My 11 week old gets so upset he can't breastfeed

[kauto]

My 11 week old ds has always found latching on difficult. When he was born he couldn't bf for over a day so we were advised to give him formula top-ups. ( he was also losing lots of weight and was slightly jaundiced). At 3 weeks we found he had a tongue tie and this was snipped at 7 weeks. We had more help from bfc and he seemed to be latching on and feeding well and we reduced the bottles to 1 or 2 a day. Over the last 2 weeks he seems to have forgotten how to latch on and comes off every minute or so. He gets more and more frustrated and upset, banging his head, crying and hitting out. He becomes so upset he can't breastfeed and I end up giving him a bottle, which I would prefer not to do. He feeds better in the evenings when he is more relaxed. Every time we see a bfc his latch is fine and no-one can give me any ideas about how to calm him down so that he can breastfeed more happily?

is your let down slow? no expert, but maybe because hte BM isn't instant like formula he is getting frustrated. Have you tried expressing a little milk onto your nipple so that he knows it';s there?

not much help, but it'll keep this bumped in active convos for one of the MN BF ladies.

Also non-expert, but just wondering if waiting until he is hungry and asking for it is perhaps leaving it a bit too long, iyswim. Have you tried offering a bit before he might usually ask, so that he's not so desperate for it (as babies seem to be once they decide they are hungry!) that he doesn't have the patience to wait for a let down or even to sort out a decent latch.

Just a thought.

LMDB-I think that I might have a slow let down and will try expressing the milk onto my nipple.

Arrietyclock- I am demand feeding at the moment to try to make sure he is not too hungry.He seems to want to feed every 2 - 3 hours now. The signs of frustration and the way he keeps coming unlatched are very similar to when he had the tongue tie.

kauto - hold/cuddle him skin to skin and see what happens. Some babies are great at self-attachment - see my reply to the 'getting in a panic' thread.

Think you need to see bfc again, as well.