rejecting breast and unable to calm my baby

[gd1976]

I have 2 problems with my 6 week old baby boy...
Firstly, he seems to be rejecting my breast. I try to feed him, but he goes on for a couple of seconds at the most, then screams and gets very cross. This goes on and on until i end up giving him ebm in a bottle sometimes which he guzzles, so he is clearly very hungry. He isn't like this at all feeds but in the last 2 days it has become much more frequent and he's taking less and less milk as a result. He was born 7lb 5 and has put on alot of weight since birth. He has had one bottle of formula at 10.30pm since he was 9 days old. This has all worked really well until the last 10 days of so.
My second problem which is probably related is I don't seem to be able to calm him down, yet anyone else seems to be able to. My husband and my mum stop him crying straight away yet he more often than not screams when i pick him up of go near him. This also happens when i have given hima good feed so it can't be that he smells the milk and is hungry. Often he'll be content and as soon as my husband leaves for work he screams blue murder. As you can imagine this is really hard for me. I have been doing some baby massage which he really likes and he is calm for me then so that's good, but the rest of the time he's pretty agitated. He has been suffering from colic too.
I'd be really grateful for any advice!!!

Thanks

awww, firstly I just want you to know that you're doing a great job. I had a baby that cried, a LOT, and it's incredibly hard work. I think sometimes they just need a change of person, and so it seems like whenever you give them to someone else they calm down?

as for the feeding, I would say he has got used to the fact that a bottle gives him instant gratification and is rejecting the brteast in favour of this.
if it were me in the situation I would stop bottles completely for the time being. offer breast a lot, even when he isn't asking, because then he'll be more likely to take it (because he wont be desperate for that instant milk hit he gets from the bottle) and see how you go from there,.

oh, with the crying thing, my saviour was a Moby wrap sling (www.sasaslings.co.uk) and reading "the happiest baby on the block" by dr harvey karp. we used a combination of white noise, shushing and patting and rocking to get ds2 off to sleep, or to calm him down

My 17 week old DD has started doing this. She won't latch because she's screaming, but a bottle or a bottle teat over my nipple calms her straight away. Coupled with the fact she's waking every two hours at night, I'm pretty much on the verge of a breakdown.

Thank you both for your feed back. No he doesn't really have a cold although he has been quite rattley and snotty but his nose isn't blocked. Also i think i have a fast let down as he often coughs and splutters when he first goes on.
Oh it's all so confusing!! I haven't used a dummie until now but i used one yday for the first time and it did calm him but i am loathed to use it all the time as i don't want to cause him any more confusion and become dependant on it.....

Oh that sounds awful cryptoprocta... I'm certainly not the person to give advice on that I'm afraid!! I hope things improve andthat it's just a phase

So do I. Thanks for posting your story though, it helps to know I'm not alone. I don't really want to have to give up BFing. She's just woke up from trying to get her to sleep, and she had a nice feed with no complaining, so I'm a little happier.

Hopefully someone will be able to give us an answer, but there probably isn't one.

I breastfed both of mine and I think there were times when they reacted as you say. Sometimes I think the flow can be too fast for them and hits the back of their throat which is upsetting. I just kept trying and eventually they were okay but perhaps there's something else going on with your baby.

I could be wrong but I think it's also possible that if they are very hungry the initial watery foremilk is not what they really want and they are impatient for the creamier hindmilk, which does take time to let down.

The NCT have a breastfeeding counsellor you can call - might be worth a try.

Not sure if I've been any help but I wish you both luck x

Go with the dummy if it does the trick but drop the bottles for now so your supply has time to even out.

Another thought is that 6 weeks is fairly classic timing for colic to kick in, have you looked into that at all?

Here's the link with the NCT helpline

[[http://www.nct.org.uk/info-centre/helplines here]

Should be:

here

Hi GD -Itsprobably a combination of things happening here- its well documented that breast fed babies have growth spurts at this age so he is probably requiring more breast milk - to stimulate your supply he really needs to feed from the breast for this if posible - i would suggest a couple of skin to skin days- (get into bed- and let him ly on your naked chest and him with just a nappy on and let him feed as often as he likes) Try to reduce or stop the infant formula- as this will reduce your supply. Make sure you are eating well and plenty to drink and not rushing around too much(easier said than done!) Sling or front carriers are brilliant for settling a fetful baby - they get body warmth on their tummyfrom you they can smell you and hear your heart beat - very soothing and dont worry you wont spoil him - the more you comfort them at this age the more secure they feel this reassures them and they settle down. hope that helps.