My baby likes to have milk in only one breast. Why?

Question

Hello doctor,

My baby is 7 weeks old and she is on exclusive breastfeeding. She prefers the right breast than the left and cries to latch on the left. So I started to pump and bottle feed from left and direct feed from the right. I pump three to four times a day and make around 100 ml from the left. My breasts are lopsided and the right side is full most of the time while the left side feels very soft. This week all of a sudden my little one prefers bottle than my breasts so I wanted to wean of bottle feeding the pumped milk. She now sucks like around 30 minutes a day from the left and rest from the right. I do not want to pump or express again from the left to increase the supply. My question is, how can I balance feeding from both breasts without pumping? My little one does not like spoon feeding the expressed breast milk. Please help.

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

It is normal for a baby that he or she chooses any one side of the breast on its own. But if you feel that your breast lopsided then you need to take some tricks. Start to feed your baby from the small one. Let him suck more and more from the small one. After some days, it will become large and engorge. But do not avoid to breastfed from the larger one too. When the large one fills please feed your baby from this side or express milk by using hand.

You can use a breast pump to express milk from the larger breast. But if you do not want to use pump, use your hands. You do not need to feed him with this expressed milk. Do continue breastfeeding a few days from small one more and more. After some days both will become balanced. One thing do not practice your baby bottle feeding. Then he will not breastfeed again.