EBF 12 wk fighting every feed

[CoolCat2014]

My dd is 12 weeks old, EBF, good feeder from the start, with some battles with silent reflux that seems to have died down in the last couple if weeks.

The last few days every feed has been a battle, she'll give signs that she is hungry, and I'll know it's been long enough, but as soon as I pick her up and take her to the breast she screams blue murder. Sometimes I'll get her to latch on in between cries, and sometimes she'll take a good feed, other times she'll take a bit, fight, take a bit more, fight, etc.

Does anyone have any clue what's going on? I just can't cope and want to run away screaming :(

[jessplussomeonenew]

Could it be fast let down/oversupply? There's a great article on Kellymom which I can't link to from my phone but worth a search - basically the idea is that milk is coming out faster than the baby can deal with so they are uncomfortable and pull off a lot. I had this badly about 12 weeks, now at 16 my supply has calmed down a lot and/or he seems to deal with it better.

[beckworth]

Does she have any bottles? We had this at exactly the same time last week and the week before and have put it down to bottle preference, have ditched the evening bottle feed and he seems better.

[StormyBrid]

I had a ff baby that did the same at a similar age, also showed signs of silent reflux. Never did get to the bottom of it. I just wanted to offer sympathy, because I know how horribly stressful it is.

[beckworth]

Oh, and you have my sympathy. Ever time my ds cried when I tried to feed him it tore me apart a little bit more til
I was a bag of nerves. Which doesn't help as they pick up on it. Try not to stress too much and just remember it will pass. I found getting my son to suck on my finger ( or a dummy if you use one) helped calm him down and then I would quickly switch.

[squizita]

My dd did this and it was snot! No apparent cold. Children's olbas oil and a snot aspirator helped.

[beckworth]

We had snot too squizita. Not apparently blocked up but quite mucousy - hoping that was it and we can reintroduce the evening bottles at some point, I'm feeling sleep deprived!

[CoolCat2014]

I have a fast letdown, but we've learnt to cope with it - she pulls off at that point and I catch the excess with a muslin, then she'll go back on happily

Could be snot - she's very snuffly and runny nosey at the moment, plus teething, poor girl :(

[Heatherbell1978]

I had exactly the same issue with DS1 who is now 16 weeks. He would fuss and cry and scratch at me at the start of every feed and I realised he was getting impatient waiting for my letdown which went from being really fast to much slower almost overnight. He was having a growth spurt too. The only way I could get him to feed was to put a dummy in his mouth to calm him down and put him right up to my nipple while sucking it then take th dummy out and he would carry on sucking. Sometimes I has to do this a few times until my milk came in then he'd be fine. Or I'd feed him when he just woke up so and he'd usually be fine, perhaps too drowsy to care. It stressed me out so much as feeding had been going great to this point and I couldn't really feed outside of the house for a week or so until he improved but he's fine now.

[Hedgehog1977]

Had exactly the same problem with my little one (13 weeks) last few days and it's because he is bunged up. Took me a couple of days to realise as he didn't appear to have a cold! If it is this, I found snuffle babe good. X