Wriggly baby when breastfeeding

[MollySam123]

Please can anyone help? My baby is 6 weeks old and has been breastfed the whole time. Since about 2 weeks old she has been wriggling and unhappy on and off while breastfeeding. Some days she's not too bad, and some days, like today, she is almost impossible to feed. And she won't take a bottle either.

Looking at the Jack Newman website, the description of how a baby acts when you have an overactive letdown fits her completely. It seems like she struggles with the initial fast flow of milk and then doesn't like it when it slows down and she then struggles to get milk out. It goes from one extreme to the other. She wriggles, cries, pulls back her head with me still in her mouth, kicks her legs etc and it is exhausting.

I have tried breast compression in the second stage when the milk flow slows down but I find that it just makes my boob a funny shape and pulls it out of her mouth. I try to hold her with her head as far back as possible to make the fast flow easy to swallow but she wriggles so much it's hard just keeping hold of her.

She is quite a windy baby, but almost always burps when she's awake. She has exposive farts and poos about once a day too. She doesn't have thrush in her mouth as I have had this checked by the doctor twice, and I have taken her to the osteopath twice.

She never seems satisfied after a feed, and it is always me that initiates the end of the feed after an hour or so when I can't try feeding her for any longer. A few minutes afterwards she starts to eat her fingers again and is then crying for more as she's hungry.

Please can anyone give me any hints and tips on how to make feeding any better as it is not going well today and I am exhausted. Thank you.

could be wind? if let downs fast she may gulp it in. When mine have wind they act like they're hungry chewing in hands etc. if it is she'll try and eat more as babies can't tell difference between bellyache through wind or hunger but wher she eats it'll hurt so she'll come off again. arching back suggest uncomfortable in some way. You could try cutting out dairy from your diet as that often makes them windy or keeping a food diary and see if any foods you eat trigger it. there's infacol, dentanox or gripe water you could try. this was the issue with my first and once I cut out dairy breastfed successfully

my second had same issue but things i did with ds1 didn't work. he also has gavascon as has silent reflux. he didn't throw up but would arch his back as soon as he fed squirm etc. I bottle feed him now but to be honest wish I'd perservered with bf. i was sure that bottle feeding would fix it but made no difference. i also use colief which really helps.

Might not work for your dd just some suggestions, such a guessing game! hope you find a solution soon.

Molly, read this and see if it sounds like your baby. You can contact Charlie from the website and talk to her, she is very knowledgeable and will give free telephonic and email advice

Thank you both, I will bear all this in mind. I have also emailed Charlie about tongue tie. Fingers crossed for a better night, and a better day tomorrow!

You've just described my ds exactly! He's packing on the weight so I know there's no issue with what he's getting, but he behaves exactly like that. I've got him on infacol, which is helping a bit, and I wind him a couple of times during his feed. The other thing I found helped was to lay him on his tummy across my knees and kind of jiggle him for a while.

I might try cutting out dairy too, hadn't thought about what I was eating and how it would affect his belly.

EasilyBored, have you had him checked for tongue tie? I have looked in Molly's mouth this morning and her tongue doesn't look tied but I suppose it could be further back. It's all such a worry and the symptoms relate to so many different things it's hard to know what to do for the best. Who would think that breast feeding could be so difficult!!

He was checked in hospital when he was born. I think mostly its him getting frustrated when the flow gets slower, plus he's just a windy, pukey baby. I find that letting him rest and winding him lots during each feed helps. Means feeding takes longer, but ho hum. I've noticed that it gets worse at night when he's tired.

have you considered silent reflux? Dd2 had the same things you describe and it ended up being reflux. The wind and let down issues might also be worsened by a high palate too?

My son had silent reflux and was on gaviscon which made no difference. In the end the osteopath cured him which was expensive but worked! I'm going to get Molly's tongue checked this week, hopefully tomorrow, and if it's not that I will go back to the osteopath. Good luck EasilyBored, hope things improve for you too!

A lactation consultant came to the house today and said that Molly had a slight posterior tongue tie, which she snipped, but she said that she didn't think it was the cause for all the wriggling etc and that it's 50 50 whether it will help. She has fed briefly a couple of times since then and now won't feed at all and screams every time she tries to drink. I can only assume it's because her mouth is sore where it was cut :( The consultant gave me feeding advice and said that Molly had got into the habit of feeding incorrectly and needs to latch on properly which I think she's having trouble doing and getting frustrated. Hopefully a better day tomorrow.

It is tough just after it has been cut. They can be sore for a couple of days afterwards. Perhaps a bit of calpol and baby ibuprofen will help?

May oaks which lactation consultant you used?