Expert: ruth kraft - 7/23/2009

Question
I have a 17week old baby girl who is fully breastfed. The last couple of weeks she has started coming off the breast and crying after the initial let down, approx 5mins, then will re-attach but continually pulls off quite hard!(I'm getting sore nipples for the first time). She is fine first thing in the morning when my breasts are very full, and for the bedtime feed she seems more content to suck for longer, maybe because she is sleepy? She was feeding approx 3hourly during the day, and waking once about 4am for a feed during the night. I've starting feeding more often during the day to try to build up my supply as I'm worried my supply is dropping. I've also been expressing the other side after the early morning feed and giving this with the bedtime feed. Is this okay? I suppose I'm after a bit of reassurance and some tips on how to encourage her to feed for longer during the day. Thankyou, sorry for rabbiting on!

Answer
Hello :) rest assured that it is not likely your milk supply going down. Once a baby is 6 weeks old its unlikely that the milk will suddently stop producing if you have been full time nursing. It mostly sounds like she is frustrated  at either one or two things...  one, that she isnt getting the next let down fast enough, ( babies can be rather impatient at times ) you can go to www.drjacknewman.com and watch a video on breast compression and try doing that for a few days and see if it doesnt satiate her or two, she might have air bubbles or reflux ( where laying down can be uncomfortable for nursing sometimes.) Try when she pulls off to sit her upright and burp her and also while nursing hold her in a little more of an angled position and see if that helps :)

I hope those work :)

good luck! remember she has a growth spurt at 6 months old too, so She will get rather fussy and behave a bit like you don't have enough milk then too... but you do ! keep on plugging away!