Squirming whilst breastfeeding

[mimmymouse]

My 10 week old DD is being a bit difficult. She is squirming around quite a lot whilst breastfeeding - and it is becoming quite painful as she pulls at the breast. She doesn't seem to be windy as I've taken her off and winded her. The squirming includes moving her arms and legs - flailing about. When taken off, she attempts to eat her hands. I've been taking this to mean she is not done feeding. She is exclusively breastfed, so this is quite the problem.

When being put to sleep now she pulls her arms out of her swaddle, but hits herself in the head. Are the two squirms related?

Anyone else had this happen? I'd love a solution.

Sounds exactly like my 9.5 wo dd, except for when sleeping as she has always hated being swaddled so never did it after day 1. She is now sucking her hands at every opportunity (trying to jam fists in mouth - sound familiar?!) even after long feeds where she gas been clearly satisfied, so I don't take it as a sign of hunger. She is also getting much more coordinated and tryng to touch things, manouevre them into her mouth wherever possible, so I thought that could be related to the increased interest in sucking fingers.

Anyway she regularly has very squirmy feeds and if I keep putting her to my breast she stars sicking up, so now when she keeps pulling off I just take her off and end the feed. I offer milk again after a few minutes but she usually doesn't take it, so I guess she really has had enough even when she doesn't seem to have been drinking for long. She is thriving at 12.3lb so I have no worries about it!

My ds2 is 11 weeks. He suffers from bad flatulence and has a sore tummy a lot of the time. Before and after a feed, lie her down and do a cycling motion with her legs to try to disperse everything, and also try winding her in the middle and end of a feed. Stick with it til she's burped a couple of times even if it takes ages. If she's putting on plenty of weight, then there's no need to worry, but I empathise with you - ds snaps away sometimes and it's not pleasant!

Any possibility she is teething? It could still be ages before the teeth come through but it would be one explanation. Maybe her mouth is sore and would explain why she puts her hand straight in after a feed. Teething feels worse when feeding but presumably it isn't too bad or she would be crying.

My DS2 used to be a squirmer and it did get very sore. He did grow out of for a while after a few months but started again once he was about 13 or 14 months. It ended up with me having to stop breast feeding because he messed about so much I got very sore and ended up with cracked nipples and an infection on one side. Hopefully it won't happen to you and, if it is teeth related, it will calm down a bit soon.

Niecie, I knew I'd forgotten something - teething. My ds has two teeth ready to come through, and we spotted them at 3 weeks. I'm surprised they're still not through tbh, but yes it's a definite possibility, even tho your dd is young

It never occurred to me that she could be teething! I just assumed that was a long way off yet.... Thank you all for your comments. I'll try the cycling winding and look out for a few teeth. Also, perhaps I'm trying too hard to feed her for too long? I'll try to let her come off when she loses interest and get her weighed to check she is still putting on weight. Perhaps she has become more efficient and I'm boring her by trying to get her back on?!

Many, many thanks! That was my first posting. I'm super grateful for your help.

I think you may be right about your DD being more efficient - mine is now 10 weeks too and since 2 or 3 weeks ago, she feeds for 10 minutes. It keeps her full for give or take 3 hours during the day and 4 to 5 hours at night. I was petrified at first as previously she had been feeding for at least half an hour but she's been gaining weight so no problems there.

Agreed, she'll not be needing to feed for as long now, she's got the hang of it now! If she seems satisfied and isn't giving off signals that she's hungry, stop feeding. Try it during the day to see if she still lasts a few hours til the next feed