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Infant feeding

Issues with breastfeeding, going out of my mind!

2 replies

brontai6 · 12/06/2018 23:54

Hi all,

I'm new to Mumsnet and wanted to ask for some advice or see if anyone else has had any similar issues to ours.

Firstly, our DD is EBF and has been from birth up to now (12 weeks old ATM).
For the first few days, BF was painful and my nipples were raw and would scab over. I kept trying to ensure that the latch was correct and trying different positions in hospital and on the whole had some great advice.

DD gained really well in the first few weeks, only loosing 2% of her birth weight at the first check and surpassing her birth weight at the next check by the HV. She continued on the 50 centile line up until her 7th week.

I went to get her weighed at 9 weeks just out of curiosity and to my disappointment, she had dropped down between the 50th and 25th centile and I was asked to re-weigh in 2 weeks time. At 11 weeks she had dropped again to the 25th centile.

I have expressed concerns over the weeks on various issues that I feel have largely been ignored due to the fact that DD was gaining weight well initially. These are as follows:

From week 3, (TMI warning) I noted that she was having green stools. She also started having mucous in the stools and on the odd occasion (no more than 5 separate occasions) she has had tiny specks of blood.

She has always been a 'snacker', having around 5-7 minutes on the breast at a time which I would worry about in case she wasn't getting enough. I used to try her at the breast very often in the early weeks to compensate and I remember her coming off the breast seemingly satisfied but now it seems like much more of a fuss (on her part)

I have been trying to combat oversupply for weeks. I tried everything from block feeding to switch feeding etc. but nothing really helped. I was frequently engorged and often had painful breasts but didn't realise that wasn't entirely normal after your milk came in. This oversupply was causing an over active let down and DD was coughing and spluttering which was upsetting for both of us. I experimented with different positions (modified cross cradle, koala, laid-back positions) and found that having both of us lay on the bed to feed seemed easier for her. Although now, I only seem to be able to feed DD on the bed without fuss which isn't always practical and I feel like I'm confined to the bedroom all the time. DD also always wants to feed when tired and feeds though her sleeps and tends to want to sleep every hour.

On top of this, I feel like DD has a shallow latch. My nipples often come out lipstick shaped, DD often pulls back on the breast especially when she feels the flow is fast. DD also makes clicking sounds at the breast and is very gassy.

Thrush has been ruled out (swabs came back normal). I do wonder about a potentially missed tongue or lip tie.

As for the green, mucousy stools and blood, I have wondered about whether DD has a food allergy to something that I'm eating eg. dairy. She is due to see a Paed. next week so hopefully will have some answers regarding this.


Sorry for the long post. Just wondering if any of this sounds familiar to anyone else? Any tips or advice would be much appreciated.

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InFrance2014 · 13/06/2018 16:36

Hello,

There's a lot in your post. The blood could have been if your nipples were still cracked, this happened to me a couple of times. But I would want to double check it if it was after they healed.

The weight loss isn't desperate, I had a big newborn who eventually went to 25%-ish, but again it's probably worth checking that out.

I would go and see an IBCLC for your oversupply issue, and to ensure that there is no tongue tie if only for you own peace of mind- however the poor latch/clicking/lipstick thing happened to me too for MONTHS and it was just a case of poor positioning and nipple anatomy not being ideal. After I was assessed by IBCLC I felt much less stressed and focused on technique which helped.
For oversupply in general making baby choke you can just express by hand a bit at first, or even pump until the letdown is over.

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NoSuchThing · 19/06/2018 23:40

Have a lactation consultant check your baby for tongue tie. A lot of these issues sound incredibly familiar; the oversupply, the clicking, the gas, even the laid down feeding! DS had tongue tie cut at 8 weeks which helped to improve his latch. We still do most of his feeds laid down but we can muster an unfussy upright feed when we are out for a couple of hours. I think this is partly to do with having the tt cut, and also because he’s getting bigger and stronger; he’s 20 weeks now. I understand the feeling of being trapped, I just keep telling myself that it’s not forever and he is gradually getting better at feeding.

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