Has anyone tried sage tea for oversupply?

[Sair]

I am at my wits end, no one ever tells you how hard it is to have 2 under 2.

I had oversupply issues with Noah but am only realising this now with Xavier.

I am trying block feeding alternating breasts every 5 hours to try and slow down production and get more hindmilk into Xavier but I need things to happen sooner. I am also still bfing Noah and I am sure my supply will continue to be more than ample if I don't do something drastic. I am hardly getting any sleep and am so run down I am getting a cold and have a beauty of a cold sore on my lip.

So those who have tried sage tea, how much and how often, how do you know when to stop?

[Ezz]

I understand what you are going through! I've had over-supply issues with DS too (right up until we dropped to 2 feeds a day). When DS was about 10 months, I actually took dried sage 3 times a day (1 tsp) for about a week. I just put it on my tongue dry then washed it down with a glass of water. It made no difference (apart from giving me a metallic taste in the mouth).

3 weeks is pretty early to be worrying about over-supply though. I've read it can take up to 12 weeks for things to settle down.

How do you know that Xavier is getting too much foremilk?

[Sair]

Oooh I hooe it is 12 weeks, with Noah I had to wear breast pads until he was 1 from all the leaking. I read up to 4 months and I won't be able to cope that long.

As for knowing there is too much foremilk, frequent feeds, the frothy green poo's, his tummy issues, when I express I get 150mls of foremilk from each breast in 5 minutes.

So sage doesn't sound too good

[Ezz]

Oooh I hooe it is 12 weeks, with Noah I had to wear breast pads until he was 1 from all the leaking. I read up to 4 months and I won't be able to cope that long.

I guess there is an initial slowing down by 12 weeks - but then if you tend to have a lot of milk, you may always have more milk than others do (I know I do!!). LC thinks I have very high prolactin levels???

As for knowing there is too much foremilk, frequent feeds, the frothy green poo's, his tummy issues, when I express I get 150mls of foremilk from each breast in 5 minutes.

Wow that's a lot of foremilk! Hopefully someone more knowledgeable than me will be able to help you there

The sage didn't work for me. But that doesn't mean it won't work for you. It must work for some people - otherwise it wouldn't be reputed to lower milk production! I think I would probably wait until the 12 week mark & see how you are by then before
taking the sage though - you don't want to dry yourself up too much!

[Jennifer13]

That much! Wow!

The only thing I can think of quickly is to express some of the foremilk off first and then he will get to the hindmilk before he's full. Unfortunately, with an oversupply, that's not going to help you cut down on milk production, in fact, it would do the opposite. Also, bfing the new baby first is recommended, so getting Noah to help out isn't as easy there either. Is there any way you could get Noah to have a small bf before Xavier, stop him before he's had too much, and then get Xavier to bf? I'm sure Noah isn't bfing every time Xavier needs to bf, so this is only going to help (if it can work at all) when he is.

Try the ABA helpline, hun, 1800 MUM 2 MUM. Hopefully the lovely Barb will also pop in to give you some advice!

[Sage Works]

This page came up in the first 5 or 6 hits with a google of 'sage milk oversupply', so I felt compelled to join and share my experience.

Oversupply can be a really horrible problem, it hospitalized my wife with our first, resulted in her being pumped with antibiotics, and wasn't really resolved until we 'gave up' and had her go back on the birth control pill when my first was 2 months old. This didn't end her supply, but made it normal. She weaned when my son was exactly one year, and was ready.

Anyhow, we just had our second, and had a nasty fright a few days ago when her supply came back and began to create the thick, incredibly stiff knots that gave her a fever of 106 F last time. We felt like the clock was ticking and were desperate, with only bad options, go straight back on an estrogen-combo pill and nurse, bombarding my kid with estrogen while he still has puffy nipples from the estrogen at birth, or go straight to formula, and ruin the bonding and better immune system that comes with breast feeding (incidentally, our first is remarkably healthy in that way, zero ear infections, zero animal allergies, no more than a dozen real colds in his first three years).

I was open to the homeopathic route, because we had remarkable success with cranberry tea and primrose in inducing labor (worked in just hours). So, I went to a local health foods place, bought "loose bulk" sage tea, and made some. This isn't quite as easy as it sounds, many health food places stock dozens and dozens of packaged herbal teas but don't carry this. Odd, for something used medicinally in many cultures for thousands of years. In the states, I believe you can special-order it from Alvita. Anyhow, they had loose bulk, I bought some along with a few of the burlap-looking mesh bags (sage is too fine for the metal balls). At first, we made iced tea, which didn't have a fast effect, but then I realized that infusing it with boiling water would probably be preferable in terms of getting the effect sought. So, I stuffed a good 2 tablespoons into the small tea bag, and began to make nice, dark tea in a mug every three hours.

A couple of days later, it seems to have worked incredibly well. My wife also thinks that 'block feeding' - feeding exclusively from one breast at a time in 6-hour or so chunks - helps. The knots are gone, and the supply is relatively normal (still on the huge supply of normal), and the hindmilk is translating to nice, deep naps which means I can type this while she gets work done.

Anyhow, just one person's testimony. The frustration and condescension one experiences with this problem can be extremely frustrating ("oh, aren't you lucky!" "you call that a problem?" etc). There are very, very few medical professionals with a clue on this one, and no real studies of the problem with real research methodology. But I thought I would put my experience up there.

I can see why people are hesitant to recommend this out of fear that their supply will be entirely ended, but if you're on the very extreme end of the spectrum, as my wife obviously is, it is an option which I would consider. Obviously, I'm not a health professional, and this is not medical advice.

Hope this gets me some good karma! You aren't alone. Good luck!