Help please, baby choking while feeding :(

[jaggythistle]

Hi,

My boy is 11 weeks old and has started choking more often while feeding.

It seems like my let down is too much for him, he also lets a fair bit of milk dribble down his wee face too.

Is there any way to help him with this? I have tried leaning back while feeding but I'm not sure it has helped so far.

It doesn't happen during every feed and there doesn't seem to be a pattern to it as such

Also I am not sure of the best
thing to do when he does choke, I think I just panic at the moment and try to sit him up and pat/rub his back a bit.

thanks.

DD does this - especially on my left side and assume it is because my let down can be really powerful

i sit her up a bit to calm her and let the milk fall out onto a muslin - sometimes it is a real gush

no real tips - maybe try a different hold? Rugby ball can be a good one

i gathered that hes bottle fed - try let him drink 1oz - 2oz of drink each time as dont forget, they cant breathe whilst they are drinking so he prob trying to come up for air....thats one of my lessons that ive learned!

He'll get used to it. Maybe when you feel the letdown coming, take him off and squirt the first powerful lot into a muslin (or a bottle if you've got a good aim!!).

kellymom.com has a great section on this - if you look up fast letdown ideas for positions to feed/expressing before hand etc really worked for me

have you looked at the hole in the teat?
they come in different sizes, well 'flows'.
my 1st daughter did the same, (now 13), i asked the midwife and she told me about the different flows there is.

Jaggy - this happened with my DD2 until she got a bit bigger (3 or 4 months - with DD1 it was so bad I had to use nipple shields for 4 months to calm things down a bit!). As you say, I think it was the really fast letdown. Now she's bigger its fine, so you just have to hang in there. Sounds like you're doing the right thing to follow her lead, let her come off and sit up if needed, and put a muslin in the way to catch the milk, then try again after a minute when its a bit calmer. If she doesn't seem too worried about it once she's stopped choking/coughing, then no problem, it might just scare you more than her - certainly scared the living bejeezes out of me the first time it happened, when she was just a week or two old!

You say its just started though - has anything changed in the feeding? Maybe she's dropped a feed, so you're more full, hence a more forceful letdown? If so, you could look at the info on kellymom about oversupply?

It seems to be my left side which is worse too funnily enough.

He just seems to guzzle away madly, no matter how fast the flow and he can't keep up.

It's just not nice to see, especially when he does an occasional extra loud choke that sounds like it really hurts.

I think it started to happen a bit more often a few weeks ago, his 6 week growth spurt seemed to last about 2 weeks! In the last week he has started going a wee bit longer at nights so I have noticed some fullness.

I will check out the oversupply info on Kellymom, thanks.

He does cry a bit sometimes, but it seems to be because he realises suddenly that he's not attached and wants to get straight back on!

Sorry jaggy, just realised I kept calling your DS she. Doh. Bit tired at the moment! If he's happy enough to get straight back on the breast, then doesn't sound like too much of a problem. Just means you don't have nice quiet relaxed feeds ()

I think I get about 50:50 relaxed ones.

Have had a bit of success skooshing expressing some milk onto a towel (or baby's bib if feeling classy) when the let down starts so he doesn't drown quite so much.

Tried yesterday a technique from Kellymom site, but only achieved a full sore one in the morning so I may have got confused somewhere!

Definitely less choking overall.

Am getting a lot of peace right now though, as he has discovered thumb sucking and appears to be addicted!!

Thumb sucking gets the thumbs up from me ! Definitely the point at which both of my DDs started to sleep better, hallelujah.

He's like a different baby! Only needed fed at 4 this morning, then was fine till 7.30. If he woke up other than that he must have quietly got the thumb in and got back to sleep. I will make the most of this while it lasts.