Need help feeding my baby!

[Lou234]

Hi everyone,

I have a 3 month old baby. She has been exclusively breast fed, she had a tongue tie cut at about 6 weeks. She has always gained weight fine but shes always been over the 75th percentil and this week has dropped below it so we are going again to be weighed in 2 weeks...I'd say breastfeeding has never come naturally to us. She clicks and fusses at the breast! This week the fussing has become unbearable...she gets upset feeding and also she's started being sick ALOT after feeds. Even if she has a peaceful feed she's still sick alot. She's always been sicky but this past week or so it's something else!! Im just fed up, breastfeeding is becoming harder and harder and I'm worried she's not feeding enough and then when she feeds she just sicks it all up!

We've had the FAB team round who have helped me with my latch but I keep practicing and it's just not getting any better 😭

I find my self looking at formula but also don't know where to start with that. How do people manage formula feeding when out and about?

I suppose my questions are..is it normal for breastfeeding to be so difficult? It feels like she doesn't like it Anymore!

And also why is she so sick? What's a normal amount of spit up? (We've tried the whole keeping her upright but it doesn't work)

Any advice/experiences would be appreciated 😊

Breastfeeding isn't easy and doesnt just happen. Does she do plenty of wet nappies etc?
Have you considered that it might be what you are eating? Is her skin ok? What are poos like?
Any history of allergies/ asthma in the family?
My LO is allergic to milk and egg so I had to cut it out of my diet as well.

Hi! Just wanted to say that I have a fussy three month old feeder. He's not sick but I do suspect some kind of intolerance to dairy in my diet (I've cut all sources out)/finds the flow of milk a bit much/is becoming increasingly distracted with age too. So hopefully you feel a bit less alone with the feeding circus (as I call it!). I'd speak to the GP about the spitting up so much - they might suggest you try a dairy free formula if you're keen to try FF instead. I've ummed and ahhed about switching too but I couldn't actually be bothered with the faff of switching at this point. Half way to solids and generally being a bit bigger and slightly less fussy.

My first baby was also hard to feed but it did get a lot easier around 6 months (to the point where I continued to feed until just before 2). No idea why it just all finally seemed bearable for us both. It's hard work though - basically a full time job three times over and everyone seems to think after the initial working things out weeks it's smooth sailing etc. but it's not at all so sending you lots of solidarity because frankly BF can be a bit rubbish.

Poos seem to have gone down to every other day these past few weeks. She has got a rash round her face and next but I think that's from spit up/dribble as its got better with keeping dry with a bib! No history of allergies but I have cut out dairy from yesterday to see if it makes a difference!!

Thank-you! I do feel less alone and it is definitely a circus haha! I am not really wanting to switch to FF because like you say we are half way to solids!! So hopefully she will be less fussy the older she gets! I have cut out dairy as of yesterday and hope it helps. I definitely underestimated how hard breastfeeding really is, I had a friend that breastfed for 11 months and her baby just latched on and fed no problem so I thought mine would be the same haha. She wasn't always as fussy, as a new born she would feed alot (cluster feed)! Now she's discovered there's more to life than boobs haha!

If you are going to the trouble of cutting out dairy, it might be worth cutting out soya too as most dc that are allergic to one are to the other. And read labels v carefully, they hide the stuff with weird names

I seem to remember reading that 3-4 months is peak time for reflux. Certainly both mine have been at their most sicky at that point. I found the cure was time - their digestive systems matured and their latch improved as their mouths got bigger. If you can bear to keep going I would persevere as things get easier once they are on solids. By all means fiddle with your diet as well to see if it makes a difference. If it is bad enough to affect weight gain then speak to the gp.

I was about to say my toddler is hardly ever milk sick now but then I remembered she puked on the sofa after being tickled by her sister 😂😂😂

I always suggest what helped me with ds- can you spend a day in bed with the baby, a lot of drinks and snacks and the remote control-just feeding and dozing and cuddling? It did wonders for my supply and my rest and it was lovely. Worth a try?

My babies formula feed and Iv also had a terrible time feeding. The same as you fussing and even refusing bottles. He has reflux and later found out he has a CMPA. I have bf in the past so I know how difficult it is so would totally understand moving to formula like I did myself but don’t expect symptoms to get better. Reflux really is ride it out 😩unless you want to go down the meditation route but that also comes with its side effects ie chronic constipation. Things do get better as they get older. Doing as much research as possible on CMPA and reflux helped me and it gave me the knowledge to push at the doctors when they were trying to tell me there was nothing wrong and refused to change his milk.