7 weeks old and starting to get tough

[flamingbrenda]

DS is 7 weeks old now and is EBF. Up until a week ago BF had settled down and both me and DS had got the hang of it. Now he seems to suck on the nipple which makes it painful, comes on and off making feeding last a long time and also seems to throw up much more than before.

I have tried a bottle (TT closer to nature) with expressed on a couple of occasions, as I had to be out for a morning - could this be the problem?

Hi, he may be struggling to latch correctly. But, I have had similar scenarios, DD kept coming on and off, because she had wind. So try burping. (not just at the end of a feed)

Is your positioning good? maybe try tucking baby right under your breast? This helps me, anyway. Or just try different positions.
Does his sick smell acidic? Or if hes is sick a lot he may have reflux, dd has it, I went to the doctor and she was prescribed gaviscon.

Having a bottle regularly may be a problem but occaisonally, I wouldn't have thought so.

Also for sore nipples I swear by Lansinoh cream, Morrisons and Boots stock it, or mothercare. It is quite expensive (around £10) but it really lasts a very long time. I couldnt be without it!

I hope this helps and goodluck. Your doing well and remember you are both learning.

I went through something similar, just when I thought we had the hang of it, at 6 weeks it all went pear-shaped. Painful nipples, and fussy dd. We were giving a daily bottle of ebm and we thought perhaps dd was getting lazy but stopping the bottles didn't solve the problem, so I would say don't worry about a one off bottle.
I agree, lansinoh saved me! Smother your nipples in it after every feed.
For me it did get better, and seemed to be, in hindsight just the growth spurt at 6weeks, and we are going through it again now at 12weeks. Perhaps your DS is having his growth spurt at 7weeks?

Thanks for your replies! I have a feeling he's cluster feeding again as he fed for hours last night then only went 2 hours max during the night... we were getting 5 hours out of DS just recently.

Am using lansinoh - saved me in the early days, so we keep smothering it on.

Must be another growth spurt will see what he weighs next week and then give myself a big pat on the back at how much weight he's put on.