Why do babies get angry at the breast?

[vanillacremebrulee]

Any ideas?
DS is 2 weeks old. He feeds well then is awake for a while then shows signs of needing a nap (yawns, becomes cranky, etc). At this point if I put him back on the breast to make him fall asleep he gets really angry at it and cries then pulls off. My theory is that all he wants is to suckle and he's bothered by the fast letdown. Does that make sense? Any ideas greatly appreciated. Ta.

Yes I see it that DD is tired but bf can take effort. I find that if I try and put her on too quickly and get arms flail she gets angry and upset - when she's overtired. You could try putting your baby on just before he gets cranky eg when he yawns?

DD especially does it at bedtime so doesn't feed to sleep unless I catch her early enough. I usual rock her to sleep, she naps, wakes for a feed then drifts off for the night and seven hundred night wakings

Yes iggly he does that mostly at night too. I've tried to give him a dummy and after an initial "yuk what's that?" reaction he took to it and to my surprise he preferred to suck the dummy rather than my breast to soothe himself to sleep

Hi just to say I had this problem too with Dd2. I never really got to the bottom of it as she seemed to grow out of it. I think it might have been because she got overtired and got upset as she wanted to sleep not feed.
Rather than feeding him when he seems tired perhaps just pop him in his cot/Moses basket or wherever-do a bit of hoovering/blow dry your hair/put tumble dryer on if you really think he needs help to drop off (white noise!)
Not massively helpful but keep going. 2 weeks is very early days and you're doing a fab job! Just wait till you've got a brilliant 10 week old you'll have it down pat.

Thanks for the encouragement myhands. I won't even consider stop bf for a moment but have to admit I do wonder why feeding a baby from a boob has to be do complicated!

BF can be tough!

Be careful using a dummy too much in the early weeks though as suckling helps build up supply.

iggly I've been desperately trying to reduce my supply so I'm not worried about the dummy in that respect. I'm block nursing but still getting too much in both breasts! I am worried about the "slavery" of dummies especially as an aid to fall asleep but I'm too tired not to use it as it seems to work!

We have used all sorts of aids to 'get us through'-dummies, rocking, feeding. She's now 19 months and generally sleeps totally unaided. We went cold turkey on dummies when I freaked out about the position of her front teeth at 14 months- easy as pie to get rid of it!

I have over supply. Nightmare :(

I'm now 11 weeks in and they've calmed down (my boobs that is). I ended up using blocks of 12 hours. Not recommended unless you're sure. In the the early weeks my supply felt very sensitive and I seemed to make loads.

myhands you're not been sarcastic, I hope, when you say it was easy as pie?
iggly yes oversupply is a nightmare! He was choking and gagging and even had to take him to a&e because of it I'm doing 4 to 5 hours blocks at the moment (every other feed) but at times I get very engorged. Good to know your supply is now ok. Fingers crossed mine will be too

My DS is 3 months now.

Sometimes he feeds and conks out, but most of the time he is still awake at the end of a feed.

He definitely gets grumpy and stroppy at the boob when he has in fact had enough. He just doesn't know to turn his head away or not latch on when he is full! If presented with boob he automatically yomps on it then gets very cross that it is not, in fact, what he wants!

I know he is full because I take him off and he is happy to have his dummy (if it is a feed just before sleep) or to giggle and play (if it is a feed just after he has woken recently).

He also gets stroppy if he is windy - do you try taking your DS off and burping him then letting him carry on?

bumps yes i think he suffers from reflux and gets windy because sometimes when he sleeps he starts crying and when I pick him up he throws a massive burp and then happily goes back to sleep
So you're right it may also be that he gets angry at the breast because he needs to be burped!

I agree it's probably that you have a fast let down which leads him to gulp loads of air as he tries to keep up with it. I have also had problems with oversupply and am currently breastfeeding my third baby and he is a lazy feeder :o so have had to really watch for this particular problem as he won't keep trying if the flow is too fast just gives up! Try getting baby to latch, have a muslin ready and when you feel the let down happen, latch him off and catch the initial fast jet of milk for about 30 seconds until it calms down, then latch him back on. If he starts looking like he's getting fidgety and uncomfortable after feeding for a few minutes, latch him off and burp him, then latch back on. It will get easier I promise!

Re: the dummy, DS had a dummy quite early on (10 days? maybe earlier?) but we'd gotten rid of it by 4 months as I was having visions of him being one of these 4 year olds still walking around with one. Was a lifesaver in the early days though!

Ooh meant to add, break latch by putting your little finger in next to his mouth to break the suction, otherwise it feels like your nipples being pulled off :o