13 week old pulling off breast and crying, wriggling etc

[edielush]

Hello,

My 13 week old daughter bobs on and off the breast, cries and wriggles while she feeds. She has dislocated hips so wears a harness, but taking it off to feed doesn't seem to make any difference.

I feed her four times during the day, and at 11pm. She was down to waking up just once in the night but is now waking up 2 or 3 times as I don't think she's getting enough milk during the day.

I've cut out tomatoes and strawberries - two things my other two kids didn't like while they were breastfeeding. I drink 1/3 glass of wine at night (please, leave me some pleasure, I've got three kids under 5!) and a couple of cups of coffee in the morning. I will try to cut this out but can not be held responsible for my grumpiness!

She doesn't pull off during the night time feeds, oddly, just the daytime ones. I try to make those as calm as possible, but even in complete silence she'll pull off and cry.

I'm worried about

• her not gaining enough weight - she was above the 50th percentile - has dropped below and is gaining weight but slowly. (She is now 6 kilos at 13 weeks+3 days)
• her being allergic to my milk. She takes a bottle of formula when offered. I top her up at 3pm and 7pm with a couple of ounces of aptimel - she'll often take a long time to drink it however and can fall asleep on it at 7.
• giving up on breast feeding. It was so nice with my first baby - it has gotten progressively more difficult with the next two and I wish I enjoyed it more!

Do I need a cranial osteopath? Or a breast feeding counsellor? If so, any advice for West London based ones is appreciated!

Any advice at all is very much appreciated!

Many thanks in advance,

E

How often are ytou feeding her? Is it more than 8 times in 24 hours (the minimum generally required to maintain an adequate supply). At around 6 weeks and 12 weeks babes often have growth spurts which co-incidentally coincide with mums prolactin levels starting to return to pre-pregnancy levels and the milk supplt levelling out to what has been 'ordered' by babe.

I would suggest having another look at the positiong and attachment at the breast...could have been OK till now becuase you had a really good supply anyway, but now that she HAS to milk the breast her p&a has to be really good. And perhaps try to up the number of feeds or do a little pumping after some feeds in oorder to help increase supply.

I'm just outside the M25 west of London if you'd like to give me a shout (ABM BFC) and I never think it does any harm to try an co anyway, so take a look at the OCC in London.

opps - forgot my number 07775 618044

Hi my ds did something similar and threw up a lot, too. GP said it was breast feeding issue but things got a lot worse even with help or on bf. Gp finally sent me to Consultant who diagnosed reflux or GER. Did the cranial osteopath who after 4 sessions said ds was fine but baby still writhed, cried and occasionally screamed in pain even though desparate for his milk and threw up, lots. Was given loads of medicine for him, too from consultant. After 7 months Consultant suggested I stop having dairy products and guess what? No longer much of a problem. Ds is intolerent to dairy! and the diary I was having through breast milk!! He was tested for allergies and was clear of all obvious ones. Ds is now coming off all his medicines and is a lot better. Please try cutting out dairy from your diet for 2 weeks and if this works ask hv or gp to see a dietician for help when weaning as the intolerance stays until at least a year old. Beware of formula until you know that baby is not dairy intolerant. Let me know if I can help more. Good luck!

E
There is a lovely osteo who specialises in babies in Fulham - wandsworth bridge road near parsons green. her name is pamela vaill carter. her mobile is 07958 505 756.

Probably worth having BF counsellor look to see if there is anything amiss.

Also, people have suggested on my thread

• distractable babies (on kellymom.com)
• teething

Both worth discounting also in addition to BF issues.

Unfortunately, mine seems to have come down to reflux after eliminating all of the above before going to see doc. But we are not cured yet - so maybe like Philosopher it will turn out to be something else. God forbid dairy/chocolate/coke intolerance.

Just FYI - the move to nocturnal feeding has also been a feature for me, but i guess that could be the same for disctracable babies! i can't tell cos BF but if I was to guess, I would estimate that LO is taking 75% of milk from 6pm to 6am!

E
There is a lovely osteo who specialises in babies in Fulham - wandsworth bridge road near parsons green. her name is pamela vaill carter. her mobile is 07958 505 756.

Probably worth having BF counsellor look to see if there is anything amiss.

Also, people have suggested on my thread

• distractable babies (on kellymom.com)
• teething

Both worth discounting also in addition to BF issues.

Unfortunately, mine seems to have come down to reflux after eliminating all of the above before going to see doc. But we are not cured yet - so maybe like Philosopher it will turn out to be something else. God forbid dairy/chocolate/coke intolerance.

Just FYI - the move to nocturnal feeding has also been a feature for me, but i guess that could be the same for disctracable babies! i can't tell cos BF but if I was to guess, I would estimate that LO is taking 75% of milk from 6pm to 6am!