Breastfeeding Oversupply: Why Having “Too Much Milk” Is Hard (and How to Fix It) | Breastfeeding with Confidence Podcast
- jaimiezaki
- 4 days ago
- 9 min read
Breastfeeding with Confidence Podcast : Why an Oversupply of Breastmilk can be challenging
Many women are often told to be grateful if they’re “making plenty” of milk, but breastmilk oversupply can be exhausting and painful—and it’s absolutely valid to say, this is hard. If your letdown feels like a firehose, your baby coughs or pulls off, or you’re riding the plugged duct–mastitis roller coaster, this guide is for you.
What is an oversupply of breastmilk?
Oversupply (hyperlactation) is when your breasts produce significantly more milk than your baby needs.
What are signs of an oversupply of breastmilk?
Common signs include:
Forceful letdown / spraying and baby coughing, gulping, or pulling off
Frequent spit-up and frothy, greenish stools
Engorgement, plugged ducts, or mastitis
Nipple pain from baby clamping to slow the flow
Pumping far more than baby drinks (e.g., multiple extra bottles per day)
Key point: Oversupply is usually a symptom of something deeper—not “the problem” itself.
What Causes Oversupply in Breastfeeding Moms?
Oversupply can develop for several reasons, often in combination:
Accidental overstimulation Early, anxious pumping “just in case” can train your body to produce more than needed.
Oral function issues Babies who don’t remove milk efficiently often nurse very frequently, which overstimulates supply even while transfer is suboptimal.
Inflammation or medical factors Some medications and inflammatory states can drive hyperlactation.
Understanding your root cause is the fastest way to real relief.
How to Safely Reduce Oversupply (Without Tanking Supply)
1) Shift your mindset You’re not “complaining.” Oversupply can be painful, isolating, and risky (hello, mastitis). Your experience matters.
2) Feed the baby—then pump only to comfort If you’re uncomfortably full after feeds, express just enough to soften. Skip timed pump sessions; aim for minimal relief to avoid re-stimulating production.
3) Try cautious block feeding (short-term tool) Offer one breast for a time block (e.g., 2–4 hours), then switch. This gently signals your body to produce less while baby still feeds on demand.
Watch for increasing fullness on the resting side; hand express just to comfort to prevent plugs.
This is a temporary strategy; once supply settles, return to alternating normally.
Only attempt this under guidance of an IBCLC after your baby has had oral function evaluated
4) Support latch and flow control
Use laid-back (reclined) positions to let gravity soften the spray.
If baby slips into a lazy latch during comfort sucking, gently relatch to protect nipples.
Consider baby-wearing between feeds to meet contact needs without continuous nursing.
5) Screen for oral function issues Persistent clamping, clicking, mouth breathing, or constant “snacking” may signal tongue/lip or airway dysfunction. An evaluation with an IBCLC can prevent recurring plugs and mastitis.
6) Calm the inflammationIce after feeds, adequate hydration, mineral-rich nutrition, and rest help your body recalibrate. If oversupply is extreme (e.g., pumping 4–5 oz in under a minute) or you suspect a med side effect or hormone issue, loop in your provider.
When to Get Help with Fixing Overuspply of Breastmilk
Recurrent plugs or mastitis
Baby struggling to handle flow, coughing, choking, or very gassy
You feel trapped in a pump-to-empty cycle
Oversupply started after a schedule/pumping change, or you suspect an underlying medical trigger
Early, tailored guidance saves your nipples, your sanity, and your supply.
If you need one to one support to navigate your oversupply of breastmilk experience, book a consult at littlebearlactation.com/support
Listen to the Breastfeeding with Confidence Podcast episode linked above for a more in depth conversation about the symptoms, causes, and fixes for oversupply of breastmilk!
5 Common Breastfeeding Mistakes
Avoid Mistakes that Sabotage Breastfeeding
Keywords: breastmilk oversupply, oversupply when breastfeeding, how to fix oversupply of breastmilk, reduce milk supply, cause of oversupply, risks of oversupply
Transcript:
I need to just be quiet and not talk about how difficult this is and be grateful that I have enough milk for my baby and not say a word about this being difficult. And I can't complain because at least I have enough milk.
Hey Mama Bear. Welcome to the Breastfeeding With Confidence podcast. Do you dream of bonding with your baby through exclusive breastfeeding, but worry about breastfeeding pain or low milk supply? Maybe you're struggling with breastfeeding and no one seems to have any answers. I'm Jamie Doula, international Board certified lactation consultant, and Mom of five, and I have been where you are after working through painful latches, milk supply worries, and postpartum depression, and.
Supporting countless mothers through their breastfeeding journeys for over eight years. I'm here to tell you breastfeeding doesn't have to be perfect to be positive. Each week I'll share breastfeeding tips to help you prevent and overcome unexpected breastfeeding challenges so you can actually enjoy bonding with your baby.
If you are ready to shut out the toxic whispers of the world, embrace your God-given intuition and release your inner fierce Mama bear. Grab some coffee or your favorite herbal tea and let's dive in.
Hey mama. Welcome back to the Breastfeeding With Confidence Podcast. I'm your host, Jamie. Today we are going to be talking about oversupply. A lot of times we talk about how to know I'm making enough milk, but what if it feels like you're making too much milk? You know, this is a problem a lot of moms feel nervous to talk about because they feel like.
Well, I have a whole lot of milk and there are moms out there struggling to make enough milk. So I need to just be quiet and not talk about how difficult this is and be grateful that I have enough milk for my baby and not say a word about this being difficult. And I can't complain because at least I have enough milk.
I don't have undersupply. Right? But. Oversupply actually comes with a lot of challenges, and it can be a red flag for some things too. So let's talk about it a little bit. What are some signs you might notice with, um, oversupply? So obviously if you're pumping, you are making way more milk than your baby drinks, and I don't even just mean like an extra bag or two.
I mean, way more milk. All right. So sometimes this means it'll seem like you have a forceful letdown. There's milk spraying unexpectedly. Uh, the baby is coughing and gagging and pulling off during feeds. They're spitting up a lot. They have frothy stools. , Maybe you have a lot of engorgement and plugged ducts and mastitis.
This is a really big risk with oversupply. . And you can have some nipple pain because your baby's trying to kind of like clamp off the flow versus letting it flow to them because they feel like they can't handle it well. First of all, all of those things if you paid attention, sound a lot like a lot of other symptoms we talk about.
So this is the thing a lot of moms don't realize is oversupply of breast milk is rarely just too much milk, but it's usually a sign of an underlying issue, and sometimes that is underlying inflammation that causes hyper lactation. Other times it's actually the other side of oral dysfunction. So a lot of times we talk about oral dysfunction, meaning your baby's not getting enough milk out and therefore they are telling your body to make less milk.
And so you have undersupply. But there is another side to it where sometimes babies don't get milk efficiently, so they nurse so frequently that it actually overstimulates your breast, telling your body to make more. And then this just becomes a cycle of. Poor removal, overstimulation.
It leads to clogged ducts, it leads to mastitis. There's a lot of challenges that come with oversupply. Put these two problems together. Say we have inflammation that's causing hyper lactation, and your baby's not nursing well, so the milk's not being pulled out well, but you are having inflammation. That too is going to cause.
Like clogged ducks and mastitis and make things very uncomfortable and difficult. So what can you do? First of all, we need to identify the underlying cause. We need to figure out what's going on, why we're here. Did we accidentally pump ourselves into an oversupply? 'cause we were super anxious about having a low milk supply.
Is our baby having a latching issue? Is there an inflammation issue? Is it a combination? Probably. . There's a lot of different things that we need to address the root cause of first, and then once we have everybody feeding efficiently and feeding well, and we need to reduce that milk supply, you can try block feeding, which is where you feed from one breast for a series of feedings, and then you swap sides.
So like from 8:00 AM to noon, you only feed from the right side. Then from noon until. Four, you only feed from the left side. That's just an example. I'm not saying to go do that, that's not a tailored schedule for you, so please don't run with that. , But you do need to be careful that the other side is not getting quote backed up, right?
Hey mama. Sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to tell you that when I had my first baby, I really thought I was ready to breastfeed. And the truth is I struggled and the people I expected to help me didn't actually have the answers. That is why I created the breastfeeding resource library, so you don't have to leave breastfeeding to chance Inside you will learn how to avoid unnecessary formula, protect your milk supply.
And get a pain-free latch. You'll also learn how to fix common struggles before they become big problems. Visit little bear lactation.com/library and use code podcast 50 to save. Now I.
So we need to make sure that we are expressing milk strategically so that we're just easing discomfort, but we're not over pumping. , And then we just need to make a plan for, you know. Reducing that milk supply by reducing the demand if that is not solving the problem. If you are somebody who's like, you feed your baby and they're full and you're like, I'm still full.
I'm going to pump, and you get five ounces in 30 seconds, yes, I've seen it. It's wild. There's probably something seriously underlying that we need to address. And so the first thing I would say is we're going to. Stop pumping based off time, we're gonna pump based off output. Okay? We're gonna reduce that completely.
We're just going to pump to comfort. We're gonna use a lot of ice anti-inflammatory approaches like we are. We are going to reduce everything we can as far as it comes to telling your body to remove more milk without putting you at risk for mastitis. Sometimes you're gonna need a tailored plan for that.
But if, if it's really bad like that, there could be, you could be on a medication that has hyper lactation as a side effect. There could be, , a pituitary issue going on. There could be underlying things, , inflammation issues. Like there could be different things at play that we need to start investigating and advocating for further investigation with a healthcare provider.
So, to wrap it up, oversupply is. Not always a good problem to have. It can lead to things like mastitis, clogged ducts, like we said before, which can lead to undersupply at the end of the day as well. Right? So oversupply is usually a sign of a problem. It's not the problem itself, and we have to figure out what that underlying cause is.
And then implement strategies to work on it. If you want to get breastfeeding off to a great start and you want to make sure you're latching your baby well, and you're supporting your milk supply well from the start, so that you can avoid undersupply or oversupply by breastfeeding resource library. Is the place for you with tips, videos, and guides on managing your milk supply and getting a great latch from the start so that you can feel confident and supported through breastfeeding.
Visit little bear lactation.com/library and use code podcast 50 to save today. If you are struggling with oversupply and you need that one-to-one support, go ahead and book a 20 minute q and a session. We will kind of figure out where you are in your journey and what exactly you need to move forward and create the breastfeeding experience that you dream of.
Visit little bear lactation.com/support to book now.
Alright, mama bear. That is a wrap for today. If this episode helps you feel a little more confident or a little more prepared for breastfeeding, can I ask you a quick favor? Go ahead and leave me a review. It helps other moms find this podcast and join us in this amazing community of fierce and confident Mama bears.
And hey, if you know a friend who could use some encouragement or real talk about pregnancy, breastfeeding, and all things motherhood, share this episode with her. You've got this Mama Bear Trust your instincts, stay fierce, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
Jaimie Zaki is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) and mom of 5! Jaimie has volunteered as a La Leche League Leader, worked as a nurse, doula, and birth photographer, and is the host of the Breastfeeding With Confidence Podcast and founder of the Confident MamaBear Society. Jaimie provides holistic breastfeeding advice for pregnant & new moms, helping them overcome unexpected latching trouble and milk supply issues. She empowers mothers to make informed decisions from a place of confidence and intuition.
Breastfeeding Resources Available:
