BF 12 week old going downhill

[glossyflower]

My baby is 12 weeks old and BF is no longer enjoyable.
She fusses and gets frustrated when the let down is too slow. My milk is really good first thing in the morning, as baby sleeps through the night. But during the day time seems she has problems. She doesn't latch very well and fusses and cries.
I've expressed during the day but can only get between 2-3 oz at a time if that. I've also supplemented with aptamil on the odd occasion.
Sometimes when she fusses I pop the dummy in her mouth and she settles for a little while.
Have I made things worse by bottle feeding and is my milk supply waning?

glossy, sorry you are not enjoying bf :(

There's not a lot of info in your post. Can you call a bf helpline and have a discussion about it?

The sort of info needed would be

• how many times do you feed her day and night? You say she sleeps through - that means how many hours between last and first feed? are you using both sides at* least each time?
• when did the difficulties start?
• what is your baby's weight like?

Expressing does not indicate what the baby can get - it can be more or less than this. So it does not help you assess.

Just based on what you say here, I'd be thinking that long hours without feeding (because she goes through the night) have had an effect on your supply...but I might be wrong. If it is this, it's easy to fix by feeding more often.

Just to add to what Tiktok has said - is there any chance your dd might be teething or have reflux? My dd was v fussy & crying at that age & she had reflux.

Supplementing with formula might also have an affect on your supply, as can expressing (if you are using that expressed feed to replace boob feed).

As Tiktok has said, try & put baby to boob more frequently throughout the day & that could help sort your supply out (if indeed it is the supply that is the issue).

One more thing, babies at 12 weeks old are usually much bigger than at newborn & sometimes positioning & attachment become a problem (baby is in wrong place to latch on properly). Do you have a bf support group/bf counsellor near you who can check your latch?

Please please seek RL help on this as well as MN as usually bf issues like this just require a little fine tuning.

Good luck!

Thank you for your advice.
Ok, here's how the day goes.
She wakes between 5am and 6am, and doesn't wake up starving hungry crying just fidgeting, so I take her out the Moses basket into bed with me. She feeds very well first thing, and feeding time is nice for the both of us.
We both doze/feed until about 8am, and usually I will have fed from both sides although not always.
By around 10am she's ready for another feed,but as we are up and out of bed, feeding her sitting up has been increasingly difficult. Like you say she's grown a lot so positioning needs fine tuning. So I had found laying down with her helped - until recently, she now has started to fuss and cry laying down.
She feeds again around 2pm and again at 5/6pm.
Usually these feeds are difficult as I said in the first post.
Sometimes she has a feed right before she settles for the night at 7pm but not always.
I tend to feed on demand or sometimes I just offer.
She sleeps right through from 7/8pm until 5/6am without a feed.
Her weight had been steady, although last weighing was slightly lower than what she was but HV said she's still within the line (50th percentile).
She does get some wind but usually I can get it up quite well.
Because of the fussing I've been giving her expressed milk or occasionally formula and she's perfectly happy with that. No crying or fussing at all.

She may have started teething as she's started dribbling more and chomping on things, but the crying is usually only when I put her to breast during the day (not first thing).

Oh and I always try both sides.
I did ask the HV if its ok for her to sleep so long without a feed, she said not to wake her for a feed only feed if she awakens which she doesn't.

Personally I think she's not feeding enough from the boob - the formula/expressed milk top-ups are probably why. Remember a baby doesn't need to work as hard to get milk from a bottle as from a boob so that may be why she's less fussy.

I would ditch all top-ups (tbh they're rarely necessary anyway) & let her feed just from you. She's heading for a growth spurt too so she may well want very frequent feeds, just go with it.

Please please seek RL help about your latch though as I do believe that is what is causing the fussiness here. Do you have any bf support groups near you? If you're in South Wales I can recommend some

Ok thank you.
Yes there's a daily BF clinic just over the road from me. I will pop by tomorrow. I feel a bit embarrassed to go to these things (same if I have to BF in public - silly really) but will just have to bite the bullet.
Xxx

Aww don't be embarrassed! I really hope you can get some good advice there & get this sorted - bf is seriously easy once everything slots into place (& I say this as someone who had a lot of bf problems to start off with!)

glossy, good to know you can get help easily.....I agree with forgetfulmog, it's likely she is simply not feeding often enough to maintain a decent supply. By my reckoning it's prob about 5-6 times in 24 hours which is a lot less than most mothers and babies need.

If you can double that, by keeping her skin to skin/close to you for as much as you can, and by responding to every small cue, you should turn things round :)

Glossy, I could have written your post! Identical issues with my 11wo DD, and I've lost count of the number of times I've said "I'm switching to formula" in the last couple of weeks.

Am persevering though, as I see that each day at the breast is a bonus. She has dropped a percentile recently but is still gaining weight and the HV doesn't seem worried yet. Of course if her weight gain continues to slow I'll make the switch.

Have been following advice from a breast feeding councillor so would definitely recommend seeing one.

Good luck!

Hiya ladies.

I went to the breast feeding drop in clinic.
The helper there said latch and positioning was good, and my milk supply was very good, she observed it spurting lol.
She checked baby and said she had a short tongue, so this could be the problem, or could be nipple confusion, or teething.
So I know it's not lack of milk or the latch.
She mentioned as I have plenty of milk that she may not need to feed more than a few minutes as long as I'm giving her both sides - which I have been.
I think it may be that she gets what she needs quickly and fusses when I try to continue.
I will bear with it and see if she continues to gain weight.

Baker - hope you get to the bottom of it. Let us know how you get on.

Thanks for your help xxx

Fab glossy! My dd is also a v quick feeder. Glad you got help.

Baker - don't worry about the weight so much, bf babies do go up & down the centiles much more so than ff babies. As long as you're putting her to the boob regularly & she is taking something, I wouldn't worry. Do seek RL help though (not necessarily from a Hv as they're often not specifically trained in bf).

"short tongue" could actually really be a tongue tie. Best to find someone who knows their stuff about tongue ties (probably not your HV or GP) and have it confirmed for sure.

This sounds exactly like my 14 week old and I've been trawling the internet for answers until . Can see a bf counsellor at the end of the week. Another suggestion could be the return of AF? The milk tastes different for them. My lo has been fussing like you are experiencing for the last 4 days so just trying to persevere at the moment!