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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

Feeding problems on one side

38 replies

bumperlicious · 18/09/2007 13:51

Hi, dd is 13 weeks and she is having problems feeding from my left side.

It manifests in a couple of ways. Sometimes she just can't latch on, she opens her mouth but doesn't clamps down. She gets upset and frustrated and goes all stiff. Sometimes this can be before the feed has started, sometime halfway through.

Secondly she doesn't seem to be satisfied from that breast recently. Normally I only feed from one breast but the past day or so if I feed from the left she falls asleep, I wake up up, she feeds a bit more then falls asleep and comes off but when I put her on the right (as I knew he wasn't done) she gulped it down.

I just worry that the less she feeds from the left the less milk I will produce which will make it worse.

Saw the bfing counsellor today and she couldn't give me any answers, just wondering if anyone here could?

Thanks

OP posts:
Carotte · 19/09/2007 21:19

I had this problem exactly as you describe. It helped a little doing the rugby hold under the arm but it was cured completely after seeing a cranial osteopath.

He said there was compression on that side and it was uncomfortable for him. He always prefers the right breast still but feeds from the left quite happily now. It's worth a try anyway.

CaptainFlameSparrowWifeOfJack · 19/09/2007 21:23

I had the same - a chiropractor fixed DD (for colic too) at about 8 weeks, I noticed the same thing from day 1 with DS and took him in at 7 days old

pinkyminky · 19/09/2007 21:25

my dd feeds only on the right. I gave up with the left at about four months. She is now 11 months. My left boob shrank back after I stopped offering it, so I imagine the right will too. I always got more out of the right when I expressed milk, but maybe it's just a faster let down on the right, I don't know.my first child fed off both but preferred the right too.
I don't think it's that unusual, so I wouldn't worry

moondog · 19/09/2007 21:52

Hi

Daisy has alerted us to your plight.
Bumper,all suggestions well worth following up particulalry the cranial osteopath one.

Have you tried feeding lying down.

I always felt I had a 'better' side as lots of people do I think.

daisyandbabybootoo · 19/09/2007 21:55

I just wish I had some answers for you bumper or could come round and help you out!

Original poster
bumperlicious · 19/09/2007 21:56

Thanks for the messages, glad to know it's not too abnormal. The problem is she has now been refusing both sides, today was a battle to get her to feed at all. Not sure if it related to the left boob thing, but of course the more it happens the more stressed I am getting which probably isn't helping. Though I am being deliberately calm so as not to make a big deal out of it to DD.

OP posts:
moondog · 19/09/2007 21:57

Lie down quietly,pull up your top and let her rottle about in her own time.

Original poster
bumperlicious · 19/09/2007 22:01

Never got the lying down thing, but maybe I will give it a try tomorrow. I tired the rugby ball hold but it didn't really help, but that may be because I haven't done it since she was tiny and couldn't get in a good position.

Right, hopefully I can express some more so DH can feed her in an hour, I can go to bed and start again tomorrow

OP posts:
moondog · 19/09/2007 22:05

Ooh,do learn lying down thing.
Soo relaxing esp. if one has a good book and someone to massage yuor feet.

Carotte · 19/09/2007 22:14

I don't think I couls have survived feeding three children without lying down. The thought makes me want to go and lie down.

daisyandbabybootoo · 19/09/2007 22:55

bumper, I hope you can have your babymoon tomorrow and things get easier.

Take care, and call me if you want.
xx

tiktok · 20/09/2007 00:21

bump - sounds to me like the sorta thing that will just pass and she will go back to feeding ok, without you ever knowing the reason why she didn't .

Babies do develop preferences, sometimes strong ones, and a few mothers end up feeding one side only - no prob, because the other side ups its production to compensate (in established bf, the breasts work one-sidedly )

Some unlikely but not impossible causes for one-sidedness:

  • earache on one side
  • stiff neck
  • perfume or deoderant, even if you only used the offending item once

Moondog's idea of just letting her hang out at the breast, without pressure or delib putting her on is a good one...works with the (usually rather later) nursing strike.

Hope things get better.

PillockOfTheCommunity · 20/09/2007 00:47

if it's now both sides she's refusing could it not be thrush or similar that started in one side and is now in both?

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