Baby Suddenly finds feeding difficult

[guyshahar]

Hi there

Our baby, Daniel, was born last Sunday. Within a couple of days, he was breast-feeding very well (even though he still likes to put his hands in the way sometimes...).

However, yesterday, he seemed distressed for a while, and seemed unable to understand how to breastfeed. He was opening his mouth for the breast as usual, but when he found it, he didn't close his mouth around it. Sometimes, he pulled away from it with his mouth still open looking for it, and became frustrated. Other times, he took the breast, took a few gulps and then lost it again, becoming frustrated.

This lasted a few hours yesterday evening. After that, he slept well for 4 hours (a new record) and then fed normally again today. However, this evening, he started behaving in the same way again. It is as if he never learnt how to breast feed.

We do not understand why this would be and are starting to become worried. Does anyone have any idea what might be going on here, and what ways there are of helping him.

Thank you.

[TheOnlyDailyMaleForMeisDH]

Sounds a bit like colic I'm afraid. He's probably got a sore tummy. Try a warm bath when he starts up so he's nice and warm and snuggly wrap him up close before you try to feed. Don't worry it will pass. And relax, it is hard at the start but things will come together.

Congratulations!

[singalongamumum]

That all sounds quite normal to me. With my DS I found he took longer to latch on when he was really hungry, weirdly, as he was more desperate! I found I had to be quite 'assertive' for a while- just holding him firmly and keeping him on until he settled into it. I wasn't rough, but sometimes I felt like I was, IYSWIM, for one so small. Your DS may just be getting a bit more adventurous with his movements, so less likely to stay in one place unless encouraged? HTH

[singalongamumum]

Cross posts! Proving that every baby's different and DailyMale is quite right- it take s a while to figure this stuff out so don't panic!

[JimmyMcNulty]

Not an expert but just wanted to say my ds2 was exactly the same for a couple of weeks after birth, having initially fed well - slipping off, not seeming to realise when the nipple was right there for the taking and frantically aiming somewhere on the ceiling and then squealing in frustration. He's now 3.5 weeks and latches on first time far more regularly, though if he's especially hungry (during his evening marathon-feeds) he still acts a bit cross and 'forgets'. I think it just took him a little time to learn.

Ds1 at this age was similar. With ds1 I panicked a bit, got really tense and that stressed him out too. This time I just comfort ds2 and then take a deep breath and stay relaxed and try again and eventually we get it. It is hard especially when you are trying to get the latch right - it is tempting to leave them on with a bad latch and end up with sore nipples just because you are relieved they are finally on at all.

[guyshahar]

Thanks everyone

Yes - now having read up a bit about colic, it sounds like it is indeed colic. However, it seems that colic spells last around 2-4 hours, while Daniel suffers from around 5pm until around 2am every evening.

Has anyone tried Infacol? All the midwives seem to rave about it. Got a bottle from Asda today, and it says to give one dropper full, which is 0.5ml. However, looking at the dropper, one dropper full seems to be much more than that. Has anyone else tried that dose?

[singalongamumum]

I used infacol and did a dropper full and it did work. I also gave a dose of gripe water daily at about 3pm- it seemed to encourage big burps to clear the day time wind before the late afternoon/ evening began. Hope it helps- good luck!