Is it normal for them to gulp breastmilk????

[octo]

ds3 is 12 days old and has gulped his milk down since boobs became engorged - I'm not talking little gulps but huge gulps that make him stop feeding and you can hear them going down to his tummy - then he gets upset - I thought it was air but he is latched on properly so must be milk. Do I have so much milk that he has to gulp or has he got into the habit of gulping?? (I know that sounds completely nuts!)

I don;t wait until he is screaming to feed him so he's not starving and desperate for food - feeding on demand - he is gaining weight.

Do I leave him to get on with it or is there something I can do to help him?

Thanks
Octo xx

my ds did this too - you could actully hear the milk hit his stomach!
I think my let down was quite fast, but he still gulps food down now. He took 6oz from a bottle in 10 mins once!

octo, both my DSs gulped, so much so that the hv commented on it - "well, no question that he's getting milk is there?"! didn't help that he then pulled off and she got a face full of the stuff...

Seriously though, what do you mean when you say he gets upset? it may be that the milk is coming really fast, and he finds it hard to cope when it first lets down, and shoots out into his mouth. Does he then get less upset as the feed progresses? If he's finding it too much when the milk lets down, have you tried lying down to feed him, with you on your side and him beside you - then gravity has less of a pull on it, adding to the speed! He might find that easier, or a rugby ball hold.

Sounds like maybe your let-down is a bit strong for him. Does he do it all the way through a feed, or just at the beginning?

You could try expressing a bit at the beginning of a feed,or waiting til let down starts, the letting the milk spray into a tissue til it slows and is a bit more manageable for him.

It tends to sort itself out after a while

Thanks for your messages - think it must be my letdwon - is pretty strong. He tends to gulp at the beginning - most of the time he settles into the feed but sometimes he pulls away and gets upset/cries - and then have to latch him on again.

Will try expressing a bit off before I feed into a muslin. When he comes off during a feed it literally pours out of me - end up in a right pickle trying to stop the breastmilk covering me, him & clothes and getting him latched back on while yelling and headbanging!

Have thought about expressing some milk to freeze - do you think this will help or make it worse?

Lastly ... my midiwfe said hindmilk doesn't come in until about 3 weeks - I thought it came in after engorgement - I was worried that as he only feeds for 10-20 mintues max he wasn't getting hind milk - she told me not to worry about it as don;t have any yet anyway... any thoughts? At the moment have to offer him the other boob after winding as he is still hungry - or should I perservere on the first boob to make sure he gets hindmilk - and how do you know if they are getting hindmilk? ... phew!!!!

try feeding him while leaning back, it has an anti gravity affect on let down.

hi octo
sounds like you've got fast letdown, new babes foten struggle with it
my ds2 is 5 wks and a biug lad and he still struggles at times if the breast is full

What I do is I take him off after let down, press my finger against the nipple to slow the flow and let him back on again, repeat if needed
plus wind regularly
Mine calmed down after 3 wks I was prety engorged til then...
Now even with soft breasts I still have really good supply and he is learning to cope better!

my dd is almost 6 months and still gulps like that! she can't keep up at all! seems quite happy though. I only ever feed from one side, seems to be all she needs... she feeds every 2.5-3 hours dd1 was same, only fed from one side. As for hind milk, doesnt make sense what you hv said. the longer you feed from one side the more hind milk they will get. expressing at this early stage will interfere with the supply/demand... i would keep doing wjat you're doing

Hi, this all sounds very familiar to me when I first starting breastfeeding DD. She was born at 35 weeks and was able to breastfeed at 36 weeks. In the early days when she was teeny tiny my fast let-down was a godsend as it meant that she didn't really have to try too hard as the milk just poured into her mouth! It did sometimes cause problems too though as it was so fast that it went down the wrong way and she ended up stopping breathing for a few seconds. It was pretty scary and I had to quickly pull her off the breast and hold her upright and then she was ok. Anyway.... I had to work really hard to find a way for her to feed but not get too affected by the fast let-down. One thing that really worked was to get her to feed 'uphill' - sounds weird but basically I got her latched on (she was lying on her feeding pillow)then I kind of scooted down in the chair so that my nipple was pointing uphill, it meant she had gravity helping her out a bit and it made a massive difference to the gulping and choking. I hope that makes sense to you - really worth trying. Let me know how you get on.

Thanks for all your tips - will persevere and try out all your suggestions

octo - sounds like a very fast let down to me, you have loads of milk which is a good thing : )

read kellymom.com on fast let down (read "fussy baby" section) - my ds used to let go of my boobs or grip the nipple really hard, his way of stopping the fast flow. It can upset small babies as they may feel like they can't swallow the milk fast enough, i.e feel like they are choking.

The trick is to change your position slightly, so instead of baby lying below your nipple, have him slightly on top of the nipple (sometimes even lying on top of you on a bed) or side ways on the bed, it will reduce gravity and hence the fast flow of milk !

any way, kellymom.com has lots of good tips, good luck !

DD2 used to gulp it down so fast a feed only took a few minutes. She was never sick or windy though, so it was fine. I did have the HV ask why I wasn't feeding her for long enough and had to show her my floppy empty breasts to show that she was getting a full feed. She grew beautifully and was always healthy, so just a bit enthusiastic I guess!