Women that EC tend to also breast feed their babies. The connection has to do with how these women want to do what is best and most healthy for their babies and to connect with them on deep levels. Very earthy. Very crunchy. (although we now know that granola isn't the health food we were all led to believe - but I digress) An interesting aspect of this connection is that EC mommies get to see the milk going in AND coming out. This makes them pretty aware when something is out-of-sorts.
So, TM is noticing that Tommy is not only fussy, crying all the time, and spitting up excessively, she also notices that his poopy is foamy. It looks like it came straight out of a Pampered Chef suds pump. Instead of shooting into the sink with great force, it sort of puffs and bubbles its way from Tommy's bottom to the sink and then to the drain. It is also a bit more greenish than its usual yellow color.
Those of you who use diapers all the time rarely get the opportunity to analyze poopy to this depth. After all, by the time you see the poopy, it has had ample opportunity to soak into the material of the diaper whether that be paper or cloth. So really foamy poopy has been a sight that has alluded you. Alas and alack.
Back to the subject at hand...
TM was a bit concerned about this and she turned to the breastfeeding experts, other women who nurse their babies. Thankfully, one of these experienced moms has this great interview on her website Breastfeeding Mother-To-Mother. Go to this link, listen to the interview and learn more than you ever thought possible about Breast Feeding Over Supply Syndrome. While you are there, read the rest of the stuff on the site. Order her breastfeeding video as well. I've seen it and it is outstanding. You can also get it HERE
TM's summary of the issue is this: your breasts can make more milk than they really need to. If that happens, then baby can end up consuming too much foremilk, resulting in a gassy baby with foamy poop.
To solve the problem, Tommy's feeding was changed from "switch feeding" to "block feeding". Switch feeding means feeding the baby on one breast at each feeding then switching to the other breast at the next feeding. The advantage to this system is that a mommy merely has to tap each breast before a feeding to see which one is the fullest and thus the ONE for that nursing episode. A mommy doesn't have to try to remember which breast was used first at the last feeding or any of that complicated stuff.
Block feeding means using only one breast for a specified number of hours, regardless of how often baby nurses. For example, left breast for four hours, then right breast for four hours. This allows each breast to be fully drained of the fatty hind milk (terribly simplistic terminology and explanation as it would take a full discussion for the subjects of "draining" a breast and "hind milk") and be able to have a break of X number of hours between uses, which will stop the over stimulation of the breast and hopefully reduce milk production.
There are countless articles out there about how to increase the milk supply, but very few about how to decrease the milk supply. This is probably because the danger of a low supply is a more serious and possibly life threatening problem. Also, there may just be more women with low supply than with over supply. Until seeing this interview, TM didn't even know the latter issue was a problem. You can imagine her surprise when the "problem" turned out to be HERS!
Tommy is baby number 7 in his family. His mother is not inexperienced with breast feeding. But switch feeding had always been very convenient and she never had any reason to try something different until she saw the foamy poops and dealt with the fussy baby. When first changing to Block Feeding, TM was using four hour blocks. This was not good because it was hard to remember. If the left breast was used from 12 to 4 a.m., it would end up being the right breast from 12 to 4 p.m., which was confusing. After only 2 days of that, TM assigned the block times currently being used and the problems associated with over supply went away.
Now Tommy gets access to the right breast for 6 hours, from 12 to 6 and the left breast from 6 to 12.
Within two weeks of implementing this system the foamy poops stopped and TM noticed a definite reduction in the fullness of the breasts. Naturally the milk supply was watched closely to make sure that a more drastic reduction did not occur. But the supply seemed to level off, exactly matching the demand.
For more info on Breast Feeding Oversupply Syndrome, or to get answers for other breast feeding issues, be sure to visit the link above.
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