had oversupply and forceful letdown with my first baby, I don't know if ds's breast will calm down enough on its own this time around. But it can't hurt to try it! And like Ruthla said, lopsidedness is really not an issue for me right now.

Depending on how long it takes each side to figure out the new nursing scheme and adjust its supply, hopefully I'll be posting back with our results soon.