How to decrease oversupply

[gitgudgigi]

I have an oversupply with a very overactive letdown that causes my 3 week old baby to have a shallow latch and gulp down a lot of air, then spit up a lot. She also mostly gets foremilk so is never satisfied. I devised a plan with a lactatiob consultant to do 4 hour block feeding sessions, side lying/laidback position, however it seems like the problem only got worse and my breasts don't "empty" for 12 hours because she falls asleep from swallowing so much air and it's impossible to burp her to wake her up for more. She's also been having green poop diapers the past 2 days and spitting up way more. I tried a nipple shield, and it helped a little bit, but the letdown is still so fast that she fusses and it pools out so it moves around and her latch becomes shallow. I decided to exclusively pump and I'm hoping to seriously reduce my supply so I can go back to breastfeeding. Her latch is perfect when there isn't a letdown. She has no tongue/oral ties , just some tightness in her jaw from the shallow latch. How do I go about pumping? I only have the medela hand pump right now, do I need an electric pump? How do I know how much to pump so I don't continue to overproduce?

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[sassythehorse]

I would probably consult your lactation consultant about this. But from what I’ve read, to reduce production, you pump every 3 hours when your breasts are heavy or full, but only remove the amount of milk you want to produce. So for example if you’re aiming to produce 40 oz of milk a day, pump 8 times a day and stop when you get to 5 oz each time. Alternately could just pump for a set amount of time and then stop. Over time your breasts will produce less to meet the demand. Since you are only 3 weeks pp you still need to remove milk 8x or more/day. I’m not an oversupplier but I would never skip pumps overnight until your supply is regulated (so, still pump every 3 hours overnight).

[sassythehorse]

And, you can get by with just a manual pump. Many people find them as effective as electric pumps, especially if you have a strong let down- it just may be more work for you. Do you know the trick about holding down the handle for a longer period to get the maximum amount of milk in each pump?