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Screaming and fussy when breastfeeding

7 replies

Penny321 · 09/02/2019 05:44

My 5 week old baby has just started to pull off the breast and scream when I feed her. It’s a really angry/ sad cry which sounds like she’s in pain. She mainly does it in the evening feeds although has also become more fussy with other feeds too. I have a very forceful letdown and seem to have a lot of milk so she struggles to keep up and swallows air. I wind her during and after feeds but the wind doesn’t usually come up easily. I’ve tried infacol but it put her off feeding completely and gripe water which she spits out and doesn’t seem to work really. I try to take her off and catch the let down in a muslin but even then she seems to struggle. My breasts are always really full when she feeds and don’t seem to be settling to match what she needs. I can’t feed her more often as she’ll only take what she wants then refuses the breast til she’s ready for another feed, usually about 3 hrs later. She’s gaining weight brilliantly. My DD1 had reflux and I know she’s showing the signs but it’s not all the time and I don’t really want to medicate her if I don’t need to. Thanks in advance for your advice.

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Bodear · 09/02/2019 05:51

Hi OP, a friend had some similar issues with her baby. Have you had you LO checked for tongue tie? It caused all sorts of issues and went undiagnosed for months.
Good luck x

17caterpillars1mouse · 09/02/2019 05:52

My DD is 6 weeks and started doing this at 4 weeks, I did a little googling and it suggested wind so I've been burping her more often even if she's only been feeding a minute and it has greatly improved. Maybe something you could try?

Penny321 · 09/02/2019 07:35

She did have tongue tie which was cut at 2 weeks. It didnt really improve things much and she still won’t open her mouth v wide so I have to keep trying to latch her til she does, a problem made worse by the letdown as she gets sprayed in the face while I’m trying to get her latched on. I haven’t tried burping her that often as it takes so long to get her latched in the first place I’m then reluctant to take her off straight away but I will try it. She does seem to have a lot of wind and gulps down a lot of air.

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MySonsAMonster · 09/02/2019 07:37

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Specialkay1983 · 09/02/2019 07:50

I had the same issue with my DS who is now 17 weeks and EBF. Found that pumping some of the milk before feeding helped and then he would latch and feed better. Breastfeeding support at local hospital gave me a manual pump which did the trick for my needs as don’t express very often.

Bodear · 09/02/2019 12:54

Her tongue tie might have reattached? Good luck x

PlinkPlink · 09/02/2019 13:14

Have you tried different feeding positions? Sometimes that helps.

DS had colic in the early days and it was awful 😩😩 didn't go away until we tried Colief. Pain in the arse to administer but at least we didn't get the hours of screaming. Poor mite.

Winding never really seemed to help either.

I wish I had better solutions but that's all that worked for us. I didn't think babies that breastfed could get colic... I was wrong 😖

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