Cluster feed rage

[Cosmo89]

Ds's not mine!

He's 3 wks nearly and each eve he cluster feeds from c5-10pm, with 2 instances of 10hr stretches.
Yestèrday, towards end of the feed, instead of falling asleep he got progressively more agitated: coming off, screaming, clawing at me, massive head banging. Though he seemed to be doing feeding signals, he wouldn't stay on. He was too cross for me to wind himm properly.
Am I going wrong? Midwife said to just give him food if he wants it but, though he desperately showed he wanted it, he wouldn't feed!

Help! No sleep had this way!

Our DS (mixed fed, but primarily FF) did proper feed rage! As you describe, he'd thrash and wail and seem to demand feeding but recoil when boob/bottle was put to his mouth.

We used to wait until the screaming had reached a natural lull (I always thought of it as him having forgotten what he was angry about and therefore tailing off with the screaming, then doing a quick internal check and discovering he was hungry). In that brief lull we would shove a teat in his mouth and he'd go 'oh yes, I'm hungry' and feed like mad. Funny little man.

I'm not sure if this technique would work with an EBF baby but might be worth a try. You're not alone anyway, if that's any comfort

You're not going wrong - surviving 10 hr cluster feeds is a sign you are doing very well. Sometimes tiny ones just do strange things and it takes a while for you to work out the issue - I think they are too small to really know their own feelings so they can mistake one sort of discomfort for another (eg my LO would show hungry signals when he was tired, sometimes, and we'd offer boob but he'd not latch on, just fall asleep near the nipple). So it takes time for you and htem to get the whole communication thing right. Trial and error is the only way.

Could it be some sort of digestive thing like reflux? The clawing and so forth could be him wriggling round in pain as the milk from his long feed gets to his tummy?

Not sure if he's too young but infant gaviscon really worked for a friend of ours whose baby had reflux.

Or maybe he wants to suck but not too much milk? My LO would often get to a point where he would pull angrily away from the boob but then seem to want to bob back on. It was like he got annoyed with the milk (i had a fast let down and oversupply in early days). So I would put him on whichever boob had less milk at that time, and let him comfort suck without getting too much milk flowing out.

Not sure if any of that helps, but definitely you aren't doing something wrong, you're just getting to know him

Hi cosmo.

My DD2 and I suffered with similar problems ie hungry signal and then wouldnt latch. This frustrated her so much that she went into a rooting rampage but couldnt seem to latch - cue crying and thrashing!

We finally worked out that she had wind, which was difficult to get out of her - usually after bouncing, lying on the floor and/or walking around over my shoulder she'd burp and latch.

The good news is that at 12 weeks this seems to be tailing off a bit so take heart

Thanks! Bring in the next 9 weeks!!!!

I think he is v windy and I can't seem to get it out of him.
Has anyone tried infacol? Might get myself some of that tomorrow...

Infacol worked wonderfully for DD1, she also had lots of wind. Also great for BF babies as you can give it at every feed and theres no overdosing risk.

A friend of mine swears by gripe water for her colicy DS but just the smell of it sparks my gag reflex!

Both remedies are as cheap as chips too