5 week old suddenly having trouble latching

[Lmcc88]

Hi,

My 5 week old DS has been great at
latching from as soon as he entered the world! However, recently he is struggling…

He will “head butt” my nipple over and over and again but not close his mouth to latch and gets very upset very quickly starts crying stretching out and thrashing his little arms

I have tried switching sides straight away but it will be the same either side he eventually latches but we’re both quite stressed by the time he does…

Has anyone had the same issue and have any advice on how to help?

Hi @Lmcc88 sorry your having a hard time, this sounds stressful! I am sending lots of good thoughts as I feel like we only really cracked feeding properly at 11 weeks and it was really tough until then. I wrote a post at 5 weeks worrying my baby had forgotten how to latch https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/breast_and_bottle_feeding/4736010-baby-suddenly-not-latching-properly?reply=123662352Different situation but one of the other commenters said that around 6 weeks there's a growth spurt and to expect a lot of fussiness and headbanging at the breast, so maybe that's what's going on? I'd definitely suggest going to a local breastfeeding group or calling the breastfeeding helpline - these have been so so helpful for me, for encouragement and moral support as well as troubleshooting issues like this..Hang in there! 2 months ago I was at the end of my tether and couldn't imagine bf ever working out for us and now it's just really enjoyable and easy for us both

Thanks @stollen123 we are still having a little bit of the head banging problem but since I posted he’s been wanting to fed constantly! So it must be a wee growth spurt!

we have a breastfeeding group locally so going to try and get there however we don’t always make it out of the house!

I appreciate your reply thank you!