I'll build on Susan's analysis of systems out of whack:  Once (circumstances just haven't repeated themselves yet),  I had a client return with her second baby.  She'd had terrible "oversupply" problems with her first - despite my "help" - until she just threw up her hands, nursed the baby... and everything was fine.  

She came back with her second because they were in trouble by 2 weeks.  He would nurse until her milk released, when he'd start glugging and backing away.  She'd ease him off, let the milk spray, and start him over again.  But all the on and off was making her sore, and he wasn't all that happy either.  Things were, if anything, getting worse daily.

Sure enough, when they nursed at my house her milk released, he started glugging and pulling away, and she was about to take him off.  Happily, I was a little more savvy this time around.  "Wait," I said.  "Try just snugging his back and shoulders in a bit closer."  What that did was allow his head to tip back a little more.  There was now a straighter path for the milk to follow - no crook-in-the-neck to get around.  His swallowing smoothed right out, he stayed on and nursed easily through her let-down, and finished the feed with no fussing.  I thought of it as the sword-swallower's solution to a rapid flow: straighten out the pipe!

She e-mailed me a few days later to say that everything was fine.  It made me wonder how many of our "oversupplies" are babies who are trying to nurse without tipping their heads back as they would during self-attachment.  And if that's the case, are we down-regulating mom's supply to below what it *ought* to be, so that the baby can drink more comfortably in an unphysiologic position???  How many of our "oversupply" cases are just over-managed positioning of the head-in-crook-of-mama's-arm type, I wonder?

Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC  Ithaca, NY  USA
www.wiessinger.baka.com

             ***********************************************

Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]
Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask]
COMMANDS:
1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail
2. To start it again: set lactnet mail
3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome