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Infant feeding

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

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Original poster

DD pulling off and crying

12 replies

TheOriginalWinkly · 03/09/2014 09:11

DD is 8 weeks old and ebf. During the day she latches on, sucks for a bit then pulls off and a few seconds later, starts screaming and crying. Sometimes she'll latch on again for another little bit before pulling off and crying again, sometimes I need to sit her up and settle/distract her. She doesn't do this during night or sleepy feeds. It's distressing for me, plus it means feeds take ages and i'm not completely sure whether she finishes satisfied or fed up.

She hasn't been weighed in a while but going by her clothes she's growing well, she's alert and strong and does plenty of wet nappies plus about 2 poos a day. I think the latch is ok, at least its completely pain free. It doesn't seem to be an issue with wind either. Anyone got any ideas before i end up bawling my eyes out and reaching for the bottles?

OP posts:

Original poster

TheOriginalWinkly · 03/09/2014 17:17

Anyone?

OP posts:

LairyPoppins · 03/09/2014 17:20

My DS is the same.

I think he wants to suck when he has a sore tummy - when he has wind. But the milk makes it worse.

What works for us is to give him a dummy for 5 minutes or so until the tummy spasm passes, then he seems to calm down enough to feed properly. I have tried to wind him more effectively to stop this from happening, but so far no luck!

Original poster

TheOriginalWinkly · 03/09/2014 20:12

Thanks Lairy

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LaurieMarlow · 03/09/2014 22:51

My DS does this too and wind is the culprit. You may have an over supply/fast let down issue. We're struggling with this as DS has to gulp his milk down to cope with the fast flow, taking in a lot of air as he goes. And then he can't tell the difference between hunger pangs and wind pains, so cries for more.

I'm also searching for better burping techniques, but without much success. Infacol helps a bit.

AwesomeSuperTasty · 03/09/2014 23:00

My son did the same at that age and I realised he was doing it because he was tired and not hungry (and I was misreading his signals). Somehow, it took me ages to work that out. Not helped by the NCT lactation consultant on their phone helpline telling me that it may be because I had eaten something that DS didn't like. I asked if it maybe wasn't connected to feeding and he was just tired, and she said 'no, if he was tired he would just fall asleep.' Ha!

Anyway, it could be a number of things. At other times I also had over supply/over active let down and DS was fussy then too and he would cough and splurt whilst feeding.

Greenrememberedhills · 03/09/2014 23:02

I had this with dd1 over 20 years ago.

It was HELLand took ages to resolve. you have my sympathy.In the end I figured, with a lady from La leche league, that she was getting too much fore milk and not enough hind milk.The first part of the feed from a breast is watery and it thickens over the feed, with fatty milk at the end.

The solution is therefore not to keep switching breasts.

LaurieMarlow · 03/09/2014 23:18

I meant to say this in the earlier post, but the fact that it doesn't happen during night feeds is interesting and suggests it's got something to do with a fast letdown. I find that my let down is much calmer at night (down to hormones I guess).

Block nursing (not switching breasts, as GRH suggests above) should also help with over supply.

Rigbyroo · 03/09/2014 23:22

My dd was exactly the same, I had a very fast letdown which she struggled with. It only improved with me lying down to feed her and sort of dangling boob in her mouth! I also had to express into a towel or muslin first and then feed her. She got worse when we both had thrush so it might be worth checking for symptoms of that too.

RedCountryRoads · 04/09/2014 15:01

My 12 week old is like this. The night feeds are easy. Day feeds are difficult, fussy, crying and lots of wind.

At night we both lie on our sides and feed like that. I'm thinking that my milk doesn't come out as fast so is better for her to drink at a rate she wants.

GrouchyKiwi · 04/09/2014 15:07

5 week old DD does this abs I'm pretty sure it's because of my fast let down. Can you lie back to feed? This helps settle DD a bit. As PP said, you could also express some milk before feeding to get rid of some of the foremilk, or take baby off the breast for the let down.

Original poster

TheOriginalWinkly · 04/09/2014 16:20

I do have a fast let down, but usually she just pulls off for a few seconds and I catch the excess and she goes back on quite happily. When she was very little she would cough and splutter but not any more. The pulling off starts a few minutes into a feed normally, by which stage I would have thought the flow would have settled down?

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fionnthedog · 04/09/2014 22:29

I had this with my ds from 8-12 weeks and I'm pretty sure it was because of my oversupply issues. I made it worse by continuing to try and feed him when he was upset and stressing us both out. I think he was upset because (a) he took in a lot of wind as he had to feed very quickly, and (b) he got full v quickly and didn't want anymore. When he got fussy I first of all tried had to get a burp out of him and if I couldn't I just stopped: sometimes he would go back on after a 20 min break, other times he wouldn't and would the go his usual 2-3 hours so was obviously full!

I would say that it really settled down around 3 months as ds got better at eating quickly. He feeds very quickly (5-10 mins only) so I still worry sometimes that he's not eating enough but he's putting in weight well so just speedy!!

Hope this helps.

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