15 week old screaming whilst trying to breastfeed

[niffynoo]

I really need some help and advice. My 15 week old DD is ebf and after a really difficult beginning to breastfeeding with a poor latch and reoccurring thrush I thought we had cracked it. I feed on demand and try to watch for the signs she is hungry (she never goes more than 3 hours day or night).

However this past week we have really been struggling - I put her to my breast and she bounces on and off until my let down kicks in she then sucks furiously for a maximum of 2 minutes then violently twists her head down (sometimes with my nipple still on her mouth - ouch) and screams. I then try to latch her on again and she last a few seconds before coming off screaming. I try winding her and she screams occasionally bringing up wind but no improvement in latching. When I swap breasts the same thing happens - 2 minutes sucking then screaming. I've tried repeatedly swapping sides but she won't stay on once she's been on once.
I have tried to express and get about 3-4 oz which I have given her once a day to make sure she does get something. Weirdly this isn't happening in the night feeds where she feeds to sleep.

Sorry this is so long - any help would be greatly appreciated as we both ended up sobbing this morning.

Perhaps she's distracted? Can u turn tv off, turn off lights and make sure it's quiet and she can focus on feeding.

If you think you have over supply, Kellymom website has some good tips to deal with this

Is it just on one side? Possible ear infection.

Could it be pain, like thrush, or teething?

I had this with ds after he'd had a growth spurt. It didn't last long. Could that be it? Are you engorged? Your letdown will be fast following a growth spurt I was told

I have almost this exact thing w my 3 wk old. Although she will feed for a bit longer, but gets v fussy, pulls off, cries at breast, gets v windy and at times spits up A LOT (with a few projectile incidents). She also is mostly fine at night, and worst late morning and then late afternoon/ evening. This started about a week ago.

I had thought it was over-abundance on one side (as she mostly does it only on one side), but I'm not sure as the projectile incidents have been after she's eaten from other side. Cd be thrush (I'm just finishing antibiotics for mastitis), but other than nipples that throb a bit (cd be hangover from serious latch issues in early days) neither she nor I have any other symptoms - and that wouldn't explain why she's fine some of time.

I'm just trying to persevere and try to calm her down - take her off, burp, try again, etc, and hand her off to dh (if he's here) if she gets totally hysterical. Am hoping it's an oversupply issue that will settle down shortly [desperately hopeful face], but if anyone has any miracle solution suggestions...

Thank you for the messages - I hadn't thought about over supply in fact I was worried about the opposite! I will try the suggestions here and report back.

Hi does she by any chance arch her back at the beginning

If you have a very fast let down it will pour into the mouth- side feeding will help with this as the gravity will help decrease the flow, also a nipple shield would help too. Personally i would hand exspress off a little prior to the begiining of the feed so that the let down isnt so fast- Is she silent but wriggly at all for the remainder of the feed ? Any change in colour of your nipple ?

She does arch her back quiteviolently and looking at my nipple it's white when she pulls off so guess she is trying to stem the flow. Tried hand expressing first this morning and it was slightly better - will keep trying.,,.

I have exactly this problem!! I also have an extremley fast letdown and when my dd pulls off it just comes squirting out everywhere (very awkward when u r sitting next to someone and it goes all over them lol). My dd does exactly the same as yours. I've tried block feeding like I was advised by the hv. It helped for a bit but now we r on holiday in a hot country it's started flowing fast again. I think hand expressing is good advise. I certainly will b trying it myself :) I hope it improves for you. I really know how u feel and how difficult and upsetting it can be.

city - another possible explanation is posterior tongue tie, my DD had this and acted a lot like you describe before it was snipped, plus I had the white tipped nipple thing too.

basically dd kept trying to latch but couldn't stay on long, so was getting more and more tired and cross, especially after the initial let down as it got harder for her as the flow slowed. she kept bobbing off and on the nipple, feeds felt like a wrestling match. she was very windy at both ends as a result of swallowing loads of air. she would clamp down on my nipple (I guess trying to hang on for dear life), felt like she was clamping/chomping rather than sucking. nipples turned white, were elongated after feeds and scabby tipped. night feeds were much better, I think because my supply was higher so it was easier for her, and perhaps because she wasn't tired. oh yes and dd 'clicked' while feeding too, which was the sound of her losing suction every one or two sucks.

if this sounds like your situation it's worth getting checked for TT by someone properly trained.

if this is the case then block feeding and expressing before the feed could actually make it even harder for your DC to feed as it will reduce the supply, so be cautious before doing those things.

Sounds just like eight week old DD, right down to the being fine during night feeds. Only difference is we're on formula. We've been on gaviscon for nearly a week and seeing a vast improvement - she's stopping when she's had enough now, rather than having a screaming fit every time. So my guess is silent reflux was the problem. Might be worth investigating?

If there is a lot of arching and squirming this could be down to reflux, there are two types of reflux normal reflux where they are quite sicky and silent reflux no sick at all.How long has this been going on for? A typical sign for a reflux baby is arching backwards and faffing on the end of the nipple plus many many more- what are the nappies like? what colour? what consitency?