Ellen Steinberg <[log in to unmask]>:
# What if these gastrointestinal disturbances are not caused by the
quality of the milk ("foremilk has too little fat and too few
calories") but by the quantity of milk. /---/ and then was not
interested in continuing to breastfeed. Test weights showed that he
consumed 4 ozs in 4 minutes. No wonder he was always spitting up and
uncomfortable! When the mother realized that the baby was overeating,
she learned to follow the baby's feeding cues and worked on decreasing
her milk supply. Within 24 hours the baby's symptoms disappeared and
he was calm and comfortable. #
After the symptoms disappeared, did you have a chance to do another
test weight with this baby? Was the amount of milk consumed less than
previously, and how much less? I am hoping not to sound blunt (English
is not my first language), just wondering, is a baby considered being
'overeating' if he consumes 4 oz (120 ml), esp. if he after that no
longer shows interest in bfing?
Just a personal experiece here. With both of my two babies I had quite
a similar milk supply, I guess. The first baby gulped down everything
that was available, and gained a lot. At 3 to 4 months he bfed only 4
(!) times in 24 h, and yet he gained 1 kg/month (+2 lbs/month) - it
was his choice to bfeed that seldom, not mine, and he changed his
pattern later, lol.
The second baby was different. He suckled +/- 20 times per 24 h, for
ab. 5 min (10 at max), and when he decided it was time to finish, he
wouldn't swallow another drop, not even if I expressed straight into
his mouth. With him I had an oversupply of about 500 ml per day,
starting from day three (breasts were about to burst...). Poor kid had
green foamy stools, gas, fuzziness, exploding noisy stools, like ten
poopy diapers a day. By day 5 I had switched to bfing 12 h from each
breast, had a day boob and a night boob ;) . Symptoms resolved.
But - I don't think it had anything to do with "downregulating the
milk supply". I still had oversupply of ab. 500 ml/day, and although I
offered the same breast several times in a row, he _never emptied the
breast (ok, let's say never during his first year ;) , and wouldn't
swallow one drop more, if he had finished. Well, of course I don't
have test weight results to prove anything ;) , just a gut feeling
that it was not the amount of milk that was a problem but something in
the milk composition chances in a full vs. a half-empty breast.
After fighting the oversupply issue for three weeks (and getting
nowhere really, one step forward but next day the same step backward),
I started donating the excess to the local milk kithchen. I pumped the
breast which I had been 'saving' for 12 h, and then started bfing from
that breast (which was just 'emptied' by expressing). I stopped
donating milk at ab. 4.5 months, and then finally the milk supply went
down on its own. From ab. 4.5 months till ab. 10 months (when I
returned to work) I kept on bfing in 12 h cycles per breast. I had
used to it and it felt easy, no supply issues, and he still never
emptied the breast.
Anyway, if someone has done test weights before and after the
"treatment", it would be interesting to hear about the results :)
Sanna-Mari
bf support group leader / Imetyksen tuki ry
Finland, Scandinavia
***********************************************
To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
|
