BF mums with experience...need help, 4month old suddenly really difficult to feed, need advice

[missytequila]

breast feeding has been going great...until now. my 4 month old is not latching on properly despite me trying and taking her on and off. she thrashes her legs about, grabs my skin with her hands, pushing and pinching..and pulls her head away while sucking, bites....my breasts and nipples are now killing me and its making me dread feeding... feeding is like a battle and i am losing. --- any suggestions, advice please

Is she still putting on weight?

I had a similar problem at around that age when DD suddenly realised there were more interesting things in her world than feeding. Feeds that had been 2 hourly suddenly went to 4-5 hours of me offering but her objecting strongly.

I would suggest getting her weight checked. If that's OK then offering her a feed if she seems hungry and if she objects, calmly take her off and get her busy with something else for a while then offer again in another hour or so. They also get more efficient at getting what they need from a feed in a shorter space of time so a short feed might give her more than you think.

Biting - I tried pulling her in to the breast fairly hard so she'd let go because it was difficult to breathe. Ultimately I think it was her trying to tell me to get that thing out her face because she wasn't interested!

It is stressful though.

her weight has gone down slightly. she wants to feed more, sleep less..it just seems like she is not feeding properly anymore and I dont know how to pin her down so that she stays latched on. and I dont know how much more pain my breasts can take.

Do you think your supply could be suffering? Are you drinking enough fluids?

It would be normal in the warm weather for her to snack more frequently.

You could try as notasausage said to distract her rather than feed her. Only offer the breast every 3-4 hours.

Could her nap times need adjusting? Maybe she's getting over tired and fussing on the breast because of this.
Try putting her down abit earlier maybe. My DS used to go back to bed in the mornings about an hour after waking for the day.

Could she be teething? My dd did this about this age, and it was teeth coming through - since then her latch always changes for a few days when she's teething.

Hi, I have been posting on another thread about a similar issue. I am sure my DD is teething. She is 17 weeks and when she appears sore she fusses for a while before a feed. It has got particularly bad over the past couple of days (although last night she wanted fed for hours [confusion])...anyway, I have found that it helps to massage her gums before a feed and also use ashton and parsons. Massaging her gums really seems to help give her some relief. She seems really uncomfortable when feeding - I recently read that when sucking blood rushes to their gums and this causes increased pain during teething.

Have had this with both DD and DS - a combination of teething and finding the world more interesting.

Sometimes swapping sides helps - it could be a certain part of her mouth is hurting and making her latch painful for her, and thus you! Is she like this at every feed?

Agree with notasausage that sometimes not persisting with the feed and trying a little later helps.

When DS2 is doing this stuff (it really is a 4 month thing isn't it?). I take him off and do something else for a bit and then try again.

He sometimes likes to play silly buggers at the last feed of the evening as well. I found myself grabbing the hand he was waving about and pulling it down gently saying "No" tonight to get him to stop.

He also does this on/off thing during that feed as well and if he does it a lot I think "Right the next time he pops off he is going to bed", if he does then I put him down, sometimes he settles and sometimes not but I have always found that when he latches back on after a bit in the cot he settles down to business.

Another idea to add to the mix - She could be going through a growth spurt, needing more milk and finding it frustrating that the supply isn't quite there yet. This is very common around 4 months.

My DD was similar at 4 mo, there was a week or so when she was all squirmy and frustrated and pulling the boob really hard with her gums - this last is apparently because it triggers the let-down reflex.

If it is a growth spurt, the extra milk she needs should come through in a day or so if you keep feeding on demand for now. I would avoid restricting feeds in any way - this is counter-productive, as it will just prolong the process of increasing your milk supply. Also, it may increase her frustration and a frustrated, hungry baby ain't good for sore boobs! To keep her calm, you could try feeding her long before she asks for it.

It's worth remembering that babies who want to BF more often than usual generally have good reason to do so. It won't be forever - if you can go with it for a bit, and assuming there is nothing more complicated going on, things should be back to normal very soon.

There is some really useful info here about babies who are fussing during breastfeeding and this about growth spurts.

Hope this helps, good luck!