Breastfeeding help/advice - 6wks & fussy baby

[Viper84]

I was hoping for some advice please.
I am a first time mum and I am ebf my 6 week old baby girl, the last few days she has started pulling off my breast, crying and thrashing about. I have tried to wind her and my husband tries to calm her down and we try to get back latched on, but she hysterically cries :-(
When she is calm before we attempt to re latch she is cooing and gurgling but suckles & sticks her tongue out. Usually in an evening she cluster feeds all night so this is a big change and I am worried I am doing something wrong :-(
As an aside to this she has dropped from the 50tn percentile to 25th and is weighing 8lb 12oz she put on 11oz in 2 weeks. The health visitor has said she is not worried just yet but it has made me feel concerned she is not getting enough from me or I'm doing something wrong. I am feeding her on demand and the longest period she goes is overnight anywhere between 3-5 hours.
Any advice that anyone can offer will be greatly received , thank you

Hi Viper84,

It's rare that women don't produce enough as usually on demand feeding regulates your milk supply to match your baby's needs. It used to help me to express sometimes in the early days just to convince myself I was producing enough as baby can get even more than we can express. My baby suffered from silent reflux and he was a very fussy feeder; these were his symptoms (I don't know if any apply to you):

Tries to clear his throat all the time coughing
Bouts of Fast breathing
Wheezing sounds
Regular hiccups
Gripes legs up and goes red in face
Cries inconsolably at random times day and night.
Spits up sick but never fully vomits
Fussy regular feeding to point where he can cry for feed when only been short time.

My little man was prescribed baby gaviscon that didn't work and then moved to ranitidine and we've never looked back; it worked a treat. He's now almost 7 months and doing great.

Also newborns do cluster to increase supply for their needs when going through growth spurts and they go through a lot of those!

There's a big growth spurt at 6 weeks. Your baby is probably just increasing supply. Hang in there, you are doing a great job. Both of mine did exactly the same at 6 weeks.

They do get fussy and fractious when feeding at 6wo, Viper. That actually sounds very normal to me in the absence of any other issues, as it's one of their first developmental leaps (many first milestones occur around this time, the most obvious being smiling). If your HV is not concerned about the weight loss then you shouldn't be, but to put your mind at rest, have a 'duvet day' (or three ) with her - in bed, skin to skin, continuous free access to the breast so she feeds like a demon. It should help to calm her through this period of change for her as well. She will be trying to increase your supply due to a growth spurt as well, and this is the best way of doing this for her.

If you've got to 6wo with acceptable weight gain and plenty of wet and dirty nappies, your supply as it stands is FINE. Expressing gives you no indication of supply. It just shows you how much you can express. Some women can maintain an EBF baby at the 99th centile but not be able to express a drop; other women can express like a dairy cow, but be unable to breastfeed due to a milk transfer issue on the baby's part, so I would advise against doing any expressing then drawing any conclusions from that.

Also possibly try different feeding positions - rugby ball can give a good feeling of security, feeding lying down, laid-back, tiger-in-the tree (Google images is your friend here if you know not of what I speak).

I found the boppy pillow very helpful with mine as he's a typical lazy boy that liked to feed laying down 🙄 😄

Both my babies had a few days around this age (or maybe a few weeks older) when they were pulling off the breast, arching backwards while trying to latch on, getting really upset,etc. I never found any explanation for it but I did stop using deodorant for a few days both times in case the smell was the problem.

They both got over it and continued to BF until just before their third birthdays. It never happened again for either of them.

I was really upset both times and family members trying to push a change to formula on the back of it really didn't help.

I hope this resolves for you soon.

Thank you so much for all the replies. It has helped settle my mind :-)

I did lots of reading on breastfeeding before my little one arrived, however I don't think anything could've prepared me for experiences like this, so I really appreciate the advice and guidance xx