side-lying question

[gardenmommy]

Why, when I nurse DD (2.5 weeks) side-lying, does milk come out of her nose? a lot of it, enough to really soak the blanket we were lying on. it doesn't matter which side we lie on, and it only happens in that position. you would think Id know these things, given that she is my fifth baby to nurse!

[lellian]

I've never heard of this before! Do you think he age has anything to do with it? I didn't start side lying nursing until DD has a bit more neck control around six weeks. We had no issues then. Good luck!

[judybean]

I'm not sure either...but... Gosh, it seemed to take us a while (here with dd4) to master side-lying nursing.. and even now, it seems there's still a learning curve with it, but she's getting better every day!

[gardenmommy]

She doesn't seem to have any trouble latching on side-lying, her suck-swallow seems fine, it's just that milk comes out of her nose. My MW said she thought perhaps it could be just because she is so young, and ears/nose/throat are so connected at this point.

WRT to the learning curve of side-lying: I've been able to figure it out a little earlier with each baby. She is #5, so I suppose I should have figured pretty much it all out by this time, right, lol. I don't remember this happening with any of my other babies, except when I had a particularly strong let-down, and they were doing that gagging choking sort of thing, like they are being flooded and drowned.

[akind1]

I can't actually "see" DS's latch when side lying (big boobs!) but I know he must let some dribble out of his mouth, as he ofen ends up on a damp blanket also. we didn't really "get" this position until about 2 months ago, as he needed to be able to find the nipple on his own well, and as I said, big boobs, they get in the way sometimes! now I don't even need to aim him, he just finds it like a magnet! LOL

once when we first attempted, I didn't realize he wasn't latched quite right and ended up with a hickey! ROFL

[lovepiggie]

I posted a thread about this a few months ago!

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...447&highlight=

No one seemed to quite know why it happened, but it seemed common enough. DS is 7 months old now, and it doesn't happen anymore, but it did continue until he was maybe 5 1/2 - 6 months old?

[gardenmommy]

Hmmm... well, thanks for the replies, even if no one knows why it happens.

[TzippityDoulah]

hmm I never noticed it out of the nose, but all my kids dribbled and choked a bit with side lying until they were much older. It's never been my fav way of nursing personally. the bed always ends up wet.

[spughy]

If you try to drink while lying down half-asleep, whatever you drink will most likely come out of your nose, too. It's just physics - fluids splash around, and there's an open passage between throat and nose unless you're actively swallowing. If you arrange the baby so the head is slightly elevated, it'll help, but depending on your boob configuration, that might not fly.

TBH, it freaked me right out the first time it happened with DD, but it didn't ever bother her and I just put a towel underneath her and it was fine.

[Hannah'sMommy]

It's probably because her head was a little lower than her stomach. My DD had that happen a couple of times when I was sitting up nursing her with a regular pillow, I think her head was a little lower than normal. I agree with spughy to arrange baby with her head slightly elevated.

[gardenmommy]

That sounds like a reasonable explanation spughy. I will have to try to figure out how to elevate her head slightly.