>A 30 year old mom, exclusively breastfed her previous 2 children and
>doing fine with her 4 month old baby. 3 days ago her breast started
>feeling empty. the baby was nursing every 3 hrs. during the day,
>and slept 10 hours at night. Now nursing every hour and a half day
>and night, and gets angry while breastfeeding. She doesn't hear him
>swallow much. She is nursing on demand, drinking lots of water and
>started taking fenugreek. Her breast not only feels empty of milk
>she says it looks hanging like an "old woman's breast" She can see
>some milk but not much. Before this happend, she had an overactive
>letdown. Any ideas? Thank you.
Has anyone suggested this may be normal?
The baby, for whatever reason, needs more milk/more contact with his mother.
So he 'asks' to be fed more.
This results - totally physiologically - in softer breasts, which
feel empty. She was *over-producing* before, and now she isn't. This
is normal - sometimes this change happens suddenly, sometimes
gradually.
(It is irrelevant whether she can see milk or not).
The baby is fussy and cross, because of (pick any one of 100 reasons
why babies may be fussy and cross - all transient, none of them
serious). She is responding, perfectly appriopriately, with
breastfeeding.
All of this is far, far more likely, IMO, than sudden onset of
hormonal disturbance, or illness....or anything!
Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK
--
http://www.heatherwelford.co.uk
http://heatherwelford.posterous.com
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