Oversupply and lactose overload

[Gairdinalainn]

I'm looking for some advice regarding oversupply, lactose overload in baby and full drainage and block feeding. My lb is four months old. From very young he started to show the following symptoms: congestion; mucus explosive nappies; sleeplessness; fussing at the breast; arching; terrible wind and tummy cramps etc etc. He had a 90% tongue tie cut at five weeks old. From early on I realised I had oversupply. Milk would leak constantly and would spray out all over the place. I would go through tons of breast pads a day. Through my own research online I decided that his symptoms may be due to food allergies. I subsequently cut out dairy (told my doc about this, she agreed but didn't know much about bf, just let me get on with it) I thought I saw some improvement but not much. Over the coming months is cut out more and more foods in the constant search for what he was allergic too. Symptoms might appear to get better but then would get worse. Culminated in blood in his stool and a trip to accident and emergency. Paediatrician there told me she didn't think it was allergies as I had already cut out all major ones and more. She told me to go back on normal food too see what happened. I did that and there was no change. So through more research I finally came upon the lactose overload oversupply information. This seems to perfectly describe his symptoms and confirmed that I did have oversupply. So long story short I have decided to go down the full drainage block feeding method. I should add that lo already only takes one side, only feeds for five minutes if even and seems to have a love/hate relationship with the boob. I have started this morning by fully draining both boobs. I got 7 ounces out of each side!!! Could anyone advise as to whether they think this method will work for me,how long I will need to continue to do this full drainage and if I need to consider going down the contraceptive pill  route to lower it? Thanks in advance

[becj86]

Hi Well done for sticking with it and finding a solution!

Block feeding is best done without draining the breasts outside of LO's feeds unless you have to, to avoid mastitis or are trying to build a stash - the full breast is what helps reduce the milk supply to a more suitable level over time.

There are foods that increase your supply that you can cut out - oats is a big one.

I found my blocks got as big as 12hr - basically one breast for day, one for night   I also found that when DS was having intestinal symptoms - blood & mucous in stool, that it helped if I pumped, mixed the milk up to make sure it was all balanced wrt fat and water, etc. and bottle fed for a few days, then introduced feeds from the breast slowly - BT first as OALD was not as bad at the end of the day and middle of the night feed last as that's when it is worst. I was hand expressing about as much as you've expressed there too - it takes a while for your body to slow down the production but it will make a big difference from what you've written.