BF 3.5 week old guzzled until she's sick....advice welcome!

[ChoChoSan]

Hello,

For the past week or so, my 3 week old has projectile vomited a few times. I suspect she is taking too much milk in the evening, but don't know how to avoid feeding her without aggro.

She goes mad to latch on and will scream the house down if I don't let her feed for ages all evening, however, i do think she has so much it makes her sick . Sometimes her father can settle her, away from me and smell of milk etc., but looking for some advice about how I might get her to settle myself without feeding. Some points:

1. I don't think she has a stomach bug, as no temperature, other symptoms, and she doesn't appear bothered...she just chucks up a large quantity.

1. I suspect a bit of reflux is a possibility, and she is very noisily grizzly at night, squealing and groaning and writhing about, although this has improved a bit since I started swaddling her to sleep again.

1. She is a good feeder and bf has been v successful for us both since birth - great latch, no pain, good supply etc.. During the day she has fairly short feeds and lots of sleep, which seems to be working well as she is gaining weight well.

1. Over the past few days I am leaking an awful lot more milk, and wonder if my flow has just increased in volume and force, and that she might be struggling with quantity and speed, but her feeding, though fast at night, seems to be manageable for her, ie. No choking etc.

1. Vomiting doesn't happen whilst feeding, but some time later...anything from 5 to 20 minutes.

I'd welcome anyones thoughts on this, as I am bf on demand at the moment, and trying to avoid stress for either of us, but the nights are beginning to get a bit fractious now! Thanks.

she sounds totally normal, and tbh i would just go with it as long as the vomitting isn't too frequent and isn't distressing her!

I had this with my first, but with my second I managed to figure out that a sit-up-and-belch in the middle of the feed worked wonders. It also stopped him squirming about.

Give it a try if you haven't already. It makes room for more milk!

I mean, let your baby come off the boob and sit up and have a burp. Not you. Just in case of confusion

sounds as if she has a large air bubble and all the milk is balancing on top until she honks it up. Do you burp her well? Keep her vertical so the air comes up but the milk stays down.

The vomiting can be quite voluminous and forceful, rather than just possetting, so I'd like to avoid if poss- spares me the washing (and the boyf has remarked on the wisdom of brand new carpet and lots of silk and velvet bedding...the luxury of child free life is no more :)

I feed her quite upright since I started wondering about reflux, but I do find it takes a while to wind her, and she gets agitated fir breast whilst being winded, I'm battling her wriggling down my chest!

I had suspected it might be the bubble of wind issue, but still not entirely convinced, though as I said, winding can be a bit of a hit and miss affair,

I have also starting unlatching her during feeds for a little burp, but it seems shell just keep wanting more and more. They may be an element of comfort suckling going on too, but tried dummy to little avail...she's not mad about it, and can't keep it in when she isn't actively sucking on it.

I actually experienced this once & once only, as I was a fairly efficxient burper. I could not believe how much came up, considering the short time the baby had fed. Sounds as if you have a similarly good feeder, but I'm betting there's a good bit of air going in. "she is very noisily grizzly at night, squealing and groaning and writhing about" sounds as if she could have a bit of gas in there tbh

At 3.5 weeks I'd really just be feeding whenever she wants it and not worrying about the sick too much. What I mean is don't feed her less/dummy etc etc if what she wants to do is feed. She will be building your supply at the moment and you don't want to interfere with that. If the vomiting is distressing her or causing her to lose weight then of course seek medical advice. Other than that I'd just accept you'll have a lot of washing to do...

I had this with DS1. Whereas everyone else carried round dainty muslins to put over their shoulders, I used to carry a bath towel!

Nothing made any difference, so I just had to put up with it. He stopped chucking up when we started weaning. (Mind you, given that he was born in '92, weaning started at 16 weeks, so we didn't have to put up with it for that long!)

I would agree that 3.5 weeks is too young to worry about stopping the feeding - just let her feed as much as she wants to.

3 week growth spurt - I remember it well...Burping dies help and also gives a break as my dd was a pig with milk and would drink til she was sick when given the chance. I found little and often in evening helped with the grizzling (she was always worst then).

One advantage of breastmilk is that because it is perfect for babies, they start absorbing it the instant it hits their tummy - so even when they puke it up, they've actually taken in more goodness than you'd think.

I have no experience of reflux but it's definitely worth checking that out with a GP, I think you can get medicine prescribed for it?

Lol at the bath towel - have been there, done that!! Me and DH used to cover the sofa and our laps in bath towels and have a bowl handy every time we fed DS1 for the first 8 weeks of his life.

I really don't want to concern you but it turned out that DS1 had a medical condition which caused him to projectile vomit the entire contents of his stomach regularly and required an operation to fix it. I won't go into details (unless you want me too) as it is unlikely that your DD would have that (it is more common in boys) and too much information is scary (particularly with a newborn). If you are at all concerned though, go and see your GP.

I have armed myself with a bath towel!

Ceebee I saw something about a condition requiring an op when I first googled this. I don't think it's anything serious but will mention it to GP when I see him just in case

It seems it's a matter of me accepting that she will throw up from time to time if there is no way of managing it. I want to continue bf on demand, but didn't want to feel I was allowing her to be sick unnecessarily if there was a way of managing it. I want to remain as chilled out as possible as regards feeding, as I know it can lead to stress, anxiety and disappointment for new mothers, and I am considering myself very fortunate at how well we have both taken to it so far.

I know what you're going through. It got better after about 6-8 weeks for us, though I dis start to try a dummy once I thought the babies had had enough. If they were truly hungry, the dummy wouldn't work, nut if they were full, it broke to feed/puke/root cycle. Might be worth a go, but maybe watch their weight to make sure enough is going in?

I'd say that sounds pretty normal, they grown out of it soon enough. DD is 7 weeks now and starting to get a bit better :)

I had this problem with both of mine, probably due to oversupply problems. I had to limit them to 5 minutes each side per feed as they could barely keep up when my letdown kicked in
MW told me I was drowning #2!

#1 had a dummy after a few weeks of carpet wrecking projectile vomiting, #2 eventually found his thumb. Not ideal but it worked for us, and you quickly learn when they are truly hungry rather just wanting to comfort suck.

They looked like Sumo wrestlers within the first month so they were definitely getting enough milk.