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Infant feeding

4 months old and feeding painful again

1 reply

diyqueen · 12/08/2011 11:18

I have a 4.5 month old dd and have breastfed her since the start. We had some difficulties breastfeeding in the early days but this resolved and for the last couple of months her latch has been brilliant, and feeding quick and enjoyable. However, the last week hasn't been so good - she's taken to feeding almost aggressively, sucking hard, clamping down and twisting and pulling off, especially on the side with less milk. This side is now quite sore and was bleeding last night and this morning - has completely knocked me for six as I thought we were out of the woods after the first few painful weeks. It's not just the feeding, she's generally quite tense and grumpy and crying lots - I kind of wonder if it might be teeth-related - but obviously the pain when feeding is bothering me. Has anyone else been through this or have any suggestions for getting her to chill out a bit while feeding? The only thing that seems to work is walking around rocking her gently whilst feeding - but this isn't easy to do in public, and she's quite heavy to hold in that position while standing for long. Thanks!

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JoinTheDots · 12/08/2011 11:32

I seem to remember this when the teething began (which for us was around Christmas). It did get better, but I can't quite remember how long it took.

I found getting DD to feed when she was drowsy helped as she was naturally more relaxed, and also giving her teething toys (a frozen baby sock was one of her favourites to clamp down on and yank out of her mouth) before a feed sometimes helped.

If you are getting to the point where she has made you bleed, you do need to check and be careful of the latch, back to basics, and also consider expressing on that side while it heals if it is too painful to feed from.

I do hope she gets out of the habit soon!

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