please help me out of this vicious circle...

[Tiffanychantelleirony]

DD is 1mo. I am EBF. She is very colicky. Last week, the pattern was: DD feeds for 30 mins, she gets very windy and cries hysterically, farts and burps for anything up to two hours after a feed. If the feed has gone well (no choking, no obvious discomfort) I can usually get her off to sleep with white noise and swaddled after the obligatory 40 mins winding and consoling her. If the feed has been average (i.e. she has not fallen asleep while feeding, has remained wide awake, if there was choking/swallowing lots of air/ the wind is particularly bad) we can go beyond two hours of comforting and consoling hysterical crying until she is hungry again and the cycle starts.

I could just about cope with this. I was sing infacol, feeding her sitting up, trying to maximise the "good feeds" over the "bad feeds" and took comfort in the predictability of the sequence of events, even if I was still getting no sleep.

The past 24 hours she has suddenly become very colicky five minutes into feeding. Squriming at the breast, trying to double up, then straightening out like a board, twisting my nipple around in her mouth, not fully latching on, just grabbing the teat and sucking hard... breathing heavily and fast. I even feel like she is "fake" sucking sometimes. I can hear the sound she makes when she feeds but I can't feel the little pull on my nipple. Most of the time, I can hear gulping and choking Before we are even 3 mins into the feed I am sitting her up and she is crying hysterically and burping. It takes ages - hours - to console her after this, by which time she is ravenous and terribly tired. Back on the boob she goes and the choking and swallowing air starts again. This has taken my vague sense of predictability away which was the only thing keeping me sane.

Can you help?

Have you had her checked for tongue tie?

Has she been checked for tongue rue?

Tongue rue was meant to be tongue tie but I crossed posted anyway!

Is it possible that your flow is too fast for her? Could you express a little bit before you put her on next time. Iirc it's about this time that you may not feel the let down so strongly.

No I haven't checked for tongue tie -

would it suddenly make things bad in the last 24 hours though? (Not that they weren't bad before - but worse?)

yetanotherchangename on the breast she chokes on the most, when she comes off after 3 mins choking and my nipple pops out, it is squirting milk everywhere, into her face etc and she is screaming. This is a fast let down right? Or are breasts supposed to squirt?

In my experience they often go through super fussy stages at that age and things will improve in a day or so. I think some babies have very immature digestive systems and it just takes a while for them to develop. Both mine just grew out of it - from memory by about 3 months, though it might have been slightly earlier.

It could suddenly get worse I think, my DS suddenly got very screamy from about 10 days old. He had symptoms v similar to those of your baby - we eventually had tongue tie diagnosed and cut at 7 weeks, and saw a huge improvement within 2 days. Don't bother asking your GP or HV - find a qualified lactation consultant, perhaps via a breastfeeding clinic.

The spurting might be fast let down. Leaning back to feed can help. If it's really bad, take her off from when you feel letdown until the flow slows down - just let it spurt into a muslin cloth.

Sounds like a more extreme version of what happens when my dd can't handle my let down. I express some first to prevent it.
Your local nct and/or maternity dept should have bf support who can have a look and advise.

If you contact the la leche league they will have someone local to you who can check for tongue tie.