My DD cries at EVERY feed now ......

[lollipopmother]

She is 3 weeks old tomorrow, and I think she has colic. She cries at every feed and I'm sure it cuts down the amount she is feeding. I also know that I shouldn't let it annoy me, but it does, she screams the place down after only a couple of mouthfuls, then goes back on, and off, on and off and I'm not sure what to do now for the best. Should I try expressing and giving her the milk from a Dr Brown's bottle, as I hear that those are supposed to reduce colic, but then I thought that BF babies weren't supposed to be windy in the first place ....

I don't want to do the wrong thing by giving her a bottle, but I don't think she is finishing her feeds because they are always cut short by her crying.

How is your supply? Do you spray milk all over the place when she bobs on and off? How's her weight gain?

Well one boob seems quite full, when she comes off it I can see the milk is still flowing out of the nipple, I touched it once and it sprayed in her face . The other one isn't anywhere near as full, however she reacts the same to both boobs. Every now and again she won't scream during the feed, and she'll feed for quite a bit longer than her other feeds.

As for the weight gain, she lost 3oz in her first week, then last week she gained 4oz, and she's due to be weighed again tomorrow. The screaming at every feed only started at the end of last week. I am giving Colief but it definitely hasn't stopped the crying, although she is also crying from 7pm to 11pm and that has been greatly reduced in the last couple of days, so maybe it is working slightly??

Could it be that your full boob has a powerful letdown that causes her to gag a bit and cough?

lollipop - it would be really helpful, I think, for you to call one of the bf helplines so you could talk to someone about this. It could be a lot of things.

This sounds very similar to how my DS was,
He would scream nearly every feed sometimes after just one gulp from my boob.
it was very depressing for me and i kept thinking it was something that I was doing, I discussed it with just about everyone I met, professional and unprofessional and no ones advice helped
I tried giving a bottle, but he was just the same on the bottle, so stopped blaming myself.
(but did keep giving him a bottle at least once a day just to give my sanity a break)

I tried just about every colic 'remedy' on the market and nothing made a difference.

Without worrying you too much because yours may get over it much quicker than mine did, but this lasted until he was approx 19 weeks and on the advice of my HV I decided to wean him.

the colic cleared up immediately after the first feed of baby rice and every breast feed after this was a pleasure and I was so glad that i hadn't switched to bottles completely.

but I don't want you to think that I am suggesting weaning her, just to give you reassurance that it doesn't last forever.

Ten10 - I have resigned myself to the fact that there is no answer to colic, like you I have spoken to various people, and no one seems to have an easy answer.

this sounds to me like it could be reflux, worth taking a look at other sypmtoms.. it was in my case and we suffered for ages but much better now with baby gaviscon...