SCREAMING AFTER 5 MINUTES

[IcklePickle]

My 5wk old was falling asleep after the first 5 mins on the boob, today he has started to scream after the first 5 mins! Gave in after an hour of screaming today, he only took 20 mins on boob so gave him 2oz of formula, he promptly fell asleep for 2 1/2 hours!? Not the first time he has screamed though. Could he have jaw ache or something or is he refusing boob altogether? I have been giving top ups at 5pm feed for last week as he screamed after gave both boobs. Is he refusing boob as easier to get from bottle?

It may be that your supply doesn't match his demand. Is he latched on correctly? I assume after 5 wks you'd know if he wasn't. If he isn't able to adequately remove the milk sitting behind the nipple he might be frustrated. Do you feel a good let-down once he starts sucking? If you want to increase your supply I'm afraid the only way is to either put him on to feed more often, or express & build it up that way. There are some mums on here who's babies are crap at bfing & end up taking EBM from a bottle for every feed.

I'm having the same problem. My DS is 7 weeks and feeds well for 5 mins then screams at my boob! He wonb't take it again after that. I'm just trying to persevere through it. Hopefully it's just a phase... I do worry htat he's not getting enough though.

Young babies will almost always take milk from a bottle, even if they're not actually hungry simply because it flows so easily. Your little one could just be hitting the unsettled phase that they often have between 4 and 12 weeks, or he could have wind or just be cranky for another reason. Nobody knows for certain what their baby needs or wants at this early stage, it takes months to learn each other properly, until then its just trial and error I'm afraid.
You could try feeding in a more upright position to try to minimise wind problems, and if they're unsettled sometimes going out for a walk or putting them in a sling for a while can be enough to settle them until they really want to feed again.

agree with Roxswood - sometimes they don't actually want to feed, they just think they do, but are in fact tired/bored/tired/wet etc & need to be soothed.

If he fell asleep for 2.5 hours, sounds like he was exactly that!