Baby’s wind is ruining everything!

[Sunnyside17]

DD1 is almost 12 weeks and I’m at my wits end with wind. She’s EBF but it hasn’t been an easy journey, she has always swallowed LOADS of air when she feeds, particularly off my left side for some reason. She had a TT snipped at 7 weeks but it hardly made any difference, and in fact I think it’s reattached slightly now. I think she has quite a high palate too but need to ask the HV to look at this next time I see her. After a feed if I jiggle her on my knee I can hear her belly glugging with huge bubbles of air, but they can be so hard to get up. She screams and cries when I try and keep her upright to burp her which just makes things worse. I feel like I never get to spend any time interacting with her as I’m constantly trying to wind her, and by the time I’m done she’s crying because she’s tired again…
The most frustrating part is night time. She is getting better at sleeping through the night, if she isn’t windy then she only wakes for one feed and she has actually slept all the way through once. But often she wakes up kicking her legs and crying doing little farts. I take her out of her cot and lay her down to rub her tummy and try and cycle her legs but she gets so upset that her legs go all stiff so this is hard. I often get one or 2 farts out, but then nothing settles her until she’s on the boob (swallowing more air!).
Has anyone been in a similar situation? I feel like I’m just wishing the time away as I can’t wait until she’s weaned. She won’t take a bottle so all the feeding is on me, and I don’t like to feed her in front of other people as she often comes on and off the boob spluttering a few times. So I never get a break and I can barely go anywhere as I need somewhere relatively private to feed her every few hours. I feel so trapped by it all :(

Do you have a fast flow maybe?
I found this with dd1 and fed on a recline helped so slightly laying back.

Ask your HV for a feeding cup, you express in to it and then tilt it and baby can lap it up, it takes a while but baby should take in less air and you can have some respite.

A feeding cup basically looks a bit like the tiny jugs you get with an iron but are made of a softer plastic with a. Scale on the side so you can see how much they have had. It's also handy to have for when they have a cold and are all bunged up and can't breath and feed at the same time.

You could have a fast let down. What you can do is hand express until you trigger the let down, catch the fast flowing initial bit in a muslin or whatever, then latch her on once the flow has slowed. Also feeding reclined helps as pp has said. If she's more fussing than struggling, rock as you feed her and rhythmically pat her bottom / back as this kind of lulls them into a bit of a sleepy daze! My second was a dreadful fusser, I actually bought a rocking chair to feed him in in the end and it worked a treat.

I remember lots of little tricks that I used about this age, but some only worked some of the time, they changed as they grew.
I bf’d twins so some worked for one and not the other. The principle thing I remember is that bf-ing is a very active sport.
Those movies where you see someone sit enjoying a program while bf-ing aren’t true. five minute feed, burp, then another five minute feed.

And both got less wind if they lay on their fronts/sides kinda down my body, not across it.

You just got to keep fiddling with the variables until you find what works.

The burping is very happily the bit you can share with your partner/friends/family if you want to. There are some positives for a windy baby!

kellymom.com/category/bf/concerns/

This website is really helpful for all breast feeding questions.

I'm a trained peer supporter. I would agree with pp about looking at how to do laid back feeding. It sounds like you have a very fast flow. It also sounds like you may need to check the latch and I would advise looking locally for a bf support group or consultant rather than a midwife.

I had a fast letdown with my second and problems latching on the left side and I found sitting her upright under my left arm (like an upright rugby ball hold) worked which might be worth a try.

Take your time with the latch, if it doesn't look right stop and retry.

Don't worry about feeding out and about for now, just focus the next week or so on getting it sorted.

To help relieve her discomfort you could try a tiger hold after feeding where you drape her tummy down over your arm then you can rub/pat her back if needed.

Hang in there 12 weeks is still early days but do get some help other than midwife. Midwives can be useful getting started but I found them less helpful as weeks went by and I needed to change and adapt.

Thanks for all the replies so far. I do have quite a fast let down and had issues with oversupply for a while which has thankfully calmed down it doesn’t seem to make any difference though how full or empty my breast is or where in the feed we are, she still clicks and gulps so much 😩 I do sometimes try the natural reclined position but it’s very hit and miss, often I struggle to latch her properly that way. Maybe I should try using it more though.
I have been in touch with the HVs and my local breastfeeding support team, but everyone says there’s no problem with her latch, she’s also putting on weight well so they just don’t seem to think there’s a problem. It’s so disheartening

For the slight inclined position, I pop a cushion behind me, then sit up and latch my DD as normal, then slowly ease myself back into position.

My DD also struggles to latch straight away in the inclined or laid down position, so I've learned to just let her latch where she's comfortable, then manoeuvre myself after she's latched

@Sunnyside17 my little girl had a tongue tie and high palate, I struggled to attach her even after the tie was snipped and was recommended the koala hold, might be worth seeing if that helps at all? If it wasn't for the lactation consultant showing me this hold I wouldn't have continued. We are still feeding (night and nap time only) at 21 months and have had some wind issues along the way. I've seen a cranial osteopath which helped as did using a probiotic when she was older. The problem seems to have resolved itself with age

In relation to getting out and about and feeding, my son constantly popped on and off the boob and I had a cover like this that worked really well (and didn’t slip off exposing everything as he wriggled about!)
Breastfeeding Cover Up Nursing Cover - Breastfeeding Scarf Apron - White www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B074N4PZPK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_V2T90Y3T8SKVHM7H2C6S?psc=1&_encoding=UTF8&tag=mumsnetforu03-21

Thank you all. I think I need to try harder with the laid back/koala position for feeding, maybe starting upright and relaxing back as suggested. I’m also persevering with getting DP to offer a bottle every day in the hopes that she’ll eventually take to it!