baby crying at breast - gas or too much milk?

[Maggpie]

My 5 week old has recently started wailing, crying & thrashing at the breast after latching & nursing successfully for 1 or 2 minutes.

We are still nursing enough for good weight gain, but it's getting stressful!

I think my let-down triggers it, so I have tried nursing lying down, pulling her off during let-down, and this helps but is not 100% successful.

She is VERY windy, and we're not always getting good burps out of her.

My supply is plentiful & I think my let-down is pretty forceful, but this is my first child, so I'm not sure what a "normal" let-down is.

What is a normal let-down like? Any advice or help?

With both of mine when they were tiny (it's got better now) my let-down was so forceful that the poor little things got a jet down the back of the throat - they used to pull away, burst into tears, and in the meantime milk jetted all over their poor little faces and beyond...could this be it?

Also my current b/fer (22 weeks, still exclusively breastfed) is dreadfully windy and has to be burped for ages until producing loud and quite revolting belches.

HTH. Remember the whole situation with a new baby - especially a first one - is terribly stressful so it probably isn't nearly as awful as you think.

Maggpie. I have the same problem with DS2. My Let down is different on both sides. On the left DS manages ok. On the right let down is pretty forceful and he fusses like crazy. If ds pulls off the right breast during letdown the milk is spewing out all over him. No wonder he hates it - he probably thinks he is going to drown in milk! Do you have the problem on both sides?

It is very likely either the letdown, or if she copes with that then it could be the discomfort of the air that she takes in with the rather forceful feed.

I'm sure your let-down is normal. Especially since I have the same problem.

Only have one suggestion - try nursing 'up hill'. I have tried it with some success. By this I mean have dd positioned such that the milk doesn't gush to the back of her throat. She will feel more in control. Suggestions are you reclining with baby semi-sitting or even you lying down with baby lying on you feeding. Hope this does not seem too strange or is too hard to visualise. I have used in on occasions when I am very engorged and just have to have ds (who won't take bottle yet) empty my breast.

It might also help to express a little of your milk before starting the feed. Especially if you are very engorged.

Maggpie, I too have the same problem, I had it with dd (who ended up bf for a year) and now with ds, who is 12 weeks old. I could have written motherinferior's post - the flow it so forceful that it blows their heads off. However, I found that the older they got/get, the more easily they are able to cope with the flow of milk.

I can identify with the thrashing too. I recently posted a question about leaking/too much milk and got the advice to pull the baby off and let some milk flow into a cup/use a cloth the stem the flow and I have found this very useful.

I too got very stressed with DD but have found that second time around I really don't worry about things as much, after all dd survived and grew! I'm sure that you're doing fine.

Good luck!

Sorry Maggpie, feel I should say that the thrashing around didn't last a year; after the first 3-4 months things settled down and we had another 8 months of successful feeding until dd decided she wouldn't do it anymore. My milk supply definitely calmed down after this initial period. I didn't want you to think that it lasted forever!

Maggpie - whqat about thrush????? Have you checked?
Is bf painful to you ?

Thank you for all your advice! I spoke to the lactation consultant at the hospital I delivered at and a La Leche leader today - they echoed your advice about powerful let downs. I have tried expressing off the 1st let-down before feeding today & so far it is working very well.
Thanks for your help!

Maggpie, I found that the advantage to powerful letdowns was that I have been able to express really easily and quickly, hopefully this is the same for you. Every cloud has a silver lining...