What on earth is going on with 11 week old - breastfeeding

[LotusPalm]

Apologies in advance if this is rather long winded, but we've been through the mill a little and feel like this is the last straw!

DS2 is 11 weeks old. DS1 was ebf until 10 months, and I had intended to do the same with this one. However, we've had lots of problems with poor latch, taking in excess air, 'reflux' (probably to do with taking in so much air when he feeds, oversupply; green explosive and grassy poo, undiagnosed posterior tongue tie (clipped at 10 weeks).

Prior to the tongue tie clip i expressed and bottle fed for a week to help control oversupply and to deal with terrible nappies. In this time ds was taking 6oz per feed. Tongue tie clipped, and things started to get better, and we thought that was it. Still not a great latch, but feeding well and yellow seedy poo.

Fast forward a week and its all gone to pot again. He's now latching badly, feeding for 5 minutes and then coming off and squirming / crying if I try and put him back on again. My boobs are still really full after all feeds and I'm getting really stressed by his lack of food and my discomfort. We are reintroducing a bottle for the 10/11pm feed so that I can get a but more rest, but last night he only took 3oz and screamed when i offered bottle again. he also wouldn't take breast. He slept for another 4.5 hours and then took a really good feed from the boob - the first decent feed in about 3 days.

I just don't know what's going on with him. I know they get to be more efficient around now, but I know he's taking much less because of how full my boobs are after a feed, and 3/4 oz can't be enough for a 13lb baby. He only feeds every 3 to 3.5 hours during the day.

Help! I'm really not enjoying the bf this time and I'm ready to pack it in!

PS. For complete disclosure
He has gaviscon at 2 feeds per day to help with the vomiting. He's a happy chucker, but thus has helped reduce the amount we lose
We are going back to get his TT reevaluated just in case it wasn't all got last time.

Anybody?

Not clear what's going on here, sorry....a call to any of the bf helplines would be a good idea. It could all be normal - 11 wk olds sometimes take short feeds and are v. efficient and resent being 'asked' to stay on.

It may be significant that you expressed for a week, enough to give him 6 oz per feed - maybe you have a mega supply now, and he does not need it (hence your full/engorged breasts). There is a tendency for babies who are bottle fed to take larger volumes, and longer term, with direct bf, he does not need or want it.

How would you feel about following his lead for a few days and seeing if things settle down - he might be happier?

Just to bed my same age dd who is a bit heavier than your baby only feeds for 5ish mins or so now and often goes 2-3 hours in the day between feeds. Guess other things like her chew toys are far more interesting than my boobs now! Lol

Lotuspalm, it could be that the tt has reattached, or that it wasn't completely clipped first time.
Were you advised to do any massage or stretching of the site? [http://www.kiddsteeth.com/index.html Dr Kotlow]] advises that these are done to prevent reattachment.
I have also read that it is preferable to have craniosacral therapy before and after the tt snip to help release tension caused by the tight frenulum. This also helps prevent reattachment.
Also, does he have a lip tie? Could be that a lip tie is preventing a proper latch still?
The reflux is likely to be as a result of air swallowing, like you say.
There is a facebook tongue tie babies support page. Come and join us!

sorry link

Thanks all

Tiktok - the expressing helped control my oversupply. Things were much better for the week following the expressing. Fast forward a week more and I've got monster boobs again. I suppose my oversupply could have come back again, but when he feeds well he easily empties the boob and it goes soft.

Maw - its possible that tt has reattached. I have contacted the LC who snipped it and plan to go back and visit her. He goes have a lip tie (i diagnosed thus early and was one of the reasons I went to see the LC in the first place), its probably a 3 or a 4 but no one will touch it so we have to persevere. We were given exercises and we did do them, but I couldn't get him to gape at all, so struggled to do them properly.

There is now a private dental practice who will do laser tongue and lip tie revision. The guy trained under Dr Kotlow.

here

Thanks for the link - shame its so far from me. About as far as possible as we're in the south west!

I've heard that Helen Caulfield at a London hospital does it, but can't get any other details. Do you know anything about that?

Don't know about Helen Caulfield, sorry.

I read recently that refusal of the breast in tt babies is often because they breathe in milk while feeding because the suck/swallow/breathe rhythm is disrupted by the incorrect swallow. Breathing is top priority and anything that interferes with it can cause distress to the baby.

I hope you get to the bottom of this. DS1 had undiagnosed tt which I only discovered last year. He is 6 and has suffered all sorts of problems (reflux/hearing loss/sore throats/unable to breathe through his nose to name a few) as a result of the tt/lip tie and matching high palate.

Is he teething? My dd and breastfeeding went a bit haywire around then and it suddenly clicked that she was teething,she's 21 weeks now and still no teeth through yet but she's had two bad "patches" between about 11 weeks and now. I just give her calpol and try to feed her straight after naps when she's teething as she's a bit dozy then and doesn't suck as hard and therefore isn't in quite as much pain!!