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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

battling babe!

24 replies

Lisa78 · 30/01/2004 17:18

DS2 is nearly 3 months old and breastfeeding, he has just started a new trick - fighting me when he feeds! He kicks and squirms as well as twisting his head about and frequently coming off. I think its wind - he does seem to be windy at both ends - but the more he fights, the more air he takes in! And the more it blooming hurts. Its coincided with a bout of mastitis but I don't know if its connected. I've not found b/f that easy and this is rapidly becoming the last straw as fantasies of the bottle float infront of me. Any advice?

OP posts:
emmatmg · 30/01/2004 17:23

well, my ds3 battles me with a bottle so i'm not sure that would be your answer. can't help any more as i wasn't able to bf any of mine. i'm sure someone will help though.
tiktok knows her stuff for bfing.

sorry about typing, sleeping baby in arms.

Original poster
Lisa78 · 30/01/2004 17:47

Oh! So chances are he would fight with a bottle anyway?

OP posts:
emmatmg · 30/01/2004 17:51

Well, as I said I couldn't Bf any of mine but all 3 have fought me with the bottle so.......

Beccarollover · 30/01/2004 18:05

swaddle him to feed? feed in still dark room?

Evita · 30/01/2004 20:37

Do you think his feeding pattern is changing? My dd did this around 4 months and part of it was that I was trying to feed her when she wasn't ready, or expecting her to feed for longer than she wanted to. They get more efficient and finish quite quickly sometimes. Also you may have a v. fast let down which can choke and scare the baby and make them twist and squirm. Why not try to express (just by hand) a tiny bit from your breast before you feed and see if that makes him more comfortable.

kagsie · 31/01/2004 14:17

dd started doing exactly this about a month ago (@ 4 months old). I switch her over to the other side by which time the milk has let down and she gets it straight away. she has a bottle as well now (getting ready to go back to work) and tends to be just as distracted but only after the first couple of ounces. I put it down to impatience and over curiosity - its worse if anyone else is in the room or any noise from the radion or TV)

clairabelle · 31/01/2004 18:20

Lisa I've emailed you. T exactly the same but with a bottle. AGHHHH!!!!

clairabelle · 31/01/2004 18:23

didn't say in the email swaddling does seem to help as a quiet room as already suggested. oh and i started using a dummy and doing this elaborate dance thing with infacol, dummy, slip the bottle in Don't ask it's mad. Needless to say no one else can feed him at the moment due to the 'routine'

ninjinglebells · 31/01/2004 18:29

jsut check you don't have thrush - it makes it painful to feed. Otherwise I had this and ended up feeding dd under my jumper! A sheet put over could help? worth a try

Original poster
Lisa78 · 01/02/2004 11:45

thanks, am trying all - though not quite at the same time! Its p***g me off though, am giving him a bottle this afternoon to give the right side chance to recover, just got over mastitis and now I feel bruised where he has pulled back suddenly. He does seem to be very windy, little monster

OP posts:
Original poster
Lisa78 · 01/02/2004 11:46

CB, not got your email??????

OP posts:
tiktok · 01/02/2004 15:30

Lisa, he cold be telling you he has had enough - often babies who become well-established on the breast get what they need in a few minutes. Trying to keep them on makes them fight.

Try phoning a bf counsellor, too.

Original poster
Lisa78 · 01/02/2004 17:52

God tiktok, I hopr ur right - I take him off after 45 mins cos he will just stay on forever, I've hardly ever had him come off by himself

OP posts:
tiktok · 01/02/2004 18:26

LIsa - don't understand, sorry. You say he 'kicks and squirms as well as twisting his head about and frequently coming off', but that he also 'would stay on forever.'

Er......which

Original poster
Lisa78 · 01/02/2004 18:33

Sorry tiktok, didn't mean to be confusing. He's only just started with the kicking and squirming and pulling off the breast, in the last few days. Even when he pulls off, he then tries to get straight back on, which seems to me that he hasn't had enough. When he isn't doing that, he virtually never just lets go himself, he just stays clamped on indefinately, giving the odd suck - I assume he is comfort sucking then, cos I do take him off after about 45 minutes and he happily goes 3 hours between the start of that feed and the start of the next.
TBH, I really feel like giving up now, I am so fed up of it - admittedly I wasn't keen on b/f right from the start but feel I need to give him as good a start as I can, but I still don't like it and its been one problem after another - this weeks bout of mastitis really upset me cos I was just feeling like we had finally got established. Plus, not being one of the women who can feed anywhere is very resticting, I just can't whip my boobs out in public!
On the other hand, I am quite anxious about not b/f - I know I am being ridiculous but I have it locked in my head about the peak cot death age of 2 - 4 months and feel like I daren't stop b/f before 4 months cos of that, though I know if I get to 4 months, I will find another stick to beat myself with

OP posts:
aloha · 01/02/2004 19:03

A dummy might help you if he is comfort sucking. Some babies have a very, very strong need to suck (ie my ds!) and they will sit attached to you all night just for the sheer joy of it, but a dummy makes a very satisfactory subsitute. If your feeds were much shorter I bet you'd feed happier about breastfeeding.

Original poster
Lisa78 · 01/02/2004 19:11

I've thought of that aloha but I don't know when to take him off - at the moment, its 45 mins. I'm worried if I take him off earlier, he might not have had enough
He'll have a dummy occasionally when he's a bit pre-sleep crabby or if he's upset (eg just now when the dog dropped her toy on his little head! Gave him such a shock as he watched CBeebies finish!)

OP posts:
mears · 01/02/2004 20:13

Lisa78 - perhaps you need to dictate the feeds more. I think that there can be the misconception that you must always be led by the baby. Whilst this is true in the early days as feeding gets established, there comes a time where you need to organise your baby round you. Babies just love to be on the breast - it is such a lovely place to be. However, you need to have a life. I used to love sitting feeding doing nothing else. However, there were times when babies had to be fed when I had the time. Do not let breastfeeding make you feel chained. When DS2 gets to the stage he is just 'flutter sucking' at the end of a feed you can safely take him off. The flutter sucking is good for stimulating milk production however you do not need to do it for hours on end. Usually at this stage you do not hear the swallowing of milk so the actual feeding stage of the feed is over IYKWIM. Perhaps you would feel better to give him a soother - no reason why not since he feeds well. I think if you could reduce feed times you wouldn't feel so resentful of feeding. This battling stage will probably pass soon. You are doing a brilliant job

Original poster
Lisa78 · 01/02/2004 20:17

God, thank you all - am feeling a bit more positive now about keeping up to my original plan of total b/f (bar nighttime bottle) until he is 4 - 6 months old, then as I am going back to work when he is 7 months, just giving him a breast feed last thing at night for as many months as possible
Flutter sucking? Is that when he does those tickly tiny sucks in rapid succession, then seems to doze off for a minute or two? Hate them!

OP posts:
Eeek · 01/02/2004 20:20

Just a thought - have you been taking anything for the mastitis that might make your milk taste different? I was warned that the antibiotics I was given could taint my milk and that my baby might fuss as a result. Mears/tiktok will know more, I'm sure

Original poster
Lisa78 · 01/02/2004 20:22

Yes, 500mg floxapen 4 times a day, but my GP - bless him - checked with the HV / BFC that it wouldn't interfere and she said no. (He really impressed me, he said that the recommendation was to express and discard milk from the infected breast but he was just going to check that with the HV! Wow, a GP that deferred to a HV!)

OP posts:
Eeek · 01/02/2004 20:24

Wow - can I have your GP? Just a thought. When are you off them? I still wonder if you'll find he calms down a bit a few days after you stop taking them.

Original poster
Lisa78 · 01/02/2004 20:27

Another 3 days! No, you can't have my GP, the others in the practice are in varying degrees of uselessness (including one whose idea of my postnatal check up started and finished with him asking me how I felt...!)
This GP also commented on DS1 who is now 15, he actually connected him to us and commented that he did like him, he thought he was a very personable, well rounded young man and a credit to us! Made my mastitis feel much better!
And once when DH took me to see him, when I felt really odd (and was having a slow low level hypo) he sent me to hospital in an ambulance, then rang DH the next day to see how I was!
We like him!

OP posts:
Eeek · 01/02/2004 20:31

Keep going! I'm sure it'll improve.

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