Help! LO screaming at breast :(

[LordTubbington90]

My LO is 11 weeks old. We’ve used nipple shields from day 1 as he wouldn’t latch. It’s all been going really well, but in the last week he’s suddenly started screaming at the breast and refusing to latch. Sometimes it takes 10minutes to get him to calm down enough to latch and it’s exhausting. He gets REALLY upset and frustrated, it’s like he suddenly doesn’t have the patience to latch and suck for the 5seconds or so it takes to get the milk flowing. I’ve tried squeezing some milk out and rubbing it into the end of the shield to get him the taste and encourage the feed but it doesn’t work.

It’s so depressing watching him scream when I know he’s hungry and basically forcing him to latch. I was loving breast feeding but I’m not sure how much longer I can put up with this

[molamoob]

Had this when my dd was tiny, usually at nighttime. She'd latch on then scream. Turned out she needed winding (which took a loooong time each time). Could it be that?

[LordTubbington90]

molamoob it could be that, I always try winding him during feeds but sometimes it feels like I’m smacking the hell out of him for longer than I’m feeding him, and nothing comes up.

[MiceSqueakCatsMeow]

Move his body back and forth gently and we used to sometimes in a circular motion as well as patting. Ds1 would sometimes be so cross about his hunger pains even when he had his bottle he would continue to scream.

[LordTubbington90]

I’ve just thought, I had a cold last week - could this have affected my supply, reducing it and made him hungrier?

[molamoob]

I wouldn't have thought your cold would have much effect.

With mine it took such a long time to wind her each time and get her to settle for a proper feed. But that phase only lasted maybe a week, hang on in there!

[AdultHumanCat]

I used infacol for both my two when breastfeeding, it's a lifesaver, helps disperse the bubbles.

[Alyosha]

Is he distracted? D's did this and I fed under a cover which helped. Much better now at 15 weeks

[LordTubbington90]

Got some infacol today, will see if it helps. Fingers crossed!

[Bethacus]

Mine did this and we think it’s because of silent reflux. We’ve started medicating and I’m seeing some improvement now though she still gets worked up at some feeds.

When I was mad googling it to try and figure out what it could be I came across a lot of threads where this happened, but just self-resolved after about a month. It seems like it could be a developmental thing that settles after a bit. Which isn’t much help, but I found it reassuring that it might just go away again when we were struggling to solve the problem!

Have you tried feeding without the shields? Perhaps he’s ‘outgrown’ them and finds them more work? It’s so hard when their this small as you feel they’re trying to tell you something, you just can’t work out what!

[TheGirlOnTheLanding]

Another thing to look out for is thrush. Check if there's a 'bloom' in his mouth. Dd2 did this and it turned out this was the cause - her mouth hurt.