Extremely fussy newborn

[Losingtheplott]

DD2 is 6 weeks and very unsettled. She’s EBF and fussy feeding started at about 2 weeks. It has gradually got worse to the point where she now only has a very shallow latch (will just relatch if I correct it), takes in a lot of air, comes off and on lots, never seems satisfied and usually ends in me getting her to sleep while she still seems hungry as I can’t get her to carry on feeding. Feeding her when she’s drowsy is slightly better.

She had a tongue tie release at 3 weeks and was also diagnosed with a high palate.

She’s a very restless sleeper and squirms when being held upright. I can put her down asleep but then starts squirming within a few minutes.

Tried using various bottles and teats for a break but she’s even worse at feeding from a bottle. Tried Infacol and Gaviscon but haven’t noticed any improvement with these. Tried endless burping.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Have you been to see a BF specialist since the tie was divided?

Saw the lactation consultant a week after she did the tongue tie release and she got her to latch on well at the time. Will try to get another appointment next week when she’s back at work

It takes at least 2 weeks for a baby's tongue to gain full function after a division, and you really do need lots of latch work afterwards. It's really hard to take on everything so it might be you need to be reminded of something that will help. Do you shape your breast in a U shape to help her latch?

Yes, I can get her to latch on then she readjusts. I think I must be giving up too easily. I will continue trying, thanks!

This sounds like ours - does she has a recessed chin at all? We ended up seeing endless specialists as ours started losing weight and turned out he needed a smaller bottle teat (and there was no realistic chance of him breastfeeding successfully til hes a bit bigger unfortunately). He also had a tongue tie and high palate and was never satisfied after feeding cos he wasnt really getting much!

She doesn’t have a recessed chin. Which bottles do you use? Did you manage to return to breastfeeding?

We use dr brown narrow necked bottles, hes got a small mouth so fits him better! Hes only 8 weeks now and they thought at least 12 weeks before he'd be big enough so its too early to say. Not sure its worth it by then though!

I had a very similar sounding thread when I was at my wits end - also 90% tongue tie and high palate. I must say that we didn't really get any tongue tie improvement for 6 weeks after division. Im told we were on the slower end of healing but not out of the realm of normality. We tried Dr Brown bottles for the top ups following our referral to the specialist SALT feeding team but had the best success with Nuk teats. We just struggled on really until we got to 5months when things got a lot better and now at 9months, she's weaning really well and drinking normally. We kept going with bf + top ups and I've only just stopped the bf at 8months as I'm back at work in a few weeks. I had a tonne of support from SALT and my HV (who is generally amazing anyway) because they were worried about the impact on my MH. I def echo getting specialist support - either IBCLCs or infant feeding teams because I found them to be very supportive, even if there was limited concrete action that could be taken.

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