Wind in breastfed baby

[GreenEyedGirl01]

Hi all

Looking for some advice to help my 10 day old and me - sorry in advance for the long post!!

We got off to a rocky start with breastfeeding, after an forceps delivery and his first few hours spent in SCBU baby wouldn’t latch so we started off with hand expressed colostrum until we were able to get him to latch with the help of midwives. However, he’s always been very frustrated when trying to get him to latch - he screams, snorts, shakes his head back and forth and generally can take quite a long time to latch on. This happens 7 out of 10 times, regardless of position etc. Everyone tells me that once he’s on, his latch is perfect, although he does sometimes bob off and repeat this during a feed. It’s been really draining fighting him all the time, especially as he is currently feeding very frequently.

For the last day or two we’ve also had near constant uncontrollable crying like we’ve never had before. He’s arching his back, pulling his knees up, going red in the face - it’s heartbreaking. We’ve been told it sounds like wind - not usual in breastfed babies but that the struggle to latch him might mean he’s taking in a lot of air which is getting trapped. Currently using infacol and doing lots of winding and bicycle legs but not seen a significant improvement yet. Have also been advised to try expressing to soften my breasts and offer expressed milk first to try and calm him before he gets to the breast, which is making the whole process more convoluted.

I’ve never loved breastfeeding - I find the first few seconds painful, my nipples are sore, I feel trapped in the house and am exhausted from the relentlessness of it. I’m so tempted to switch to formula to be able to share the load a bit more, but is this likely to make the colic worse? Or if the wind is caused by his difficulty latching will that stop being an issue? Has anyone experienced anything like this and have any advice? Thank you!

[cookingachristmasturkey]

No advice, but wanted to say ur not alone.... I have a 6 week old DS who has really excessive wind, not just burp related but also lots and lots of farts! It all started at 3 weeks old for us.

He is ebf, but his latch is bad, always has been and we just don't seem to be able to fix it. I think i have a fast flow, so he doesn't need to suck much... It just pours out... So he can gulp a lot of air.

We are using infacol (does seem to help bring burps up), and colief (at recommendation of HV), yo break down the lactose in my milk, in case he is just finding it hard to digest?

But three weeks in there is just as much wind. Night feeds can take an hour and a half, half hr to feed then another hour to burp and settle enough after lots of farting, grunting and general discomfort! It's killing me... Seriously lacking sleep. Plus if it goes wrong and DS hits 2 hrs then its hard to get him back to sleep at all!

I have tried cow and gate comfort milk twice now.... As like you I'm desperate to share the load. And i wonder if bottles and formula may actually be better!

Saw GP for his 6 wo check today and they were no help. They suggested it could be what i am eating causing the wind. This makes me wonder about. Dropping bf even more.... It's so hard to know what to do!

[arbrighton]

Ok, BF babies can need winding, especially if latch is not perfect.

But they'll need winding even more on formula.

DH/ partner can help with winding and settling though. My DH used to take DS after the actual feeding and walk up and down joggling him til wind came up. Wind was an issue due to shallow latch as, like turkey, milk flow was a bit more than he could cope wth.

[arbrighton]

BUT

if he is feeding really frequently, really windy, bobbing on and off and you're sore, it sounds a bit like maybe a tongue tie

[OuchBollocks]

My DS was windy, sicky, and grumpy in the evenings. (Windy & sicky all day). Diagnosed with a 75% tied tongue at 9 weeks, the change when it was snipped was immediate and quite incredible.

[Glassofredandapackofcrisps]

Breastfed babies can still be tongue tied my lg breastfed perfectly and still had chronic wind. Was told by all professionals that tongue tie was impossible due to bf going so well but her mouth didn't (and still doesn't at 22 months) form a seal round the nipple. It took till 5 months old when tt was confirmed but by that time I refused to let it be cut as I knew feeding would be affected. Try la leche. They'll put you in touch with someone who can help. Be the best money ever spent.