Breastfeeding frustration

[PartridgeJoan]

I'm at the end of my tether. DD is 12 days old and until recently I thought we'd nailed breastfeeding. Yesterday she stopped being able to feed for longer than 5 minutes at a time, I think because of wind (she'd recoil from me and scrunch her face up) but she'd still be hungry.

My day has become a constant cycle of feeding for a few minutes then winding for up to an hour, usually with little result and with DD screaming for food but unable to feed the whole time.

When she does feed, no matter how well she latches she starts 'clicking' after about 3 minutes.

Had the midwife round yesterday who suggested different positions but nothing has stopped the clicking noise and nothing has fixed the problem. In fact it's got worse. Tonight she did a huge vomit everywhere (around three shot glasses worth) then screamed for milk, but couldn't feed.

It's breaking my heart and also driving me crazy.

Any advice?! I don't know what to do

Has she been checked for tongue tie? I’m no expert but it seems to go undiagnosed a lot and can cause some of the issues you’ve mentioned. Good luck.

Thanks - you are not the first to suggest that. I'm going to call the midwives on Monday and ask!

It could be that you also have an overactive let down, so baby isn't latching because the flow of milk is too fast for them. Try leaning back as you feed to see if it makes a difference.

Have a read of this on Tongue Tie. It might be worth giving one of the BFing Helplines a call this morning too. Have you got the numbers?

Persevere with the same breast when you put her back on. That way she might start to get to the slightly more calorific hind milk which will satisfy her for longer, enabling her to sleep a bit longer and actually get hungry.
Wind isn't often a massive problem with bf babies so if you're winding her for an hour and nothing is coming up you're probably wasting your time.
Also change her nappy after you've fed, some babies hate a wet nappy and a feed will usually generate one ( I know that sounds obvious but ds will only settle if it's dry, sometimes that means 3 clean ones after a feed).
Maybe try a dummy and jiggling her to sleep after a short feed. I know that ds and I got into that cycle of short feeds, constant wet nappies and little sleep. In the end the overtiredness was as big a problem as the feeding.

Posted too soon.

It's likely she's taking what she needs. Especially if she threw up 3 shot glasses worth. That's a lot from a tiny tummy. Babies don't starve themselves and if she can latch and feed she will, and from what you say she does.

What I would work on is slowly increasing the feed/sleep cycle. Best way is encouraging a better/longer sleep so she gets hungrier and then feeds for longer. Dummies and jiggling worked here. As did pram and car rides when he was older.

Ds also clicks when he feeds, he's bottle fed now and still does it. Only when he's tired though and he can't be bothered to suck properly.

Second the tongue tie suggestions. My son was tongue tied, had it snipped when he was around 3 weeks old which did help. I found it really difficult keeping him latched on in the early days. Felt as though I could do with another hand to hold him whilst I held his head at my nipple otherwise he just unlatched.
Congratulations on your little one though - hang on in there with the breastfeeding, it really does get easier as each week passes.

Thanks everyone we've had a little bit of progress but I've booked a lactation consultant for tomorrow to put my mind at ease!