diff --git a/buffer.go b/buffer.go
index 19486bd6f..575134c62 100644
--- a/buffer.go
+++ b/buffer.go
@@ -21,22 +21,44 @@ const defaultBufSize = 4096
 // In other words, we can't write and read simultaneously on the same connection.
 // The buffer is similar to bufio.Reader / Writer but zero-copy-ish
 // Also highly optimized for this particular use case.
+// This buffer is backed by two byte slices in a double-buffering scheme
 type buffer struct {
 	buf     []byte // buf is a byte buffer who's length and capacity are equal.
 	nc      net.Conn
 	idx     int
 	length  int
 	timeout time.Duration
+	dbuf    [2][]byte // dbuf is an array with the two byte slices that back this buffer
+	dbufn   int       // dbufn is the current buffer counter for double-buffering
 }
 
 // newBuffer allocates and returns a new buffer.
 func newBuffer(nc net.Conn) buffer {
+	fg := make([]byte, defaultBufSize)
+	bg := make([]byte, defaultBufSize)
 	return buffer{
-		buf: make([]byte, defaultBufSize),
-		nc:  nc,
+		buf:  fg,
+		nc:   nc,
+		dbuf: [2][]byte{fg, bg},
 	}
 }
 
+// swap replaces the active buffer with the background buffer
+func (b *buffer) swap() {
+	b.dbufn += 1
+	dest := b.dbuf[b.dbufn&1]
+	if b.length > 0 {
+		// existing buffer is too large for double-buffering;
+		// we must allocate a temporary buffer that will be discarded
+		if b.length > len(dest) {
+			dest = make([]byte, b.length)
+		}
+		copy(dest[0:b.length], b.buf[b.idx:])
+	}
+	b.buf = dest
+	b.idx = 0
+}
+
 // fill reads into the buffer until at least _need_ bytes are in it
 func (b *buffer) fill(need int) error {
 	n := b.length
@@ -47,8 +69,6 @@ func (b *buffer) fill(need int) error {
 	}
 
 	// grow buffer if necessary
-	// TODO: let the buffer shrink again at some point
-	//       Maybe keep the org buf slice and swap back?
 	if need > len(b.buf) {
 		// Round up to the next multiple of the default size
 		newBuf := make([]byte, ((need/defaultBufSize)+1)*defaultBufSize)
diff --git a/rows.go b/rows.go
index d3b1e2822..a853ee4f9 100644
--- a/rows.go
+++ b/rows.go
@@ -111,6 +111,8 @@ func (rows *mysqlRows) Close() (err error) {
 		return err
 	}
 
+	mc.buf.swap()
+
 	// Remove unread packets from stream
 	if !rows.rs.done {
 		err = mc.readUntilEOF()