Any ideas why my friend's baby..

[arabella2]

comes off the boob after starting feeding screaming, then has to calm down before starting again - apparently this happens quite often. She is going to be 4 weeks old on Sunday.

I find this happened to me when I left the baby for too long without food. The poor soul was so hungry that would gulp the first milk down and scream for hunger.
I now make sure that he never goes more than 2 and half hours without food.
Some baby can last longer of course, but some just need to eat a lot and often when they are born. How often does your friend feed her baby?

happyspider may be right; babies have no patience. By the time they realise they're hungry & wake up to tell you, they're famished and they have absolutely no ability to wait to be satisfied.

Course, it's also said some babies are very prone to gas & gulping air when feeding.

It could also be that the mother's let down relex isn't quick enough for her impatient baby.

milk coming down too too fast i think - like when a teat is too big - (iykwim)

Thank you. I'll pass on your answers.

I had a similar problem where my milk came in too fast for my (v. little) ds and was offered a couple of possible solutions 1. express off the first mad rush then feed as normal 2. use a nipple shield initially to even out the flow (it pools in the shield) removing it for the rest of the feed. I tried both and ended up with option 2 for a few weeks until ds got big enough to cope on his own. I found the medela shields the best - the avent ones ruined my nipples. HTH

Message withdrawn

I was advised the same Eeek! Also if baby is starting to feed then screaming, it could be she hasn't latched on properly in her mad rush for food and gulped air down too. My solution was to feed DSs every 2-3 hours like happyspider, and try to feed them before they screamed for it.

Keep it can only get better as she gets older.

I agree with Rainbow if baby is burping during the calming down stage. It could also be too much milk and you are slightly engorged. Then milk has already been 'let down' and so you cannot regulate the flow. instead of laying baby down to feed trying sitting her up slightly so that the milk stays in her mouth that way it can be dribbled away if necessary and doesn't pool in the back of her throat and distress her.

Oops 2 people using the same computer I forgot to change the name!!!

Yep, I would say this too, definitely milk coming too fast. When my milk first came it would just shoot out, dd would come off gasping and my milk would spurt about 5 foot into the air! Perhaps your friend could stimulate her breasts to get rid of this sudden spurt, before putting her baby on it?