3 week old BF too much? Hiccups, gurgling, grunting, wind, sick

[MumToBeInJuly2012]

I know all the theory about babies using BF for comfort, on demand, can't overfeed etc but could someone please explain?

My 3 week old seems to take too much! He won't give up much wind, 1 burp per feed if lucky. At night, after a 20 min or so upright, when I lay him down he grizzles, gurgles, grunts etc. So I try to wind him again, still nothing. May then settle for a bit but then can get really strong hiccups, which upsets him then he needs to be upright and cuddled or may be a little sick (posset?)....then looks for a comfort feed, and the cycle starts again!

Today he cried really badly and looked in pain and I tried a dummy which really settled him and I thought was probably a good thing as not loading up more milk into his tummy. But this is not a route I want to go down

He's putting on 1lb a week so it's 'going well' in that respect, just don't like to think of him in pain!

Could someone please help...?! Thanks

Yes, it's true that you can't overfeed a BF baby but some mothers do suffer from oversupply- this can happen as BF is becoming established and your body works out how much milk it needs to make and it settles down over time. Have a look at this link and see if any of it strikes a chord. There are some ideas there you can try if you think it is oversupply.

Actually, I'm curiously as to how you can't overfeed a BF baby, too. Do they just not take in a lot when they comfort suck? It seems like they'd have to ingest something, even when they weren't particularly hungry. I'm not questioning it -- I'd just like to understand better!

Hi,

My dd is 6 weeks old and she had the same issues you are describing. BF advisor thought it was an oversupply issue- especially as she would gulp and gasp a lot when first on the breast.

What helped for us was expressing a tiny bit of milk before feeding- just enough to slow down the initial gush! I must emphasise that you pnly need to express a tiny amount- too much and your supply will increase even more! Baby then fed with no problem, took longer feeds and generally was a bit more content. Hope this is useful!

Could be oversupply, reflux or overtired.

If oversupply, he'll choke on your milk during letdown and take down a lot of air then want to feed for comfort making it worse. So take baby off just after letdown, catch any excess milk shooting out then put back onto boob. Feed upright and try leaning back. Wind baby thoroughly and don't lie them on their back in case there's more in there.

If reflux, look out for "wet burps" (burping and bringing up milk), pained expressions when burping (could be acid coming up), screaming or upset during or after a feed, wriggling/arching etc. reflux doesn't always mean lots of vomit - you get silent reflux too which is more akin to heartburn.

If overtired, baby is awake for too long and gets hysterical seemingly out I nowhere. Baby tries to feed to get to sleep, is already full, over feeds etc. make sure baby isn't awake for more than 45 mins at a time if possible.

Another option is tongue tie - gives symptoms similar to the above.

My babies had all of these - nightmare to resolve but once I did life became easier.

DS did all of this. I think it was partly overfeeding as it got better when I tried to space the feeds out to every 2.5 - 3 hrs rather than whenever he wanted and partly due to immaturity as it also got better when he reached about 6 weeks & generally settled down. He's 10 weeks today & now we have very few hiccups, grunting or gurgling. He is still sick several times a day but is a happy chucker who grins at you, pukes & then grins again.

For some reason, his worst grunting/gurgling phase was after his 4am feed (actually, I say for some reason but I wondered if it was a cumulative effect of slightly lazy winding on my part after his 11pm & 2am feeds) so we used to put him in his Baby Bjorn bouncy chair to sleep until his next feed around 6am.

Silent reflux!
The baby over feeds to soothe the acid coming up and swallowing back down. Ask for Prevacid- I have had three silent reflux babies. Search the Internet- good luck