Feeding from one side

[violeta&alex]

Hi everyone! My baby is three and a half months. Recently he started eating just from one side plus he reduced his feedings from 8-9 to 6 in 24 hours. He looks healthy and is gaining weight but my concern is whether I should be expressing the milk from the side he is not using. So far I’ve had mastitis three times and I really would like to prevent it from happening again. The thing is that as he eats just from one breast (5 times a day-every 3 hours, and once a night) during the day my breasts get emptied approximately every 6 hours (at night I get up and pump out the milk from the other one). Should I pump after every feeding during the day?

[Erin (redstarfalling)]

Milk production works on supply and demand.  The more demand there is, the more the supply will increase and vice versa!  So if he's only eating on one side and you pump the other, you'll just keep producing that much more on the other side.  It sounds like he's just settling down on his feeds and getting what he needs from one side.  If you don't pump, your breasts will accomodate over time.  If you're worried about mastitis, you could just decrease the amount you pump out gradually, a few minutes a day, until you stop pumping at all, so that your breasts get used to it slowly.  Just make sure you switch sides for each feed so that each breast is emptied and stimulated. Do you offer the second side at all?  If he goes through a growth spurt, you might find he's interested in it again!

[GraceKellysmom]

I agree! Also around 3-4 months they get super efficient, and eat quickly and less often. (Now if he were waking to eat several times a night, my answer would be very different)