Fighting when feeding! Help me please!!!

[TeamEponine]

Hoping that someone might have some idea what is going on with my 3 week old baby!

Having gotten feeding established nicely by the time she was about ten days we are now encountering a strange problem. She really fights me when initially latching on. She pushes away from me, shakes her head, really screams and gets upset. I have to be quite forceful with her and push her on until eventually she gives in and starts feeding. Once she has started she instantly calms down and feeds fantastically. If she has a break to be winded (she usually does) we gave the same battle to get her back on.

Any ideas what might be going on and how to reduce the fight? I started her on infacol a few days ago, which is really helping, and she occasionally has a dummy to reduce her comfort sucking, which was creating real wind problems.

Any ideas, hints or tips would be fab, thanks!

I don't have an answer but a few thoughts. Does it happen every feed or only certain times? How often does she feed? Do you feed on demand? I think I often used to mistake tiredness for hunger and we would sometimes have this situation, he would then calm down while feeding and go to sleep straight after. Or sometimes he was so hungry he got really worked up and was too stressed to settle and feed. Could also be colic type issue which will just go away with time. Maybe stop trying to feed when she fights, calm her down a bit with cuddles and walking around then offer again a few minutes later. Health visitor or breastfeeding group can be really helpful with tips, but it does depend on the individual.

Thanks for your reply and sorry for the delayed response!

I've really not been able to work out any pattern to it, but I have worked out some techniques and positions that help to get her latched on, even though she is fighting it. There is a battle of the wills, but I seem tone winning it!

Now I just need to work out how to get her to go four hours between feeds and to settle quickly through the night!!!