Milk coming out of baby's nose during breastfeed?

[ReshapeWhileDamp]

A friend's 3 month baby has had this for a few weeks now. During most of her feeds, a trickle of milk comes out of her nose. It doesn't seem to bother her, which is good, but we don't know why this is happening. The baby had all the normal health checks at birth and nothing odd was found. The only thing we could think of was a partially cleft palate, but surely this would have been noticed before, and it might have had an adverse effect on the baby's latch, which is brilliant!

Any thoughts? Thanks.

[hildathebuilder]

Is the milk ordinary or curdled... if its curdled its likely to be some kind of reflux in my experience

[Ineedsomesleep]

hilda not wure what you mean. How would the OP's breastmilk be curdled?

[Ineedsomesleep]

Oh, I see. Don't have any experience of reflux sorry, hadn't realised that curdled milk could be coming out.

[GoldenGreen]

This is happening to my dd as well - she's 11 weeks and I think it started around 3 weeks ago. It's usually out of her left nostril when I'm feeding her from the right breast. She sometimes splutters a bit and I have to sit her up but she's fine otherwise. It's not curdled at all.

I googled this a couple of weeks ago and found a few references - I think on LLL forum - it doesn't seem to be anything to worry about but hopefully someone else will know more?

[GoldenGreen]

forgot to say this isn't at every feed by any means - usually when I'm feeding her sitting up in bed so must be something to do with her positioning. I have tried to position so that her head is slightly raised and I do think it helps.

[tiktok]

Submucosal or hidden clefts can be undetected for ages.

Might be worth getting this checked out - at least speak to the HV.

Occasional trickles out of the nose is very common and harmless, though.

[GoldenGreen]

thanks, will get to the baby cafe and see the bf counsellor there next week

[ReshapeWhileDamp]

Ok, thanks Tiktok! I'll pass that on to my friend. She's just told me that the milk comes out of her baby's nose usually when the baby is dropping off to sleep. As if it's rediverting when she's stopped suckling but there is still let-down into her mouth?

Tiktok - if the baby had a hidden cleft, would it have come to light in terms of the way she latches and suckles? As far as I know, she's always had a great latch and hasn't been bothered during feeds.

[tiktok]

Can't answer your question, sorry, reshape. Don't know enough about the condition. Hope all is well (probably is :) ).

[IneedacleanerIamalazyslattern]

Not quite the same thing but dd and ds2 both used to/do sometimes sneeze at let down and sneeze out a little white 11 of milk under their nose.
Was told by midwife that it was perfectly normal as all the tubes inside were all so closely connected that in small babies it often happens.