twisting head while feeding

[grubus]

My baby is 3 weeks old. He is great at latching on, and feeds well so far. At the end of feeds he had been letting go of the nipple, but has started keeping his mouth closed and shaking his head from side to side, or suddenly throwing his head back with the nipple still in. As you can imagine, this is both surprising and painful. Is this normal? any suggestions on why he would do it or what to do? Please?

Ugh, sounds painful. No definitive answer Im afraid. I went through a similar phase for a little bit at around this age. I sympathise. Flipping hurts. It stopped as suddenly as it started with mine. It should settle back down. Nipple shields helped my confidence as at this point theres rather a lot of feeding so a day can feel a lifetime....

The pinching phase (assuming most do it) is also fun. Although as DD was then 6mths it was at least amusing to see her look of surprise when I squeaked as she started to realised there was a person attached to them....

They sometimes do that when the milk flow has slowed down and they're trying to stimulate another let-down. Could be a signal that he'd like the other boob now, please? What do you reckon?

I spoke to a breast feeding advisor just now who suggested that baby and i could have thrush- she described what he was doing perfectly and also what my nipples look like- i thought that they had gone pink because of what he was doing, but she described the appearance very accurately. If she is correct then we should get a good solution, although i feel bad now that i know that he has discomfort.

Might be worth googling Sandifer's syndrome especially if he has any symptoms of reflux. Bit of a longshot though so feel free to dismiss!