clicking sound?

[luckymamaoftwo]

My DS is three months old. He seemed to get the latch thing down pretty easily and early on, but I occasionally hear a prominent clicking sound while he is nursing. What's up with that?

[ElliesMomma]

bad latch. i would suggest that when you hear the clicking, you take him off your nipple and relatch. whenever i hear a clicking, i simply adjust my breast in his mouth until the sound goes away.

[DaniMama]

I second the bad latch. Are any other things happening? Like is he pulling off, drooling milk while he nurses? B/c it could also point to fast let down.

[luckymamaoftwo]

okay, thanks ladies. I do have a fast letdown (how do you slow it???) and sometimes take him off the breast to let the milk spray into a cloth, then put him back on. He also has terrible gas, so perhaps a result of both bad latch and my fast letdown??

[DaniMama]

For fast let down you can try working against gravity by reclining and kind of have your baby lay on top of you. You also try pumping till let down then having him latch on. Or you can use your first 2 fingers and position them like scissors on your breast, close to his lips. That compressed the breasts and reduces the flow...think of a straw that you pinch. HTH!!

[hildare]

hm.. i slightly disagree with the bad latch theories. while the clicks CAN be a sign of a bad latch, it could also be normal & the sounds are because of what your lo does to deal with an excess of milk. if the latch feels comfortable, i wouldn't worry too much. we experienced the same thing, and i don't recall where i read about the clicking, but i did find one source that suggested it was how the child was holding/averting the flow before swallowing if it was too much. you might try pumping a little or hand expressing before feeding and see if that is what's happening. if it is a bad latch, you'll see other signs of that being a problem, mainly sore nipples and a feeling that your breasts aren't being emptied.

[ShwarmaQueen]

A click indicates suction has been lost, so if you can identify what's breaking the seal then you can address the issue. It's sounds like OS might be your issue, and if so the reclining position will help immensly. Clicking is also a tell-tell sign of tonguetie (ask me about it!) but if you're not having pain and baby is gaining weight, that's probably not your issue.

[ASusan]

We had clicking for a couple of months early in our nursing relationship. It was slightly annoying on my part, and I remember worrying about bad latch and the possibility of thrush. I did have overproduction, and pumped off at least 4 oz before the start of each session. (Not sure if OAL was involved.)

Eventually, the clicking went away. Despite all my worry and attempts to "solve" the problem, I think it went away on its own.

[Artichokie]

the most common answer I hear to this question is "bad latch," however my mom bf'd her three bio kids for four years each and I distinctly remember that sound coming from each of my nursing sibs, so I personally think sometimes it is just a noise - maybe based on nipple shape? Idk. But I was actually disappointed when my own dd didn't make that sound when she nursed because it was just always something normal and there in the background when i was growing up with nursing siblings.

[2boyzmama]

It could be a bad latch, but like PP said, there usually would be another sign.

Has his tongue been checked? Sometimes a mild tie can cause suction to break.

What does his palate look like? An high arched palate can cause suction issues because the baby has to compress your nipple against his hard palate to draw the milk out. If his palate is shaped differently, that might be hard for him to do or maintain.

A fast let down can cause him to do flow control, which could make a clicking sound.

The gassiness you describe makes me wonder about tongue/palate issues. If you have oversupply, and he has trouble keeping suction, he may not be getting adequate hind milk, which can cause the gassiness. You could try block feeding to decrease your supply a bit and get him more hind milk. That might help with the letdown and then the clicking might end.