Confused!

[Mads199]

I’m a first time mum with a 2 week old, and I just feel out of my depth with feeding!

We are exclusively breastfeeding and it has been going well, DD has put on well over a pound more than her birth weight and feeds very frequently/ doesn’t have a painful latch at all.

But she’s VERY gassy. I can’t put her on her back without her arching it and pulling her legs up and screaming. I burp her for ages during and after a feed but it’s mostly to no avail - very rarely does a burp come up and more commonly it feels like her entire feed just comes up instead. I’ve bicycled the legs, I’ve tried infacol, I’ve burped burped burped, but she seems so uncomfortable all the time. I know my let down is a bit strong so I’ve tried hand expressing at the start of the feed but it doesn’t seem to make much of a difference, she is still gulping the milk down and then coughing and spluttering at my boob!

It feels like all she wants to do is feed, but the feeding makes her so uncomfortable, so I don’t know what is best? Usually I feed her, burping her loads, she’ll spit up a lot and then be all tense, clearly uncomfortable and crying for a while, then she might sleep for an hour but usually she just wants to feed again despite all the discomfort?

It just all feels so confusing, I’ve been looking up burping techniques and they they aren’t working, and I’ve been desperately searching the internet to see how I can help her feel more comfortable but none of it seems to work

At a bit of a loss!!

Are you still giving her Infacol? My baby girl was similar, she always seemed very uncomfortable, and wasn't sleeping on her back. After a week, Infacol started to work and she was much better.
Have you tried this massage technique? m.youtube.com/watch?v=_CqB436lj2M
You have to do it twice a day, this helped a lot too!
It is great you can breastfeed her. I had to stop and express milk-bottlefeed as my girl was so unsettled during breastfeeding. When she was 6 weeks, we started again and it's going well now. So, I know it is hard now, but it will get better!

@Tina8800 yeah we are - we’ve only been doing it for three days to that’s good to hear there is hope with it working!

Thanks so much I’ll have a look at the video!

My DD had really bad wind when she was younger. We would feed her a little and then burp her maybe twice in between and then finally let her finish her bottle. We gave her gripe water before the majority of feeds which helped a lot. When she was 8 weeks we put her to sleep on her front because the pain she was in whilst on her back was so bad that she wasn’t even sleeping. It goes against the guidelines so do what you feel comfortable doing but I’d say carry on with the infacol and maybe let her feed and then stop to wind and carry on etc

Was your baby born small? I had a very similar experience with my daughter (now 9 months old and I'm still breastfeeding as well as on solids). She was born at 5Ibs so had real trouble with gas and Infracol a lot more than the other mums I'd met at NCT. We tried Infracol but gave her some diarrhoea so we had to stop. We found having her bedside crib tilted slightly on its reflux tilt helped. Perhaps try that if your crib has a reflux setting? Also know that it's very normal when their digestive systems are still developing so it will get better with time though it may be very gradual for a while. Hand in there it sounds like you're doing an amazing job and as long as baby is gaining weight, keep doing what you're doing. Also a warm 37C bath before bed helped our baby girl and tummy massage.

@NewMumNicola she was pretty small for how far along I was actually. She was born via emergency C sec at 42 weeks due to dropping heart rate during my labour which turned out to be because she had nuchal cord and had passed meconium in waters. She was 6lb 1oz when she was born and her first apgar score was just 3 so she needed oxygen :( it was all a bit traumatic, I always wonder if her birth had anything to do with her feeling uncomfortable now?! She is definitely gaining weight though and doing lots of wet and dirty nappies so all good signs.

Thank you so much for your suggestions! I hadn’t considered that a regular bath before bed might help but in fairness the bath is the first place I go to when I have a sore stomach too! Will give it a go thank you :)