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Offline hulababysmommy

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One side low supply
« on: October 17, 2007, 18:09:36 pm »
Hi!
I have a question....
Anna slept through the night for the first time last night (yeah!) Let's hope this will be the beginning of some more sleep for her mom too! Anyway, this morning I noticed that my left breast was painfully full (which makes sense) but my right breast was not. Now, Anna has been favoring the left side for a while now, but I kept on trying to feed her from the right side anyway. I thought it was because of teething that she was just not comfortable laying on that side of her body, but now I'm wondering if it was the low supply that got her to refuse the right side to begin with. She will arch her back and scream if I try to latch her on. I don't know what to do about this. She hardly ever cries for food (during the day.) But she is also still kind of low weight (15.4 lbs - 10th percentile) so I'm thinking she could use all the calories she can get.
What am I to think of this? And what can I do to "fix" it?
Thanks!
Ankie
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Offline LLLena

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Re: One side low supply
« Reply #1 on: October 17, 2007, 18:23:03 pm »
Hi!  I am confident others will offer advice here too, but I'll throw something out there to start. :)

Sometimes los prefer one side to the other as one side might be easier to suck and get milk.  Maybe your bm on the non-preferred side tastes different. ??? 

In order to increase supply on that side you can pump after each feeding to increase supply and thus increase the opportunity to feed well on that side.

You can also try different positions and that may help, as well.  Try the football hold, or across the belly (forgot the name of that one).  I ended up just keeping my ds on his left side and starting from the football position (?) on the left side to across my belly on the right.  He seemed a bit happier that way. 

HTH.

Lena
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Offline hulababysmommy

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Re: One side low supply
« Reply #2 on: October 17, 2007, 23:41:44 pm »
Thank you Lena!
I've been doing the different positions and that seems to help just a little bit. She still won't stay on long enough to cause an increase in milk I think. I guess I might have to go back to pumping again.  :(
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Offline Becca's Mom

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Re: One side low supply
« Reply #3 on: October 18, 2007, 00:02:58 am »
We're experiencing lopsided breastfeeding over here too.  I believe I've read somewhere that at some point, you may want to give up on the low-supply side and the other side will compensate.  I'm thinking about doing this, since DS only gets an appetizer-sized portion on the one side.  Any other opinions on this out there?

Amy
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Offline LLLena

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Re: One side low supply
« Reply #4 on: October 18, 2007, 00:05:40 am »
I found that my son just had a preference and the suggestions that I gave helped, but he still had the preference.  To keep supply up on the unpreferred side, I just had to pump a bit. 

Sorry I didn't have better new. ;)

Lena
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Offline First Time Mom

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Re: One side low supply
« Reply #5 on: October 18, 2007, 02:32:24 am »
I found this happened from time to time the entire 18 months we bf'd, my dd would prefer one side and feed longer than the other. I never pumped so I would start her on the low side (for as long as she would tolerate it), then put her on the fuller side, then again on the low side (she'd nurse longer then, once fuller from the fuller side). I found this would increase my supply and "balance" me out. Pumping is a good solution, and possibly easier than struggling to get lo to feed on the low side twice, as I did. Depending on age and size of baby and how long one plans on bfing for I would hesitate to go to one-sided permanent feeds. Once lo is bigger but not on solids yet they need more and it's nice to have the option of both sided availability.

Is your Ped concerned about her weight gain? If he/she is not, try not to fret about it. I know it's hard not to, my dd was on the 10% (or less) up until she hit 18 months.
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Offline hulababysmommy

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Re: One side low supply
« Reply #6 on: October 19, 2007, 12:44:42 pm »
Quote from: First Time Mom on October 18, 2007, 02:32:24 am
Is your Ped concerned about her weight gain?
I just moved and my old and new ped's both don't seem to worry about the weight. Anna is a long baby, her head grows just fine and she reaches milestones she's supposed to. Otherwise she is also a very content baby, so I'm not as concerned like I was when she was a newborn. I still want to try to bf her until her 1st B-day, so I do need the milk to keep coming......
Three nights of sleeping through! I am very excited! However, I can tell my body is already adjusting. I told myself this morning that I am just going to trust my body to do the "job." And I am going  to keep trying to get Anna to eat on the right side as much as I can. Just a few more months....
Thanks for your support!
Ankie
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Offline First Time Mom

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Re: One side low supply
« Reply #7 on: October 19, 2007, 13:05:35 pm »
Ah, I just noticed she's 8 months old (so solids are probably well established). Yes, especially at this age they will take what they need and you will make what they need. Your body has done the right job this far! At this age I was always trying to increase my supply but then I realised that it was for no good reason- she didn't need or take "extra" breast milk.

By the way, great job bfing for this long and planning on going to 12 months! You just never know, you may not want to stop at 12 months ;).
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Offline hulababysmommy

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Re: One side low supply
« Reply #8 on: October 19, 2007, 15:50:47 pm »
Oh, trust me, I know! ;)
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