Milky mess

[NZMummy]

Well, breast feeding is turning into a bit of a milky mess. I seem to have a huge amount of milk and a very powerful let-down. Poor little Jenna is struggling - generally she just slurps it everywhere leading to me and her getting soaked with milk. I think that she is refusing to latch on properly initially because she ends up choking on the fast flow. I don't feel all that comfortable feeding her anywhere other than at home because it is so hard to be discrete with her popping off, choking or spreading milk everywhere. At the moment I am using bibs and towels under her mouth to soak up most of the milk. I have had a couple of suggestions to try to help 1) of expressing off some milk first (hasn't made any difference - I think that it would have to be a huge amount to have much effect in my case) and 2) leaning backwards while feeding (which seems to be uncomfortable and even more messy). Any other suggestions? Anyone else have this sort of problem? I remember having a similar problem with my first - but I can't remember how long it took to settle down. Jenna is 9 weeks now.

[PBJ]

Well, for me I just express alot of milk first. But, you had that on your list. I will pray for you! Just maybe someone else has another idea!

[Cheeseburger]

I had the same problem. Katherine would gag/choke because so much milk would come out. It didn't even off until about 5 months!!

When let-down happened, I would bend over (so the milk would flow out with help from gravity), and have the milk flow into a receiving blanket. It usually soaked it straight through. Or if you want to save it, have a bottle or some kind of funnel ready and let the milk flow into there and freeze it.

I would also use block-feeding. Block feeding helped a LOT. I think it was that that finally regulated my supply as well. Block feeding is where you feed on the same breast for 'blocks' of time, instead of switching breasts each time. At first for me, I had so much milk, I fed her for 6 hours on the right breast, 6 hours on the left etc. You can even make it as much as 12 hours if you need to, like one breast during the day and one at night. That helps the baby get more hindmilk (the fatty milk), and it helps drain the breast better if you have a lot of milk.


i had problems feeding in public for the first 6 months because milk would just get everywhere. Now I can because it's not as messy. :)

you can also try taking some herbs that reduce supply?? I don't know how effective they are. I know eating oatmeal has *increased* my supply so stay away from that! LOL

http://www.kellymom.com/herbal/milksupply/herbs-oversupply.html

[SoapLady]

I had a huge milk supply and was miserable with it. Looking back, I wish I had taken herbs to decrease it. It was just too too much. I leaked everywhere just like you. (In fact, I once held an empty bottle over the breast he wasn't nursing just to see and I caught 1 oz in 20 min.) My clothes and bedding were always soaked. I was engorged almost all the time except right after he nursed. And I had an almost constant battle with plugged ducts and mastitis. When I think of bfing another baby, I dread it, but I think a lot of my problems were just oversupply. So many people have supply issues, that I wouldn't do much about it unless it's truly an oversupply. A lot of times your body adjusts after a few months but not always. If it continues and you're really miserable, herbs may be something to consider.

[Kensbev]

Have you considered pumping yourself empty a couple of times a day and donating the excess breastmilk to a mother's milk bank?

I have a major oversupply, and I've hosed my babies down quite a bit, especially when they're newborns. I pump between 16-18 (sometimes more than 20) extra ounces a day. I got a BUNCH of plugged ducts and a few episodes of mastitis before I finally decided that I would just get a double electric pump and pump the excess. And it's worked beautifully.

If you decide to go the route I did, you'll have to fiddle with what works and what doesn't, but avoiding mastitis was my big motivation. My baby would take a bottle when she was first born, and her older sister was fed BM from the bottle for about 6 months (we had some latch issues early on). I figured out that I need to pump first thing in the morning and last thing at night, and I always kept my fresh milk after pumping to give to her in a bottle if she decided she was hungry a couple of minutes after I finished pumping. That hardly ever happened, but if you do decide to pump your excess, you might need to be prepared for that contingency.

I've come to look at what I used to consider my personal albatross as God using me to supply for another family's need. I don't mind all of the pumping at all when I keep in mind that I might be helping a preemie who really needs human milk.

[BlessedMommy]

I think that I had a bit of oversupply in the beginning. I would express some milk out before feeding to help Hannah to not be so overwhelmed. Fortunately, over time, that problem disappeared. Hope that things get better!

[4Angelz]

Yeah! I have the same problem a lot of times unless I don't drink enough water. It' helps if I pump a bit before feeding ds. Then I freeze the milk so that if ever an emergency occurred, ds can still have Mommy's milk. :wink:

[NZMummy]

Thanks for all your replies. I feel comforted that I am not the only one who deals with this problem - in fact it sounds like others have had even worse problems with it (I haven't had mastitis and the milk doesn't seem to spray too far when dd comes off mid feed :lol: ).

Have you considered pumping yourself empty a couple of times a day and donating the excess breastmilk to a mother's milk bank?
This is a lovely idea. I haven't heard of it before - I wonder whether they do it over here.

I am hoping that it is going to settle down really soon - the last few feeds don't seem to have been so messy. I am trying to get her into some sort of routine, which may help my body regulate the supply better. However, I am finding it really hard to stick to a routine - routine was so much easier with my first (I now feel that I am juggling so many balls and everything is always running a little behind schedule).

[HesAlive]

Block feeding is what helped me....as mentioned by a pp. Of course mine wasn't as extreme as yours and hers. I block fed for about 3 hrs on each breast. Also, it USUALLY works itself out by about 12 - 16 weeks. My supply completely adjusted by 12 weeks. As for donating, I've heard about milk banks but don't know where any are. You can check the La Leche League website, I think they have a forum for that and for any other breastfeeding related issues. Its www.llli.org