overactive letdown?

[Cattia]

Hi ladies, I'm wondering if I have an overactive let down. LO is 3 weeks old. Gaining weight brilliantly, lots of wet nappies, yellow poo so all good there. However when my milk lets down, she cries, chokes and pulls off the breast. She then gets squirted in the face by a jet of milk.
In the evenings she seems to want to feed and feed but she gets super frustrated, keeps pulling off and screaming. I don't know if this could be related, or whether it's just a cluster feeding thing, wind or what. In the night and mostly during the day, she feeds and is content. At night she feeds and goes back down no problem. Could overactive letdown be an issue and would it cause her evening meltdowns, or is that just a normal young baby thing do you think? Being my third you would think I'd have this figured out by now!

 

[apple_20]

I have an overactive let down and dd just learnt to deal with it. If yours is going back on the the breast after choking then I wouldn't worry too much (though obv have a muslin cloth ready to catch that spray) she could needs burping more if she spluttering on milk she might be gulping air in too (dd did massive burps during this stage)

Coming off and on in the eve could be a number of things; she might be nursing for comfort and getting cross when milk comes out (that's when I started using a soother) or it could be hunger and frustration that the milk flow is slowing down, as if she's clusterfeeding I'm guessing the let down will slow a bit with being less engorged. Do you feed from both sides? How long do you feed from one side before swapping? I'm thinking in the eve maybe she's 'emptying' one side and is after the next one?

Good luck x

 

[DoubleTFun]

I had an overactive letdown during the first few months with my first 2. I felt like I was drowning my baby. After awhile it slowed down. We just worked through it.

 

[glitterfly]

Mines the same. Poor LO has ended up with milk in her eye, nose ear because I'm like a Waterhose if she delatches during the let down. When my LO is like that it's usually because she's swallowed too much air when choking and crying... I try giving her a good burp...

I've also found that a bit of hand expression works wonders for slowing the let down a bit... Don't do too much, just a small amount.

Xxx

 

[Cattia]

Thanks for all the advice. She does relatch once she's pulled off. I'll definitely try the hand expressing. It's good to know that they adjust. She definitely swallows air as she struggles with wind a lot but the main thing is she settles at night and she's gaining weight so I can't complain.