Advice & Help urgently please: Oversupply of milk & expressing to prevent bad wind.

[lissy]

I'm considering trying to express feed for a little while & need to know where to start. DS is almost 5 weeks & he's having terrible trouble with wind & Im having trouble with oversupply of milk. Ive tried feeding lying on my back to stop him from drowning in my milk, but he still gulps & sucks in air & we end up walking the floor for hours trying to shift it. My GP has said if it doesn't get better in the next week or so he would consider some reflux medicine.

So do I go completely expressd for a short period to see if this helps?
How do I time my expressing?
And how do I express without increasing my flow even more?

I have major flow from one breast, I almost soaked a cloth nappy just before the last feed, I was literally streaming with milk. Is it possible to have an overactive let down?? as Im also soaking breast pads like theres no tomorrow.

[Miss E]

Have you tried Infacol or something similar to help with the wind? We had similar problems in those first couple of months and found that Infacol made DS much more comfortable. Also, maybe try hand expressing before a feed and then attaching after let down. HTH

[lissy]

Miss E yeah we've had him on Infacol for a few weeks now, it helps, but defintealy doesnt solve the problem, poor bub still ends up racked with pain for hours.
How much would I need to hand express to make a difference? I have been pressing a towel to my breast first to catch the initial let down, but he gulps through the whole feed so Im not sure hand expressing initially would help??

[HotI]

I used to hand express a little into a face washer so bub didn't get whacked in the back of the throat. i also fed lying down, so gravity wasn't adding to the force of the flow for bub. Infants friend was a big help here.

Time was the biggest factor, bubs digestive system developed more and my boobs adapted. The early weeks/months was just about surviving. My DH has a jiggly knee that helped move some of the air, and we would also walk the streets with bub in a carrier.

I would be a bit worried about going fully to expressing and feeding bub the milk, cos it would make it harder to get back to the breast later. I think it is usually around 6 weeks that your supply starts to be more determined by demand, rather than hormones, so you might see changes soon if you can hang in a little longer.

If Barb, doesn't pop in maybe write a post to her to see what advice she can give.

take care

[Miss E]

Hmmm I'm not too sure how much, I guess until the flow slows down a little... Have you tried doing bicycle legs and tummy massage to help him get the wind up? I also found that burping DS in a sitting position worked better than up on my shoulder. And, the other thing that I found that helped was keeping DS upright for as long as possible. We'd even prop him up on a breastfeeding pillow (ours had a crutch flap that valcroed on to hold him in place) and let him sleep like that for awhile after a feed to help.

I know it's really hard when they're so unsettled, but your supply should start to settle down in the next week or two. Starting expressing now may lead to more over supply problems and possibly make it hard to get him back on the boob down the track.

Is he showing any other signs of reflux? I find it odd that your GP would suggest that just based on wind

Also, just wanted to say that you are doing a fabulous job The first couple of months of breastfeeding are so hard and really are trial and error, by the sounds of things you're both doing wonderfully. And in the next couple of weeks it will probably all click and start to become remarkably easy. GL

[onthefly]

Are you block feeding also? I would try hand expressing through the initial letdown, till the flow slows down.
It is generally time that will fix this, as your supply settles and baby gets bigger. Both of mine have struggled with letdown early on, but by 10 weeks or so they seem ok with it.
Have you called the ABA for advice? 1800-686-2-686. I'm not sure how using a bottle would help? Wouldn't that be even faster?

[Miss E]

I'm not sure how using a bottle would help? Wouldn't that be even faster?

Good point! I always found that DS's wind was ten times worse after we gave him a bottle of EBM even with the slowest NB teats.