Baby vomiting - Oversupply?? (Pumping & Dom peridome)

[Books1979]

My 8 week old DS has been vomiting after feeds for the past week and it's getting worse. He didnt sleep at all from 1am last night due to heavy crying which seems to be digestive pain - arching back, stiff legs, painful crying. During or after each breastfeed he now projectile vomits and seems to be in real pain. If he doesn't projectile vomit then 20mins after feed he vomits curdled milk through his nose.

My question is - could this be oversupply and if so how do I reduce my supply safely but quickly?

The irony is that I have worked hard to increase my supply and flow in order to get him off bottles and onto bf using nipple shield. I was told whilst using shield my milk supply would be at risk so to keep pumping x 4 daily, Dom peridome 10mg x 3 daily and fenugreek 3 capsules x 3 daily. But my supply seems to be too much for him now. I let down v quickly and milk flows so fast it runs out of the shield and his mouth down my chest. He sucks very hard and fast and sometimes coughs. He always needs to pause to rest after 5 mins and often a 5 to 10 min feed in total (just from one side) is enough to satisfy him for 3 hours. He is gaining weight very well. I can't understand how he can be getting enough from just a 5-10 min feed but the scales aren't lying, so can my supply be so fast he is getting enough in that short feed even through a nipple shield? I think he is a string resilient baby as we already went through a lot of effort to learn to bf after being bottle fed at the start.

But he is in real distress now after each feed. I'm also knacked after no sleep last night as he was awake in pain. I've tried pumping boob before feeding him but he still vomits.

His poo has also changed at the same time as all this vomiting, it used to be thick yellow once every day or two and is now very runny dark yellow tan 2 or 3 times a day.

My questions are

1. Could this be an oversupply issue
2. If so how can I reduce it quickly without getting mastitis or risking the bf relationship we've worked so hard to achieve. If my flow changes etc will it be too many changes for him and he refuses breast all together
3. Do the effects of Dom peridome stop as soon as you stop taking it or do they continue

Thanks v much

I had oversupply with DS1 and it doesn't really sound like it - I had the very windy baby, but also terrible engorgement, leaking all the time, blocked ducts (I ended up with mastitis), baby had frothy green poo, etc. I definitely wouldn't do anything to try to actively reduce your supply without consultation with an LC, especially as you've worked so hard to build it up, though perhaps it means you don't need to keep adding in the domperidone, pumping, etc.

It may be that you just have a very forceful letdown (which you can have with a normal supply, I also had it), you could try things like feeding leaning back? That's something that tends to just fix itself with time.

Also baby being satisfied by a 5 minute feed is perfectly normal as long as he's gaining weight, some babies are just very efficient! Puking also could be normal (my DS2 was a terrible puker), though it's hard to tell.

Could you see a RL expert to have a look at baby, latch, etc.?

Sounds similar to my DS's experience at 8 weeks. In his case the fast let down was creating a lot of wind. That, combined with my v abundant supply was too much for his little tummy, causing the vomiting.

Getting the wind up was key for us, so we've tried every burping technique under the sun. Also, burping during feeding, as soon as you see signs that he's windy (arching back/fussiness). Expressing a little before the feed helped, just to get rid of the excess fore milk. And I spaced out his feeds more as he's a complete guts and doesn't seem to know when he's had enough.

Now at 14 weeks he's gotten much better at dealing with the wind and seems to be growing out of it. And he's only having about 6 feeds a day at this point, which seems to be working for us.

I've no experience with supplementing, so can't help you there. Seems like you're taking lots of measures, so perhaps now is the right time to lay off and see if your supply evens out?

Some of that rings true for me and 4 week old DS1 and I have a fast letdown. Baby feeds for 5-10 mins at a time and goes 2-3 hours between feeds. He's never lost weight and is thriving so must be getting enough, Sometimes (usually evening) he gets very fussy at the breast and has to keep stopping, stiffening his body and generally unhappy. But other times he's very content. He's also very windy and gulps his milk. We've got him on Infacol which does seem to have made a slight difference and we make sure we wind him properly but some days and good and some are bad, hopefully he grows out of it.

thanks for your posts, really helpful to hear other's experiences.

saw gp this morning and currently in a&e as gp was concerned about the vomiting/ diarrhoea and also concerned about dodgy breathing and jaundice which is still around after 8 wks. So far they say he has floppy larynx. wonder if that could affect his feeding and vomiting?