6 week old screaming at breast, is there anything i can do to help her

[witchwithallthetrimmings]

have 6 week old bf dd. lots of poos lots of wees and gaining weight (8-9 oz a week) so do not thing there can be any supply issues, problem is the evening feeds where she screams and screams and acts like she is ravenously hungry, when i put her on the breast she screams even harder. does not appear to be wind (although she farts like a trumpet). the only thing that works is to rock her almost asleep and then feed her when she is v. sleepy.

She and you sound like candidates for generous supply, witch - and this can bring the behaviour you describe.

You could search archives and google for info.

This is sometimes helped by block nursing sometimes called one sided feeding (see archives) which damps down the supply without restricting the baby's intake.

What do you think?

My DS was the same
EXACTLY the same

Check for tongue tie? Its more common than i realised.

Then go through the motions asking about support because it is there but takes a bloody frustratingly long time to access IMO which is pathetic but usually by the time it mobilises you and baby have given up and gone to formula

Ask and ask for support from MW and HV.. you and baby deserve it. Support on here is fab but some things need to be seen/dealt with in RL, we wouldn't even need to ask on here if RL support was so shockingly inadequate IME.

Good luck x

Ah ignore me and listen to tiktok lol she's fab

if it was over generous supply would it not be more of a problem in the morning when my breasts are fuller? she screams even before she latches on

p.s. am feeding from one side already as she feeds every 40 -60 mins or so when awake

also thanks both of you for your support
x

It's ok to check for tongue tie, as Blue says - no harm at all in that. But the behaviour does not suggest it.

Babies scream in response to an over-generous supply not just because the breasts are full and they have a 'fire hose' effect to deal with. It's also because very full breasts have milk that's lower in fat - nothing wrong with that, but it means the milk is correspondingly higher in lactose which can make tums feel a bit gassy in some suscpetible babies.

It is typical for the behaviour to be ok at some points of the day/night and very screamy at others.

Block nursing means sticking to the same side over a period of hours, BTW, so what you are doing now, but when she comes to the breast again using the same side again.

Can i just add that i have a generous supply sometimes too and find it is easier on DS if i lean back and have him practically on top of me when the bubbiiiis are fuller as he sort of hoots or chokes as if he can't keep up with the flow if i don't

Oh ffs sorry its Blue here testing out my new name

thanks all (btw can not be tongue tie as she often sticks her toungue right out at me!)

p.s 1 any good arguements for dp and mil who are advocating switching to formula

p.s. 2 i'm guessing that expressing and giving ebm in the evening would make things worse - am i right?

Good arguments? That breastfeeding gives your baby the health outcomes you want for your baby? That you are trying out a new way of bf which will hopefully help the behaviour? That if there is an element of lactose sensitivity formula is likely to be very unhelpful?

Pointless expressing to give ebm - I dont see it would make things worse, except give you more hassle.

I had this with DD a week ago, the EXACT same thing, hit at 6 weeks, after no problems with breastfeeding since the start.

Turned out to be overtiredness that meant by the evening she would be so cross she would scream at the mere sight of my breasts which was really distressing. Sorting out her daytime naps (by any means possible - walking the streets for hours, rocking etc) has solved the problem.

DD also suffered with wind and although we thought we were doing well with the winding, we've just started her on infacol and seems to be really working. She's a different baby. Doesn't work for everyone but maybe worth a try?

p.s. agree prob pointless expressing for the sake of it but I did find that when DD was really too cross to breastfeed she would take a bottle of expressed milk then would feed from me again afterwards once she'd calmed a bit.

Oh, so THIS is what happened with DS. It's taken me 2 years to figure it out. I felt very alone and misunderstood and the thought of the hell we both went through still makes me very sad.

He doubled his weight at 10 weeks and the log I kept showed that from 2 weeks until 8 weeks he was only off of the breast for 8 hours in 20 - 80 minute slots.

My life was hell but the HV accused me of exaggerating and reprimanded me for considering ff.

i wonder if this is why my baby is so windy in the evenings too, she also screams at the breast, we work her legs around gently to get the poops out on and off from about 8-12pm when she usually settles. I'm going to try block feeding too to see if there is noticable difference in the wind - thanks tiktok and good luck witchwithall...

I had a similar experience as crazycatlady. When dd2 was around that age she was very overtired in the evenings and just cried and cried when I tried to feed her. I would end up carrying her around until she calmed down, she then fed and fell asleep.

If this is the case for you, try to get your baby to sleep within an hour or at the most 2 hours after she's woken up. It made a huge difference for us to realise that she couldn't stay awake longer than that and be happy.

I had this with ds and dd. very upsetting.

dd didnt do it at night either when I was lying down, which I suppose slowed the flo down, and she was more relaxed.