Bfing has been going pretty well since the beginning. However, Amelia has been having some issues since Sunday night. She will latch on fine and be sucking away for 5-10 minutes, but then she pulls off the breast and SCREAMS!! I calm her down, latch her back on and then any one of a few things happens...either she pops right back off and screams some more OR sucks for a few minutes and then screams some more OR she finishes the feed and appears fine. I'm racking my brain trying to think of anything that's changed in the past couple of days, but I can't. I did get away for a couple of hours Sunday morning so my DH gave her a bottle which she took fine. That is the 3rd or 4th bottle she has taken in her life and she hasn't had an issue yet. The feed immediately following my return home went fine - it wasn't until later that evening that the trouble started. I should say too that this doesn't happen at every single feeding, but it is happening more often than not. Her day sleep schedule seems off too, which I suspect is because she's not eating enough at a feeding so she's waking from naps early to eat again and she has been on the breast more in the last couple of days. My supply is not an issue as I know I have plenty of milk and she already had her 6-week growth spurt. She had a couple of green poops yesterday, which I think were because she was getting more foremilk than hindmilk, but I'm really grasping at straws here. Fortunately her night sleep hasn't been affected at all. I feed her around 7 pm, put her down around 8, feed her again around 9:30 or 10 before we go to bed and then I don't hear from her until 6:30-ish. It's nice that she's sleeping through, but that puzzles me even more. If there's a problem, why is she able to put it aside at night? Not that I'm complaining, just confused.

Anyway, I am rambling, but does anyone have an idea of what might be causing this? I had major meltdowns with my son because he would scream at the breast due to a weak suck and that's why I stopped trying with him. I just have such a hard time not taking it personally when my kids are rejecting the breast and I have been doing a lot of crying in the last couple of days. Bfing was going so well, but now I am struggling. Thoughts??

__________________
Suzanne

it cold be several things..

could be thrush, and ear infection, another growth spurt, gas, somethign in your diet(though this one is unlikely) somethign to do with the few bottle feeds (even if it didn't affect the feed immediately following the bottle- it could still be a possibility.
the green poo is indicative of either too much foremilk for severl feeds in a row, an allergy to something she is has ingested- either directly or through your milk (is there any chance that a sibling may have "shared" somethign with her? ) was it expressed milk in the bottle? if so, had you eaten anything out of the ordinary before?

one suggestion would be chiropractic care, it helps eliminate ear infection, hich some little ones ar eprone to because of the way their eustachian tubes are, also, many times a chiro adjustment can help with latching problems, which it doens't really sound like this is since it is not consistant, but it could be the start of one.

if you think it may be gas, you can try burping as soon as she first comes off before latching her back on, or you could try gas drops. they seem to help some kids really well and not others.

also, highly unlikely but still entirely possible is that she is teething already. hyland's makes a wonderful teething tablet i hear

is she on any meds at all?

especially antibiotics? the reason i ask is because of thrush. antibiotics trash the intestinal flora, killing off all the good bacteria along with whatever bad thging they are being taken for to start with, therefoire if she's had any abx in her system, that could trigger thrush. a LOT of babies who are having mouth sensiticity from thrush latch on and nurse then pull off because of an irritated mouth and repeat, because they are hungry so they want to eat, but it irritates them so they don't want to...

what about you? any meds? any abx (even as far back as while laboring- if you were group b positive, you'd have likely gotten iv abx. what about any kind of hormonal birth control? sometimes they can make babies a bit fussy- in addition to altering the milk supply.


one other slight possibility, with all the fuss that sometimes is part of the holidays, is there any different about her surroundings? ie- rearranging the furniture etc?

one other possible help is hyland's camlms forte for kids, iirc it is safe for all ages, but you'll of course wanna check the bottle.

has she had a dr checkup lately? (if you do them)

__________________

Wow, thank you for the response. Let me try to answer everything you've asked...

The bottle she had on Sunday was ebm. I don't think I'd eaten anything out of the ordinary that would have affected that milk. If the bottle is what's causing the issue, how do you work past the issue? No chance her brother has "shared" anything with her.

I would think if it was an ear infection she wouldn't be sleeping so well through the night...is that not true? I suppose she could be teething already. We have had great success with the Hyland's tablets, but I'd hate to give them to her without determining that teething is the real culprit here.

I suspected it might be gas so I have tried burping her when she pulls off. Sometimes she burps, sometimes she doesn't. Even if she does burp, the screaming continues.

Neither of us is on any meds, although I did have a Mirena IUD inserted 3 weeks ago (had it removed today due to headaches it was causing me). I did have iv abx during delivery due to Group B Strep, but is it really possible it could take 8 weeks to cause an issue? I don't see any spots in her mouth - that's what I'm looking for with thrush, right?

No change to her surroundings, although we have had some commotion with the holidays. However, that was all Monday and Tuesday and this problem started Sunday. As for the doctor, we haven't taken her since her 1 month check at the end of November, but she is due for her 2 month check next Tuesday. I will definitely talk to her ped about this. This is really her only problem. She seems healthy in every other way - no discomfort when not nursing, no fever, no congestion, no pulling at the ears, etc.

Here's one thought I had (and it might be crazy, but I'm guessing here)... I know babies get more efficient at nursing. Is it possible there is an adjustment period where she is more efficient but doesn't realize it so she keeps eating thinking that she's supposed to suck for 30 minutes when really she was done in 10? As a result she's getting overfull and unhappy?

One other thing to note: I posted about this on my BI board and a few moms posted they have been dealing with the same issue which would lead me to believe that it is developmental.

Thanks again for the help!!

__________________
Suzanne

a lot of times the developmental portion is more that they start getting distracted easier, again, not always; but more often than not.

__________________

Well, we had a better day today in that there was no screaming at the breast. However, she did have a real fussy period in the evening where she was pretty much inconsolable for an hour or so and she spit up a lot more than usual today. Her poops have been back to their normal yellow seedy color. I actually reached out to a local LC for her input and she wants me to come in before making any assessment so we have an appointment with her tomorrow.

Thank you so, so, so much for all your insight. This bfing business is so stressful at times and it's nice to know that helpful people are just a few clicks away!!

__________________
Suzanne

Also meant to add that the Mirena does contain hormones. Also you mentioned something happening right before af returns and I was going to respond that af hasn't returned yet but I'm pretty sure it did this morning. I've been bleeding for so many reasons (postpartum, Mirena insertion, Mirena removal) that it's hard to know exactly but I'm pretty sure. My baby girl has been sleeping through the night for awhile now so af is a definite possibility. Maybe that's been part of the problem as well. It's so much easier when the kids are older and can TELL you what the problem is, isn't it?

Thanks again for the help.

yw

hope the lc is able to help ya figure out thigns. a GOOD lc is worth more than her weight in gold

__________________

how is your supply? my oldest ds sounded soooo much like your dd...but what I didn't realize until ds2 was born is that i suffer oversupply and overactive letdown... did she always latch on and suck or did she used to kind of pop off a bit?

also I agree with what the other ladies said. it is so tough figuring out whats wrong!

__________________

I do have an oversupply and an overactive letdown. We worked through those issues early on. However, the LC said that because Amelia has regularly started sleeping lo-o-o-ng stretches at night and spreading out her feedings during the day, when she does latch on she is getting a LOT of milk and she can't handle it. When we worked through the issues before, she would just pop off and be gasping and choking, etc so it was easier for me to identify the issue. This time all she was doing was screaming and that was after 10 minutes of being latched on. Her different reaction this time around made it harder for me to identify this time around. Now that I know what's going on, I started expressing a bit before feeding her and leaning back more so the milk has to work against gravity. Things are going a lot better.

Thanks!

__________________
Suzanne

glad things are working out

__________________