Breastfeeding with one breast

[emilillies]

Hi Ladies! I came over from July 14 at the other place. I don't believe I ever posted on the BFing board there, though I did lurk a little. I'd like to start checking in here more regularly. Just a little about me-I'm 27, a SAHM with a five month old EBF baby girl. I've searched the board at the other place and didn't come up with quite what I'm looking for. The "issue" that I'm having is that I am really only producing from one breast. I know that it is very normal to have one breast produce more, be larger etc. I am producing what seems to be almost nothing from my right side. LO does eat from both sides, although the right side is a 3-5 minutes feeding and the left is 10-20. I do not pump often but I pumped today out of curiosity and all I got was .5 ounce. I guess what my question is is this: Does anyone have experience with breastfeeding from one breast only? LO does seem content with the amount she is getting and is growing like a weed. I'm just concerned that as she gets bigger and bigger, will one breast be able to sustain her (supply and demand)?

[franklymydear]

I have a similar issue, I have one breast that produced significantly more. Basically I just try to be really conscious of what breast to nurse from and you can try nursing the low producing one twice in a row and then the other only once. Basically I stopped worrying as long as she's growing and content it shouldn't be an issue. Do you have a lactation consultant you could see? They will do a weighted feeding and then you will really know how much LO is getting

[franklymydear]

Also I wouldn't stop offering both breasts just because one produces less... Again I think you should talk to a lactation consultant. Mine is amazeballs and I seriously call her like I am catching up with family - only to talk about my boobs!

[emilillies]

@iheartmyshiba I do offer the low producing side first. Sometimes it seems like she knows there isn't much there and wants to hurry hurry to get the other side. I am wondering if it would produce more if she would spend more time on it but I don't know how I could get her to do it. franklymydear That's an idea. I never thought to try to offer that breast twice in a row, although I've tried putting her back on it after she fills up on the good side. I should call the hospital about a lactation consultant, I don't know if they have a dept. or not but I know the OB nurses are all trained to aide BFing.

[franklymydear]

The breast you start on gets signaled to make more milk if it is emptied then the other side nursed on. If I were you I would start on your breast that produces less, finish on other side. Repeat at next feeding. Then switch start sides. I hope I am making sense...

[emilillies]

franklymydear So you're saying to start with the less side twice in a row...and then the third feeding start on the good side? No? Sorry if I'm making this harder than it is. lol

[franklymydear]

emilillies No worries it is complicated ! So let's say your side that you are producing less is your left side... This is how I evened it out as much as I could.

Nursing session 1 - start on left side finish on right
Nursing session 2 - start on left side finish on right
Nursing session 3 - start on right side finish on left
Nursing session 4 - start on left side finish on right
Repeat pattern

Within a day a two I noticed an increase and went back to nursing as normal

And be sure you are emptying your breast as much as possible. You can also pump on your right side while you nurse your left which will help your let down happen quicker but be careful because you can create an over supply that way....

[emilillies]

franklymydear Got it! Thank you so very much, I'm going to try it!

[franklymydear]

Good luck! I do recommend calling a lactation consultant because I am no expert, that is just what worked for me!

[Deleted]

I would try to nurse more often on the lower producing side but probably not exactly as mentioned above. You have to kind of go with the flow, rather than sticking to an exact schedule. If supply on one side is super duper low, you may want to nurse on it as much as baby will let you, but finish baby on the other side so they don't get frustrated, and late in the day give in to their preference and give them the higher producing side. but then you might want to add in a pumping session on the lower producer a bit to help encourage it to make more milk.

Realize also that each breast is a separate milk making factory. what happens on one side has little bearing on what happens on the other. usually both sides will let down together at the beginning of a feeding, but if you pump them separately you'll realize that they often are doing totally different let down patterns.

Since it's normal to have one side that is larger, it tends to makes more milk faster, with larger storage amount for that initial let down which makes baby happier cause they may have to work less to get milk they want. Baby becomes lazy and prefer that side. But the smaller side is perfectly capable of making enough nutrition for one baby--it will tend to let down smaller amounts more often during a feeding. with the larger size you may go longer between feeds, so the milk fat separates out and there is more of a difference between fore and hindmilk and more oz of foremilk baby eats before they get the fats loosened from the ducts and entering milk. with the smaller side, the let downs happen more frequently, baby would tend to nurse more often (like if you had twins and each had their own side) and the fat would tend to separate out less, so baby would get lesser oz but it would be more fattier. basically same amt of nutrition but in larger or smaller amt of oz.

you can stress over trying to get them balance or just go with the flow. keep offering both sides, and realize baby may like one side first thing in the am after a longer sleep when they are thirsty and want more oz fast, and they may prefer the smaller side later in the day when they want to tank up on higher calorie higher fat milk but eat and go to sleep.

[rrrrrachel]

I have breastfed for about three years from only one breast. I'm currently feeding two kids that way. There's nothing wrong with it but your boobs will for sure be lopsided

[mama2a]

I had to Mastitis and abscesses that had to be surgically drained on my left side. It took a month of trying to boost my supply, but when I found out I had a 2nd undiagnosed abscess I stopped trying to boost my supply. I switched to one-sided feeding around 3 months post-partum. DD is now 13 months and we did just fine and just ran out of my freezer stash last week I'm horribly lop-sided and hope that things even out after we've weaned. My situation is different though as I felt like I was forced to do one-sided feeding out of fear due to my bad experience with infection whereas you're just wondering if you should just stop due to low output. I know it is common to have one side be better than the other so that alone shouldn't be the reason you make the switch. One mama I know made the decision when she felt like it just became a hassle to try to continue offering an under-producing side, but I suppose that is a very personal decision to make. I just wanted to chime in and let you know that it can be done

[things]

I'm pretty much nursing from my left and supplementing. I'm trying to increase my supply on that side so I can decrease how much I have to supplement. My right side would have the supply if it were not for the delayed letdown. I've been working on it (with my LC) for the past 7 weeks, and just like with my last baby, nothing has helped. So unless I'm really full with milk pouring out, she refuses it once the milk stops flowing and it takes forever to let down. It was the same with my last baby. I stopped pumping and weaned that side at 5.5 months and he was a one-sided nurser until he weaned at 21 months.

[octavia65]

Not too much to add other than echoing what PPs posted. I personally always started each and every session on my right because it was lower producing and tended to get clogged. I think it had more to do with his latch on that side but I'm not sure (chicken or the egg??). I also have a friend who nurses exclusively from one side and her baby is thriving (99th %ile) so really as long as diapers are good you guys will be ok! As a side note don't judge your production based on your pumping output - some women (myself included) don't respond well to pumps. That doesn't mean you aren't producing enough for your LO. Good luck!

[emilillies]

Jan 16, 2015 23:49:25 GMT -5 @amyg said:

I would try to nurse more often on the lower producing side but probably not exactly as mentioned above. You have to kind of go with the flow, rather than sticking to an exact schedule. If supply on one side is super duper low, you may want to nurse on it as much as baby will let you, but finish baby on the other side so they don't get frustrated, and late in the day give in to their preference and give them the higher producing side. but then you might want to add in a pumping session on the lower producer a bit to help encourage it to make more milk.

Realize also that each breast is a separate milk making factory. what happens on one side has little bearing on what happens on the other. usually both sides will let down together at the beginning of a feeding, but if you pump them separately you'll realize that they often are doing totally different let down patterns.

Since it's normal to have one side that is larger, it tends to makes more milk faster, with larger storage amount for that initial let down which makes baby happier cause they may have to work less to get milk they want. Baby becomes lazy and prefer that side. But the smaller side is perfectly capable of making enough nutrition for one baby--it will tend to let down smaller amounts more often during a feeding. with the larger size you may go longer between feeds, so the milk fat separates out and there is more of a difference between fore and hindmilk and more oz of foremilk baby eats before they get the fats loosened from the ducts and entering milk. with the smaller side, the let downs happen more frequently, baby would tend to nurse more often (like if you had twins and each had their own side) and the fat would tend to separate out less, so baby would get lesser oz but it would be more fattier. basically same amt of nutrition but in larger or smaller amt of oz.

you can stress over trying to get them balance or just go with the flow. keep offering both sides, and realize baby may like one side first thing in the am after a longer sleep when they are thirsty and want more oz fast, and they may prefer the smaller side later in the day when they want to tank up on higher calorie higher fat milk but eat and go to sleep.

I'm going to offer the low producing side first and more often. I did notice when I pumped yesterday, that the let down in my low side was different. It really was more of a slow trickle while the higher producing side has a fast and steady stream. I didn't consider that baby is likely getting equal nutrition from both sides, just at different rates/fat content. That makes me feel better. LO is definitely interested in nursing from the low producing breast, but as you suggested, she does seem a bit lazy about it. 

One thing I forgot in my OP is that the low side breast had a severely inverted nipple prior to nursing. I used a shield for the first six weeks or so. Slowly (and painfully), the nipple was drawn out enough to breastfeed without it. One of the nurses at the hospital said there were likely adhesions within the nipple that kept it inverted, and possibly a shortened milk duct. I wonder if I could have a sort of "plumbing" issue within the duct, if you will. The nipple still does turn in a bit but LO is able to easily draw it out.

I have noticed that baby is all business in the morning and at bedtime and wants for the "better" breast, so I usually go with that. She does do a bit of comfort nursing as well and I think I could be better by giving her the low side since she really isn't eating at that point.

Thank you so much for your information and advice. I appreciate it very much.

[emilillies]

Jan 17, 2015 8:02:10 GMT -5 rrrrrachel said:

I have breastfed for about three years from only one breast. I'm currently feeding two kids that way. There's nothing wrong with it but your boobs will for sure be lopsided

Good for you! I'm glad you have had success with it. Lopsided isn't even the word! 

[SpinsOffResonance]

Lots of good advice here. I wanted to add that it's normal not to be pumping much if you dont pump regurlarly. I never pumped more than 0.5oz at a time when i was pumping in between feeding DD1. Then when I went back to work and pumped in place of a feeding i would get 3-6oz. I went on to BFing DD1 for 15months. So dont let the small pump output upset you. Totally normal.

[honeybee434]

One additional thing you may look into with pumpig: my side that produces less needed a smaller breast shield than my side that produces more. When I had medium sizes on both I always got a lot less than the higher producing side. When I sized down to a small on it was still less, but maybe only an ounce difference instead of 3 or 4. You may check to make sure you have the right nipple shields on each side.