Two-week-old EBF baby - reflux or fast letdown? Clueless!

[howtomum123]

Hi everyone,

My DS is nearly 2 weeks old and has been peaceful and calm until maybe a day or so ago - we were getting 3-ish hour blocks of sleep at night which was amazing for a tiny newborn and he fed so well right from birth. He’s gained on his birth weight and we were discharged from the midwife at the weekend.

He started being a tiny bit dribbly after feeds a few days ago and we didn’t think much of it, just one of those newborn things? However, the last 24-ish hours or so, he’s been sick almost full feeds shortly after feeding, including quite violently/suddenly this morning, and seems in discomfort or unhappy during feeds today - he has a tendency to drop to a shallow latch and has a lip blister we’re trying to resolve so I’m having to relatch him when he slips off, and this is when he gets cross/uncomfortable.

It’s so hard to know if he’s in pain or not? He goes bright red and ‘shouts’ with some back arching, and is wanting to feed more frequently than before. He also coughs during feeds and I hold him upright and support his chin/head until he’s finished coughing and we can resume the feed.

Can anyone advise? We wondered if he was overfeeding or if I had a fast letdown causing him to cough, or maybe he’s windy and uncomfortable caused by the un/relatching (he wasn’t like this before we spotted the blister) but I’m so worried that it’s reflux which I read can come on about now (two weeks old) or something hurting our boy. He’s been so relaxed and happy these first two weeks and it’s so hard to see him like this.

Would be really grateful for advice from anyone more experienced because I have no idea what I’m doing! X

Forgot to say, he does lots of wet/dirty nappies and poos are always mustard/korma yellowy so his digestion seems fine and the midwife was happy with this and his weight gain. Do refluxy babies do frothy green poos or not necessarily?

Hi OP,
Congratulations on your new baby :)

I believe green poo can mean they're only getting the watery foremilk and not getting to the fatty hindmilk - we got around that by LO only feeding from one breast at each feed, but I know that doesn't work for everyone. I also used to pop the haaka on for 30 seconds or so before latching baby on (unless they were very frustrated) which caught the worst of my pretty violent let down (which calmed donw eventually!). We also elevated the head end of the moses basket as she was a bit refluxy, and it really helped.
Obviously this is all anecdotal but just sharing what helped me :)

I had a fast letdown and my daughter has reflux and food allergies reacting to foods I was eating.
For the fast letdown I did leaned back feeds and hand express at the start of a feed.
My daughter was a dream for 3 weeks with just fussiness at the 3am feed by 3 months she cried for 16-20h a day and was a nightmare to feed because of reflux and allergies.
I would ask for a feeding assessment and some tips for feeding with a fast letdown and go from there.

Yeah our issues started around week 2 and sounds very similar, add in really painful wind around weeks 4-6. It got progressively worse and peaked around weeks 7-8. Reflux and milk and soy allergy. Going dairy and soy free at week 8 has made an enormous difference but it's difficult (dairy protein and soy is in everything, you essentially can't get a takeaway and you need to cook from scratch) so paediatricians don't want to jump on that straight away. I'd rather this than trying to shove gaviscon down him.

Probiotics have helped us too, we give him the bio gaia ones.