Newborn, very colic & won't latch on... HELP!!!

[Mattu]

My 5 day old baby is having trouble latching. She is very eager to try & even latches on at times for a few seconds, but then gives up after a few sucks, so I am expressing and feeding her with a cup or syringe provided at the hospital.

Today I figured out that she is also very colic and is troubled by it so much that she only sleeps in arms or on my or my husbands chest. Due to her colic/wind I feel she gets very frustrated when I try to get her to latch on and gives up easily. She cries her lungs out, can't get her to calm own & lands up burning so much of her energy. And trying to feed her via cup or syringe means she is gulping and panting down loads of air, so it's a vicious cycle for colic & not latching to feed.

It's also very difficult to get her to burp to get her wind out.

Has anyone any advice to help me out, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

Ok, it probably would be a good idea for you to call one of the helplines, or try to go see someone. What part of the country are you in?

Has your baby ever latched successfully for more than a few seconds?

When she is (briefly) latched on, how does it feel?

Is there any other medical issue with either of you?

She sounds like she may be over hungry or over tired, and hence finding it hard to cope - lots of skin-to-skin with you might help?

It's very normal for newborns to only want to sleep with people - they feel safe with people, they've been inside you for 9 months so it's normal to want to be with you all the time!

Agree with NQC - at 5 days though you can contact the midwife and it's important you do, so she can check out anything underlying this. It does sound like normal newborn behaviour - new babies cry and get very upset when separated from you, so do keep her skin to skin and help her self-attach at the early feeding cues, and she may not wind herself up so much.

Was she an assisted delivery? I ask because sounds very similar to dd1, it turned out her sore head was the problem the way I was holding her to latch her on was putting direct pressure n it and that because she could smell milk from me she would get really upset and scream. The solution in the end was to cup feed her so she wasn't starving and frantic, have a bath with her so lots of skin to skin and then lie on my side in bed to feed her, only took the once and once she had got it there was no more problems.

What has your MW said? 5 days seems like along time for them to have left you. I would contact a peer supporter, it took a Mw a whole morning at my house to sort it out and if they can't offer you support Its worth getting someone who can.

Sorry you are having a tricky time Mattu.

Here is a good article from LLL about feeding on cue. If you don't get time to read it all, the box at the bottom which shows feeding cues is a good one.

Hope you can see your mw today and get some RL support.

its posible to feed by pop them astride your leg in a "sit upright" position.that can help if you can get the hag of it.i knew a mum who was able to rub babys back whilst feeding like this and that seemed to help
for colic lay baby down your arm holding under the chin,legs astride upper arm and rock gently with arm crooked so that they are face downwards and horizontal
for wind one mine was a devil and wandering up and downstairs with them over my shoulder rubbing back was only way to get any out-be warned wear a muslin down your back as sometimes more than just wind comes out
hope some thatl help
p.s have you a childrens centre nearby?most in my area offer breastfeeding advice either 1 to 1 or in support group

Thank you so much everyone for your advice & support.

I had a breast-feeding consultant visit us at home today. My baby was hungry and was not getting enough milk via the cup/syringe method and even though we thought she was full, she really wasn't. So now I am pumping with the Medela electric pump & feeding her in a Medela bottle with their feeding breast like special nipple (a much more increased doze) as well as trying to practice latching on. And we seem to be already getting somewhere.

I shall also be attending my local breast support drop in Center for more 1 on 1 help and hopefully in no time we'll be totally breast-feeding only.

Thank you!

Thank you ladies we've successfully latched on :-)

Huzzah!

Although I had planned to exclusively breastfeed, I was unable to breastfeed my baby for the first 5 weeks as I was unable to get my baby to latch on to my breasts. Only due to a chance encounter with a very good lactation consultant at the hospital was I finally able to breastfeed.

Here is a link to techniques that may be helpful
millemummy.com/2018/12/31/techniques-for-breastfeeding-if-breastfeeding-is-not-working/