Help! It's going all wrong, am dreading the next feed.

[Havana]

DS is five weeks today... feeding was all going so well until a couple of weeks ago, since when it seems to have been getting progressively worse. Now almost every feed is a bad one - he goes on okay, but soon starts taking in air and ends up red in the face and screaming, gets even crosser when I take him off to wind him because he is so frantic for the milk. After coming off once it seems impossible to get him back on again successfully, so the wind gets worse and worse and we both get more and more frantic. I took him to the breastfeeding clinic yesterday, they said my positioning was good (high praise indeed, believe me) and the problem is that my milk comes too fast for him after the letdown. Am feeling a bit desperate. What's the deal with cranial osteopathy? I don't think he's got true colic, but can it still help with stuff? He's up half the night too, which is making me feel worse about everything. His weight gain has been good so far, in fact he's a bit of a bruiser. Any ideas, anyone?

[expatinscotland]

I may get slated for suggesting this, but something that worked for me when DD2 got really worked up and was too wound up to latch properly was to pop a dummy in her mouth for a bit till she calmed a bit.

It worked a treat.

[moondog]

I tried cranial osteopathy as had a very screamy fighty baby and it did seem to help.
I used to also go and feed lying down in a dark room when the baby was 'kicking off'
Purely anecdotal but felt sometimes thar his senses were overloaded and it was all too too much.

Some women may suggest expressing a little first if your letdown is very strong??

(Morning Expat! Stopped raining in E'burgh yet? Sun finally out in North Wales thank God!)

[Enid]

expressing good

also finger feed a bit forst

[expatinscotland]

Sun's FINALLY making a break here in Edinburgh after days of rain. It's still quite chilly, though.

Excellent idea to express some, though! :)

Hang in there, Havana - the first 10 weeks are the toughest.

[Havana]

thanks for the suggestions - will try expressing though was hoping to avoid that (had to express all DD's feeds for the first 8 weeks last time, have to remind myself that in comparison this is not that bad!!). have tried a dummy - two different types in fact - but he practically gagged on them and gave me such a look. will keep trying though - made a massive difference with DD1. have tried feeding lying down, again it worked okay in the first couple of weeks but can't seem to do it now. and i thought things were supposed to get better as the days and weeks went on... it's just awful when i'm supposed to be nourishing him and he is going red in the face and squealing in apparent agony. but at the same time seems famished - and i feel i can't win. hope the sun stays out for you all, cheers.

[tiktok]

Havana, you have all the classic symptoms of an over-generous milk supply. You are absolutely textbook on this

• excellent weight gain in baby
  
• everything fine for first weeks then this cross behaviour
  
• very fast let down
  
• windy baby
  

Before going for cranial osteopathy, check out a very simple technique which really does help. It's feeding on one side only for several hours at a time, hand-expressing to comfort if needed on the other side. Then use the other side only, for a similar period of time. You need to do this for 2 days or so before you know if it will or will not work. It reduces your supply without reducing the amount of milk available to the baby.

It is easy and why the bf clinic did not tell you this, I don't know :(

[tiktok]

And don't bother expressing, and don't bother with a dummy....expressing is a faff and a dummy won't address the underlying concern which I am pretty sure is your abundance of milk :)

[Laura032004]

I had a similar problem, and did the feeding on one side only for set amounts of time thing. Also, when I did the feeds, I would have a towel under the other side. The stimulation from ds feeding from one side was enough to get the other going (freed from bra & breastpad restrictions), and quite a lot of milk would let down from that side. It just stopped it from being overfull, and drowning ds when he got to that side.

It did settle down again :) Far better to have too much than be worrying about having too little, although I'm sure it doesn't feel like that :)

[tiktok]

Good tip, Laura.

[oliveoil]

I had this with both of mine.

I got some of those plastic breast shield things, that collect your milk in, not sure of the proper name, I think Avent make them (and Boots sell them).

So when I fed on one side, it poured/sprayed out of the other (literally!) and so when they fed, the let down wasn't as fierce.

[LucyJu]

Something that I found helped was to feed using the rugby hold so that dd's head was slightly higher than her body. This seemed to help her to swallow fast gushes of milk more easily without choking.

[Havana]

Thanks very much - I hadn't heard about that only feeding on one side thing until today. Will definitely give it a go. Got him weighed today and he's put on a pound in a week so it definitely sounds as though over-supply is my problem. Good - I feel I have a few tricks up my sleeve now. Which is just as well - he's just puked up all over me after a particularly windy feed.