What is going on with 4 week old?

[eastendmummy]

DS2 is 4 weeks and is ebf. From birth he has fed beautifully, great latch and frequent, but effective feeder. He feeds around every 1.5 - 2 hours in the day and goes a little longer at night.

A couple of days ago, he started to get really agitated during the later feeds - clawing at my breasts, not latching on for long before pulling away, looking around with wide eyes and generally being a bit hyper and difficult to settle down.

This is unusual as he is normally a very relaxed and quiet feeder and it seems as though it's only happening in the evenings/during the night.

What could be causing it? I have milk for him and have checked that it is coming out when he's behaving like this. I'm finding it really difficult and stressful and last night was in tears as I just felt as though he was pulling and clawing at my breasts and I wanted to get him off me. I hate feeling like this and was enjoying feeding him so much up to this point.

Is his behaviour normal? Is there anything I can change to stop it?

Thanks so much if you can shed any light on it.

Hi eastendmummy. Could it be his mouth is hurting him for any reason? So it hurts to latch on? eg, thrush? Or maybe he's over tired? My baby gets very agitated and hard to settle when she's overtired and her eyes go a bit stary. She cries as if she's hungry but doesn't latch on for long.

they can get like this for a number of reasons

maybe he your letdown is a little slow and he is frustrated - DD used to paw and pinch my boobs in the evening when the flow was slower

can you try to swap sides when this happens and see if that helps?

in the evening, they can get over tired as well and DD used to get very wound up of an evening when she was feeding

Both my DDs went through a few days of behaving like this at a few weeks old. I was distraught both times and tried everything I could think of to help. DD2 stopped doing it when I stopped using my deodourant for a while. It may have been coincidence. I never worked it out. I just kept going and offering it and once they'd got over it they settled back down and both BF for three years. Don't despair, just keep offering and hopefully he'll get over it and you can both relax and enjoy it again.

Thanks ladies. I will try and offer the other side when he starts fussing and try hard to stay relaxed. I've checked his mouth and it seems good plus he feeds brilliantly during the day. Hopefully it will pass soon as I love feeding him and want him to be happy and content.