BFing challenge - head shaking - x posted

[~Caitlyn~]

Hi ladies - I posted this in the breastfeeding challenges forum also...

I could really use some advice. My one week old daughter will sometimes stop nursing and open her mouth and shake her head side to side violently.... she gets really frustrated, to the point where she wont accept my breast anymore. She will suck on her hand and cry... poor thing. I will usually try to re-latch her a few times, and try switching breasts, or positions... these sometimes work, but, others she is so upset that she cant nurse anymore, and I just rock her until she falls asleep.

I read something online about a possible oversupply issue, but, they all mentioned milk squirting... and I only leak when I try to express some milk. I also read that it could be a slow flow causing her to be impatient... so, I'm not sure which way to treat the problem, since both of those suggestions have different approaches for treatment.

My pediatrician thought I felt a little engorged when I nursed in front of her, and suggested massaging the breasts while feeding... but the article I read on oversupply doesn't suggest this.

Ugh. Any advice would be HUGELY appreciated... by my dd and myself!

[buttercups.nest]

When I'm a little bit engorged my son does the exact same thing....has a hard time latching, even though his mouth can't get any wider, shakes his head from side to side etc. I always have a receiving blanket nearby and will hand express a little into that to get the 'squirt' off.

If the flow is too slow for your daughter maybe try breast compressions while she's nursing? What about starting to feed a little bit before she normally would start?

I just remembered our first few days home.....there were a couple of hours early in the morning where all my little guy would do was scream. Don't really know why (he screamed) but that was when I got my pump out. While I intended to pump just a little and feed it to him to take the edge off it took on a life of its own...I got engorged, he got way to used to eating by syringe, and in the end he would just flutter suck...stinker was holding out for the syringe! (He'd flutter suck, then suck back 40-50ml on the syringe in minutes!)

Point I'm trying to make is if you do decide to try this don't make the mistake I did!!!!

[Dmitrizmom]

dd will start to do this when I firehose her with overactive letdown... I've found that if I take her off, wipe her face and dry the breast that she will latch back on better. I think that sometimes the breast gets slippery from her saliva and she slides off when trying to re-latch.

[cristeen]

How's her weight gain? Wet diapers?

My little guy was doing the same thing... turned out he wasn't getting enough milk, and was frustrated.

You should be able to hear her swallowing... pay attention to how many sucks between swallows, ideal is 2-3. Mine sometimes goes upwards of a dozen between swallows.

[kismetbaby]

I've been having the same issue. . .he acts starved, but then won't stay latched. He keeps pulling off, furiously shaking his head trying to re-latch but then getting mad and crying. I think if anything I have oversupply not under. . .but have also been using a nip shield the last few days so I don't know if that is causing the problem. Although all day yesterday he was fine, then last night doing this routine. With the shield I don't think I could be spraying him too much.

I feel so defeated, I don't know what's wrong. He is having plenty of wet and poopy dipes. Can a baby get too much to eat?

[cymbeline]

Having been through this four times, I can say that I've decided it is "normal" for a baby to get frustrated over a number of things when trying to nurse. It could be anything from oversupply to undersupply, caffeine or other stimulants in the breastmilk, thrush or another irritation in the mouth, etc. Here were my issues:

DS1: High palette, which meant my nipple wasn't tickling the roof of his mouth to encourage clamp down. We switched holds (football worked best for us) until he got the swing of things. He was doing great by 6 weeks.

DS2: Colic, maybe caused by my diet? I'll never know. We did find that nursing every hour instead of two hours, helped.

DD3: Poor latch, so we tried a number of different holds, and caffeine, so I cut out coffee and chocolate. That was hard. By 6 weeks she was doing great, no more frustration.


FWIW, I've found that the key is to stay calm. There's nothing wrong with taking a break, even if it means rocking the baby to sleep. Whatever the issue is, trying to force nursing is frustrating for BOTH of you and isn't helping. Sometimes nursing while walking around and bouncing a little helps too, although it can break your back after a while

Many hugs -- it DOES get better! What's that phrase that keeps going around? Keep calm and carry on!