Fussing 15 minutes into BF... Help!

[kellestar]

DD is 3 weeks old and I have been BF on demand, this last few days she has started fussing 15 minutes into a feed, she will come off the nip screaming but want to latch immediately but her legs and arms are flailing and her torso is wriggling. I have tried winding and she may or may not burp, but she'll start indicating she wants boob back and she will suck for a minute or two and then fuss again, this will normally continue until we are so frustrated. She then won't settle down to sleep. It's not every feed that she is like this. I offer either boob, and milk is still coming out. She normally feeds between 15-25 minutes off one boob and often refuses the other if offered.

Is there a reason for this, am i doing something wrong? The start of the feed is normally very calm and she sucks enthusiastically and swallows well. Mainly feed with cradle hold by day and lying down at night.

Any advice welcome.

It does sound like wind to me. Can you wind her for longer? Would she tolerate being taken off for a wind before it starts? Can you try different winding methods? (eg on your shoulder rubbing her back, sitting up patting her back while supporting her head etc) Sorry I can't be more help.

My ds used to do the same - coming off and then wanting straight back on again, then pulling off. It was always because he needed to burp.

Have you tried laying her face down across your lap to burp? Or I found sitting ds up and leaning him forward often did the trick.

Just thought, is her nose blocked? Maybe her nose is blocking while she is feeding and she wants to breathe, then feed, then breathe etc.

I vary winding positions and often spend more time winding than feeding :)

I change her nappy before starting the feed and will check it when she starts fussing just in case.

Hello

Firstly, I don't think you are doing anything wrong. My first son did this, my second son does this (16 weeks). I wish I could tell you why and (probably of more interest to you) how to stop it, but I can't. I can tell you what I do, which may help, but I think the most important thing is not to beat yourself up - I posted about this when I had problems with my first son and got a lot of replies from mums going through exactly the same thing. So you are not alone. And it's nothing that you are doing.

Anyway, what I do this time around is remove the screaming baby from the breast, ideally pass onto someone else for them to calm him down and burp him (it usually happens for me in the late afternoon or evening, never the morning), and then I try on the other breast. If this seems no better, I abandon the feed for 10 minutes and reassess as to whether baby still wants the feed. Yes - give it another go, No - anticipate the next feed being a little sooner than normal.

I think the timeout is good. Gives everyone a chance to cool down.

Hope this helps. And if it's any consolation, the fussing gets less with time.