help - 7 week old baby with default setting of screaming when bf

[ejt1764]

This is really starting to get me down. DD is 7 weeks old, and has always fussed a bit at the breast before feeding, but now, she seems incapable of settling to feed at all.

She indicates she's hungry, so I put her to the breast - she then squirms, cries, arches her back, then starts to scream for a minute or so ... she then usually will feed for 2-3 minutes, then repeats the sequence ad infinitum. It's just taken me 1 1/2 hours to feed her for bedtime, and in that time, she's probably fed properly for less than 5 minutes.

She is also incredibly windy (probably due to the amount of time she spends crying / screaming), and regularly throws up seemingly everything she's eaten - then screams after she throws up.

I'm also expressing at the moment, and dh is giving her a bottle of ebm every night before he goes to bed - which she doesn't fuss over.

I feel a complete and utter failure ... ds was an absolute dream to feed comared to this ... please help, I'm utterly exhausted, and am afraid I'm going to scream back at her soon ...

p.s. - she also screams the place down when she's tired - so spends much of her waking time crying and screaming at me ... just horrendous ...

Thanks to all for advice and help ? it means a lot just to know that I?m not alone in this! ? I have seen the GP today, and he watched me feed (or try to), and examined her very thoroughly as he was concerned that it was a pyloric stenosis (sp.?) and decided that it?s a combination of both problems (ie: fast letdown, compounded by reflux). He?s given me some Gaviscon, which I?m giving her, mixed with a little ebm, in a syringe (I squirt it in while she?s feeding ? sneaky!) ? she seems to be calmer.

DS suffered badly for a few weeks because of my fast letdown ? so I?m already doing one-sided feeding, and letting the spray into a muslin (seems like such a waste!!) as I knew that it could be awful for a lo!

I have taken her to a cranial osteopath ? which helped with her snufflyness (have just invented a new word!).

Slur, I can?t feed lying down ? I can?t get her to get a good latch, and it just makes me really sore, so I always feed sitting on a chair.

Trimum ? am just about to ask for help with tips ? thanks for your suggestion!

Alice ? will email you my address ? thanks for the offer of the book! The bottle of ebm is less stressy as dh is able to feed her sitting up ?

Right ? am going to try some of the other tips and advice ? and ask for help on feeding her sitting up (I have very dangly boobs! )

Hi ejt,
my lo is 71/2 weeks old and is behaving very similarly to yours. It is very tiring isn't it. The only difference is that she is gaining weight quite slowly, some weeks it is ok, like 7oz and others like this week it is only 2oz. I thought she had reflux and have been giving her gaviscon but she is throwing up chunks of milk instead of liquid! I got a referral today to a paediatrician to try and find out what is wrong as my gp is a bit clueless. Will let you know what they say when I get a date.

I am starting to feel very down about the constant crying (only stops if I carry her upright on my shoulder round the room) and puking. Hope the gaviscon works for you.

xx

Hi ejt, I haven't had time to read through all the posts yet but just wanted to say that its sounds like your LO could have reflux. My LO has reflux and I have started her on Carobel which is a thickener and makes it more difficult for them to bring food back up and I have found it settles her much better. I have always BF and expressed so what I am doing now is adding the Carobel to bottle of EBM and then am feeding her myself after the bottle and she is much more settled and much happier. The infant gaviscon didn't work for me at all and neither did any colic mixtures.

Hope this may be of some use to you, just want to let you know I am thinking about you and I hope the feeding improves for you. I know how horrible it feels when your baby won't settle and feed from you comfortably.

Big hugs

Thankyou polarmummy - it appears (at the moment) like the /Gaviscon is doing the trick enough for her to be a happier baby!

Just knowing it's not just me (or because of me) has made life so much easier!

I was really starting to take the screaming personally ....

Hi again, glad you're getting on top of the reflux/PS stuff but also...

i can't remember where but I saw a link somewhere on solving fast letdown/oversupply more radically - it advised a complete emptying of the boobs (I think before feeding! presumably by completely expressing them) and then feeding single sided immediately after and for a fixed period of time, but I can't remember the full details - it was a midwife or BFC and it was a published article in some online publication (though not sure whether it was 'proper' research)

I don't know whether anyone else knows about this and I'd be nervous for fear of a very fussy baby for a few feeds. I'm also not sure if this might just increase the supply as well (the science of BF supply and demand still eludes me) but the article claimed it worked for some women. Might be worth looking up if you still have a problem with oversupply...?

Sending massive hugs, ejt. I know exactly what you are going through. My DS is nearly 6 months old and I had terrible problems with him. Everything you have written about. I just wanted to send you heaps of love and cyber support as I know how horrendous it is. Everything everyone says is right. I was prescribed gaviscon to treat reflux but it was so difficult to give it to him (it's much easier if you bottle feed as you can just put it in their bottle but if you breast feed you have to mix it with ebm or water and give it to them on a spoon or something - my DS was having none of it and it always ended with both of us in tears so I gave up on that one!) I also thought it might be overactive let down (as I too had milk spurting) and tried feeding him lying on my back to slow the flow...all sorts. The things that really worked for me were cutting out dairy (well, apart from a little milk in tea or something) and also cranio sacral therapy. The cranio sacral was a little hippy trippy (and this is from someone who is pretty open minded about stuff like that!) and I have no idea what the therapist did but I don't care because it seemed to help and relax my DS.
One more thought, have you noticed it getting any worse since you started expressing? I read somewhere that if it is a problem with overactive letdown or overproduction of milk, expressing is actually the worst thing you can do as it "tells" your breasts to produce even more milk and so the problem gets worse. I stopped expressing for a while and it did seem to help. Eventually my breasts settled down and produced the right amount of milk for him.
Oh by the way, we tried colief, infacol, gripe water, fennel tea... pretty much everything. Nothing worked for us. He just kind of grew out of it.

Thank you aquasea and monkeybird!

Monkeybird - I am already doing the one-sided feeding and have been since she was born, as I had the oversupply problem when I had ds, and found that one-sided feeding really helped. The only time dd gets both boobs is for her early evening feed. I find that doing one side at a time works really well for me!

Aquasea - I haven't found that the oversupply is worse when I express - the vast majority of the milk I express goes towards her late night feed (which dh does, to give me a break). I have found that if I mix the gaviscon with some ebm, (about 10ml), then put it into a syringe, I can sneak it into the side of her mouth while she's feeding from me ... I tried giving it to her after her feed, but she just spat it out!

Thankfully, being able to give her Gaviscon is working - hopefully that'll continue!

Hi,
Your experience sounds very familiar to me and my LO with reflux. My 5 month old started refusing the breast, turning head, screaming, back arching, choking episodes. Would walk round room and settle him down just to start all over again. Then he would vomit what semed like the LOT up!It was all vey distressing for both parties and couldnt feed out of the house much. Used EBM and he would be v happy with bottle- very disheartening... Gaviscon helped at 8 weeks old when I had milder problems and I got about 2 1/2 months good feeding before it recurred.

Have had to go onto Zantac(ranitidine) which helped fantasticaly for about 2 weeks but now we are getting the same symptoms back. Am about to try Losec and Domperidone.

Sending hugs, there are others out there whatever the cause. Here's hoping the Gaviscon works for you.