Baby frustrated by fast letdown followed by slow flow

[dal86]

Hi There, looking for some breastfeeding help/advice if possible.

My 5 week old is getting distraught every time she feeds - by distruaght I mean bright red, screaming, flailing arms etc.

I have a really fast letdown (sometimes she coughs/splutters), but most of the time she can handle it. The problem is that after this the flow is obviously slower & she gets impatient and frustrated. I keep persevering and popping her back on through the tears, but she never gets satisfied and most feeds we just end up giving up because we are both in floods of tears. I end up just having to rock her to sleep through the screaming even though she is clearly still hungry, but just refuses to put the effort in to sucking.

Has anyone else experienced this, any tips, does it ever get better or will she always be frustrated?

How's her weight gain op?

Weight gain & nappies are all fine

Could you possibly express the fast letdown out of the way so that then she can focus on actually sucking and getting the milk?

Hmm, I could try that. How would I do that?

Hand express or use a pump

Once she gets frustrated on one side I'd swap her to the other side so she gets another let down.

@ChildminderMum I have been doing that and then exact same thing happens on the other side. Are 2 letdowns enough? Today I've got some upset that after each side I've then just given up, but I worry I am then depriving her of food.

Will she go back on the first again?

I'd maybe try just feeding while she's happy, swapping as soon as she's frustrated and then stopping entirely as soon as she wants to. Just see how long she goes between feeds etc. Some babies do just feed for a few minutes each time.

Might she be getting wind as a result of the initial fast letdown? I have a 13 week old and similar letdown issues. If she is upset and not feeding (she arches her back and screams) it's nearly always the case that she needs winding and will feed calmly after that. Just a few seconds of letdown can give her really bad wind. I normally take her off now as soon as I feel the letdown starting and let it calm down before continuing with the feed.

The other thing that I find helps is feeding lying down. I think it allows her to cope with the flow better.

I hope things get easier for you both.

Do try swapping back and forth between breasts until she doesn’t want to feed any more, breast compressions too after the initial letdown - it speeds up flow so if it’s frustration at the slowness it should help.

As mentioned, feeding lying down either on your sides or with you reclined and baby on top slows down flow so might help if she struggled initially, particularly if it’s been a while since the last feed.

aargh wrote a reply and then lost it

In short: can you get her checked for tongue tie. Sounds like DD, we had fast let down issues but also undiagnosed tongue tie meaning she got too tired to finish a feed

I was just about to say tongue tie but @minipie beat me to it. It can definitely go undiagnosed and could be an issue. Hope you can sort this.