I recently saw a mother with a 10-day-old baby. She was using a nipple shield because of flat nipples. She hated using it, said it kept falling off and the baby gagged on it, but baby was gaining weight. Upon arrival, she desired to nurse on the left breast. Her nipples were indeed very short, nearly flat and not very elastic. We tried to latch baby (high palate) w/o the shield, but no sucking reflex. She got out the shield, which was too big for her, and I showed her how to correctly put on the right size shield. The baby nursed like a champ and took in 3.6 oz. in less than 10 min. There was still milk in the left breast. We tried to get him to take the other side (mom wanted practice) but we was out for the count. Mom also said that he is extremely gassy and fusses a lot while passing gas. I determined mom to have an overabundant supply and she wanted to know how to cut it back. I suggested emptying first breast first, and pumping other breast for relief. So mom would likely feed on one breast two times in a row, pump other side for relief only--not to empty--then repeat the process on the other side until milk supply calmed down a bit. Hopefully, this would help with the gassiness, too, I thought. Well, mom calls me today (two days later) and says that she now has a breast infection and baby is refusing to nurse off the affected side (the side we didn't work on). I gave her the typical responses for nursing through mastitis. My question is, did I mismanage this case? Was there a better way to handle the oversupply? Was my advice related to her getting mastitis? I'd really like some help here b/c this is what I usually tell moms with oversupply. Any other suggestions? Terri Lear, IBCLC Breastfeeding Solutions, LLC 703-313-0040 *********************************************** 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