Is this normal or need a GP?

[PorridgeOats63]

Hello, my little one is 6 weeks and is generally an angel during the night and in the morning. However is the afternoon and evening she is showing some behaviours which I’m not sure are normal or signs of discomfort, possibly reflux. She is breastfed but gets a bottle or 2 a day or either expressed milk or a small amount of formula.

• Sicks up milk after every feed
• difficult to burp, often no burp comes out and generally dislikes being burped.
• after a feed, doesn’t seem settled, wriggles and squirms and makes a lot of noise. Cries if put down. Only does this in the afternoon, evening though. Nighttime and mornings are fine.
• once she has fed properly (sucking and swallowing for 10 mins or so) she then gets quite unsettled on the boob, wriggling, head butting me ,mouthing my nipple, latching off and on again. If I take her off she squirms about and eventually cries and only stops if I put her back on the boob.
• giving her a dummy often helps settle her.
• she is also often fine if we go out in the car/sling so a change of scene helps.

Is this normal newborn behaviour or signs that I need to get her checked out?

As a first instance I’d say it sounds like she’s struggling with wind, not burping and then being unsettled after a feed could be pain from trapped wind. Have you tried infacol? X

She’s had wind before and I think it presented differently. She’s not kicking her legs and tucking them up like she was before.

shes currently on the boob but wriggling around and not feeding properly (she had a proper feed about 45 mins ago) and crying if I take her off. Even the dummy won’t settle her

Sounds like it could be a number of issues, has she been checked for tongue tie?
If she's not burping after a feed then she will be uncomfortable and squirmy so look into different ways to burp her.
She could a,so be getting frustrated with the boob as bottle feeding is much easier for them to access the milk. Sounds like she's fine with the i tusks let down but then is getting impatient waiting for the hind milk, again she could have wind after the fore milk.

A lot of it sounds perfectly normal baby behaviour to me.

Fussy evenings and afternoons can be normal. This article should tell you if it's time to seek any additional help.

How often does she feed in the day and what time is she waking up in the morning?

If day she's feeding every 3 hours, you might want to offer every 2.5 during the day to try and tank her up a little.

As for the wind. Lots of BFing Mums never wind their babies. It's totally normal not to. If you do want to and are struggling you could try the Tiger in the Tree method. There's lots of videos on YouTube on how to do it

And if you're struggling to put her down, again this sounds normal. Try using a T-shirt DH has work as the sheet in her Moses Basket to give it a reassuring smell for her. Babies are very aware of smells.

Have you tried a stretchy sling too? My DC2 didn't like to be put down in the afternoons or evenings but would happily be in the sling whilst I fetched DC1 from Preschool and cooked our Tea.

Have you managed to get along to any of the Local Breastfeeding Support Groups yet? They should give you an idea of what's normal or if you need some extra support too.

And a PP mentioned the possibility of TT, the symptoms are here if you want to see if anything is similar.

As for bobbing about after 10 minutes she could just be frustrated because you're giving her a bottle and it's much easier for her. You could try some Breast Compressions to keep her interested in feeding and you could swap the bottle for cup feeding, which is more like BFing.

Just read the title of your thread again and if it's anything to do with BFing I'd always seek the advice of a BFC on one of the Helplines or a Lactation Consultant over speaking to your GP. Going to your local BFing Support Group is an option too.

Doctors have very little training on infant nutrition, it might be half a day in their entire training. Most can't recognise Tongue Tie either.

Always seek help before speaking to the GP if it's about BFing unless the baby is obviously unwell and needs medical assessment.

If she's ok the rest of the day this sounds like classic evening fussing/cluster feeding. The tugging at the breast & head butting is her trying to increase your milk supply.
It's also normal for breastfed babies not to burp or need burping- my eldest DD never did.
If she is gaining weight well and having lots of wet nappies and her poo is yellow then I wouldn't worry too much. Maybe talk to your HV next time you see her.
You might have to resign yourself to sit and feed her in the evenings and not really do much else. I wouldn't give a dummy until she has had a good long session on the breast or you're going to affect your milk supply.

How are things today @PorridgeOats63?

I would definitely say this is all normal, it's normal to fuss, it's normal not to get a burp from a breastfed baby. I would just keep putting her on the breast instead of giving a dummy personally.

A really good book I've just listened to on audible "a judgement free guide to feeding your baby boob, bottle and all" by Olivia Hinge, she's lovely and also has an instagram page with lots of advice on infant feeding

She is an IBCLC qualified lactation consultant too btw

I think she's on Insta too