dd screaming everytime I put her to breast

[Nyunya]

I?d love to hear any ideas if anyone knows what?s going on with my dd, who is 3 months old and ebf.

I?m having real problems feeding her. The good thing is she is actually feeding enough to put weight on etc, so there isn?t a major concern, but we have such a palaver every time we feed, and its distressing for me, her and dh. Its been going on for a month.

She?ll be happily rooting (opening mouth, making tunnel shape with mouth, chewing hands, making a gape when I touch her lips etc) till I put her to nipple (in any position) and then she screams, arches back, kicks legs. She?ll put her hands to her mouth which will calm her (and sometimes I will use my finger or dummy to try to calm her enough to take a feed) but will scream again as soon as I take whatever it is out of her mouth and move her towards nipple. She will sometimes cry more than other times, and will often make a gape and try to latch, but usually it takes a number of attempts with much soothing and calming from me before I can get her latched on, even though she is clearly hungry

Have tried:
every position possible including cradle, rugby, lying down, lazing around in bed etc
feeding as soon as she shows even smallest sign of hunger
winding very thoroughly before, during and after a feed
Having mum, motherinlaw and breastfeeding friends to observe to see if they can work out what to do ? am off to a breastfeeding support group this afternoon to see if anyone has any idea what?s going on.
Have spoken to a gp too ? no idea. Ears are not inflamed and throat is not sore.

I think it seems worse on the left breast. This morning we had some success latching her onto the right, letting her feed for a few mins then shunting her over to left.
She is fine lying down on her back or side on playmat, my lap etc, just screams when she gets to the nipple.

She?s developing normally in any other way ? weight gain is ok ? she has regained weight after virus at 7-10 weeks, and is generally happy and contented.

Any ideas?

This is not much help but ds screamed and arched his back etc a lot. Went to various bf support, paed referral etc. Conclusion: maybe he just doesn't like being a baby - powerless, immobile etc. He did indeed get a lot happier when he could sit and then crawl and now walk.

I found when he was sleepy there was much less faff and more getting on with latching. I fed him mainly in a dark bedroom lying down when he'd just woken from a nap - no tv, no dh, no distractions. Ipod and one earphone was a lifesaver.

Wow I am having exactly the same problem! My DS is 16 weeks and does this for all the daytime feeds. He screams when I try to bring him to the breast, despite rooting and showing hunger signs. He will then go red, arch his back and pull away. It;s so frustrating. I end up having to use the dummy to calm him, I have to whip it out and quickly transfer him to the breast to get him to suck. I don't understand it. Strangely he doesn't do this at night

Will watch with interest to see what people think...

have you got a fast let down?
maybe try hand ecpressing a little and then putting her on after let down?
not sure what else although someone like tictok or organiccarrot migfht have more ideas.
Have you had a look at kellymom.com thats usually quite good for bf issues.

I had exact same thing. Thought it was reflux and then fast let down but it just turned out to be general baby fussines. Can be made worse if I am in a busy room : tv on, other people talking etc.

She is 4months now and sometimes will scream and fuss. I am just persistent and try to change to a calmer room.

Off course do get baby checked if you think could be reflux.

Soldier on - it will go away! x

BTW even the Kelly mum site will list 'distraction' as a problem. Baby becoming aware of the world around and just being nosy

I have this problem though not at every feed (DS is 14 weeks). Nights are fine.

Things I've found work :
Standing up , holding Ds in an upright sitting position and just positionning his mouth near the nipple. Usually works and I can usually sit straight back down again. Even if he loses the latch when I sit down, Ds will happily feed in his normal position then, despite having screamed blue murder 2 minutes earlier .

Putting him into a sling (wrap one) and walking around til he calms down and starts chewing the sling then offering the breast. Works 50% of the time.

Sitting him on the back of the sofa and putting breast towards his mouth. Works maybe 25% of the time.

Giving up and distracting him with toys for 30mins then trying again when he'll be hungrier.

Also offering the other breast can work, even if by all logic he should be eating from the right breast, sometimes offering the left will make him start nursing, then I can swop him over easily.

Oh and I've also discovered that for DS, having fingers in his mouth is not a sign of hunger and he gets very pissed off when I take his fingers out and try to feed him!

Strange child (although a friend reports the same thing!)

Yep Kellymom recommends feeding when they are sleepy to help easily distracted babies, thats were I got it from, worked for us.

Goodness me it seems like its a bit of a problem for a number of people. Thanks for comments and suggestions - you're all pretty spot-on!

There was an Infant Feeding Specialist at the Bf support group yesterday afternoon. So very helpful She spotted dd has a mild tongue-tie which explains various other mini-problems we're having (clicky latch, dribbling during feeding, fussiness at breast) which she thought, combined with me trying to feed her too often, meant she just didn't want to work at feeding. She's very 'looky' as my dad says (or 'nosey' as the specialist put it) and just wants to be up and looking around - v similar to your experience Albrecht. Specialist said to try to leave it longer between feeds till she's really hungry then she won't be so faffy (now looking back on it I'm still offering her feeds every 2-3 hrs - far too often! Dh did suggest this but I thought she was hungry, and didn't want to get to crying-hungry stage!) She also suggested feeding when dd had just woken up and sleepy.

I thought dd must be constantly hungry due to continuously gnawing her hands, but you're spot on Bart1maeus and the specialist said this is not necessarily a sign of hunger.

jocie I had a look at Kellymom first (what a great resource that is!) specialist also thought there could be an element of fast let down too, as dd was bobbing on and off breast (and has done since birth which I thought was normal). And moomsy she does have a little reflux, but not enough to cause this sort of problem (thank goodness.)

Hopefully this is also helpful for you GetDown! If you're anywhere near Langport in Somerset (unlikely, I know) you could try the Bf support group in the childrens centre!

Hopefully armed with this info, and having the tie snipped things might improve and we can both enjoy feeding!

Interested to hear any more experiences!

I am no breastfeeding expert, I did master it after much fuss with DD, but yesterday I watched this and thought that it would have been so amazing to know this when mine were small:

It might help a lot of new mums, I hope so.

Thanks trulyscrumptious that's great!

(Love your name - this is what a friend of mine sings to my dd when she was struggling to feed)

Hope things improve for you now.

(Though I'm a bit skeptical of the idea that every 2-3 hours is far too often - did they actually say that exactly? I've only had the one dc so can only go on very limited experience but I wouldn't leave a baby to be really hungry as I think this will just lead to more meltdown).

Hi Albrecht - thanks for your point: she didn't say that every 2-3 hrs was too often, as she specifically told me to stop watching the clock (which I was doing!) and solely watch dd for hunger cues instead. I asked how often dd should be feeding and she said 'How long is a piece of string? Every baby is different.' I think her point was that I was misreading dd's cues and thinking that every time she was sucking her fingers she was hungry - when that wasn't the case! - and then worrying that she was hungry but unable to feed. I think I was trying to feed dd when she wasn't actually hungry at all, hence the crying - she didn't want to be looking at my breast, she wanted to be looking around! I think the advice to stop looking at the clock was spot on for me, as I was - even though in theory I knew it was not the best way to decide feeds!

Yesterday I just fed her when we were sure she was actually hungry and there was no fuss at all at the breast - and we didn't let her get to the hungry crying stage either. There were a couple of times when we weren't sure if she wanted to feed or not so we gave it a go, and she made it pretty clear she didn't want anything! (now someone's actually said that her crying was because she didn't want anything rather than because she did, it makes more sense) It was so great to have a day free from worrying that she 'wasn't feeding' and without a big fight to get her to feed. The click and bobbing on and off was still there (have to wait for tie to be snipped before we work on that) but the feeds were much less of a fight, much happier and much longer!

Goodness me that's a long post! And a v long reply to your short question - sorry!

Ah makes sense, glad you had a better day .