5 Month Old Crying When Feeding

[Aquarius93]

Looking for some help and advice please!

My daughter is almost 5 months old and exclusively breastfed. Occasionally she used to cry when feeding and I would usually burp her, take a break and continue feeding her when she was calm. The last few days she has been crying every time I feed her and often after less than a minute. If I burp her and take a break she will just cry as soon as she goes back on the breast. She is showing signs of hunger but just gets so worked up when I feed her.

I haven’t had any changes in my diet. I eat dairy but this hasn’t been an issue and I don’t have caffeine by choice (apart from chocolate now and again). I don’t seem to have any issues with my supply - I thought she may be getting frustrated waiting for the next let down but often she’ll pull off with her mouth full of milk. I have tried seeing if she will take a bottle but she refuses this.

I’m worried that she seems hungry but isn’t getting much milk. Has anyone experienced this? Was it just a phase? Any suggestions to help her feed better would be much appreciated!

This can happen at around 5 months. They can see and experience more things now and often don't like having to turn away from it all to feed (even though they want the milk)

Try feeding her in a quiet darkened room when you can. Might help her a bit.

They grow out of it so don't worry.

Thanks for the reply and reassurance!

She’s been distracted for a while so I already feed her in a quiet darkened room but that doesn’t seem to help at the moment. She’s got a thing for blowing raspberries at the moment so maybe she’d just rather be doing that! Hopefully it won’t last too long.

My DD is exactly the same, right down to blowing raspberries!

I'm hoping it's just a phase as it's pretty frustrating trying to feed when she gets herself so wound up and fusses

@Pitstop1986 I'm glad someone else knows how frustrating it is! Let’s hope our DDs both get through this phase soon!

Hi, I'm having exactly the same problem with my DS. He's 4 months old and for the last 3/4 weeks he's been struggling with feeds suddenly. He's bottle fed expressed breast milk and he cries hysterically after about a minute of feeding, as if he's scared of the bottle or something. He's visibly hungry but just causes a massive fuss every time. He only feeds properly whilst asleep. I'm really struggling, it's exhausting trying to feed him. Seen gp twice and they have been as helpful as a brick wall. Please let me know if you find a solution! I've exhausted almost every avenue (changed teats, bottles, gaviscon, colic drops etc)

@Nailaa sorry I don’t have any magic solution! My little girl eventually grew out of it but it did go on for a long time and I know how stressful it can be. I’m not sure if it will be the same for bottle feeding but I found a dark room and some calming music helped and I would also try and feed her as soon as she woke from a nap, when she was still a little drowsy. Hope things start improving soon for you!