violent feeds

[BabyJoy]

Just after some advice... my 6 week old daughter is doing great and usually feeds well & I've had no problems BF, but in the afternoons and evenings she gets really violent! Thrashing her head around, sucking hard, pulling, biting and crying, while latching on and off. I can only assume this is because she is tired and/or cranky but is there anyway to stop this behaviour?

[Notchalk]

I have 2 ideas:

1. Your supply is lower in the evenings, hence her frustration at a slower flow (could be a growth spurt at the time, too, as 6 weeks is classic time)... drink more water, rest a bit in the afternoon, do whatever you can to help your milk supply - especially breastfeed often!

2. It could be thrush - although less likely if it only happens in the evenings... could be if she's more tired she can't cope with the sore mouth as well in the evenings, and breastfeeding might hurt her mouth. It doesn't hurt to treat for thrush, anyway.

Good luck!!

Jo

[Mummabear]

1. Your supply is lower in the evenings, hence her frustration at a slower flow (could be a growth spurt at the time, too, as 6 weeks is classic time)... drink more water, rest a bit in the afternoon, do whatever you can to help your milk supply - especially breastfeed often!

This is what I was going to suggest. Just try and persevere through this and your supply will build up to meet her demand. Just try and think of the positive, which is that she is obviously loving her milk and wants more and is growing well on it :thumbsup: As Jo said, bf often and even try expressing between feeds if you want to speed things along a bit. The best milk expresses is you bubba though - they're experts, lol

[JodieC]

I agree with the reduced supply. Get her weight checked regularly. My son was like this for a few weeks and then we had his weight checked and he had barely gained in 5 weeks. I had gone from an oversupply to undersupply as quick as a flash. I have quite a bit of stress in my life which the CHN said could cause my supply problem. I feel really bad now because at first i thought he was just being difficult

[Funkychicken]

Yep, I agree here too. And you are probably right about the tiredness too. If Hamish is tired, we go through this too. i usually stop trying to feed him and just hold him until he settles and then try again. Have you got or ever read Sheila Kitzenger's book called "BREASTFEEDING"? This is such a wonderful book and I often have 'another' look at it. If you haven't read it you may be able to borrow it from your local library.:)

[Goosie22]

Hi,
Its not unusual for babies to be frustrated durng growth spurts, I would suggest as others have to feed frequently and often, express if baby has sleep longer than an hour (especially at night as prolactin levels peek after midnight) Also make sure you have good attachment with lots of breast tissue taken in and a nice wide open mouth. Take a day or two off and just rest and feed.

Dont worry about the weight as Breastfed babies dont need to put on huge ammounts of weight, Focus on wet nappies and general well being which is a better indicator of health, CHN's use the not gaining weigh to suggest formula top ups this will compound the problems of reduced supply.

The ABA have heaps of info on breastfeeding and related parenting advice
http://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/bfinfo/index.html

[carls]

My bub used to do this and I was told by the CYH nurse that it was because he was over-tired. ;)

[Miss_Vicki]

Hi

have your tryed them on some wind drops ? they work wounders with my 7 wk old but i have to use it a few times a day before feeds or i get times she does just what your 6wks does.
I would agree thrush can do similar too
Hope you have a happy bubby at nite soon :)

[1stbaby]

My baby did this ...especially so during growth spurts. I was told it was due to a slow let down and as others have already said, this can be remedied by resting before feeding. I also used to change sides and that sometimes helped. And I fed more often during those times too. It still happens now on afternoons when I've been running around a lot.

[chillifly]

Hi Shannon,

Fancy seeing you here :D

Lucy constantly hits herself in the head and grabs at my breast pulling it out of her mouth when she feeds - it's only when she's really tired that she doesn't. She's putting on weight, has enough wet nappies and seems okay though.

If you're worried about your milk supply, try taking Fenugreek for a couple of days. You would be amazed.......

Though I second the lower milk supply at night and growth spurt thoughts too....

Keep smiling :hugs:

[vespertine]

Hiya, my son went through this at the same age! He was constantly thrashing about at feed time, clawing at his face and my breast etc. It was just a phase though, I was patient and just kept offering the breast frequently and he soon settled. He'll get through his fussiness, just make sure in the meantime his nails are kept really short so he doesn't scratch himself :D

[elissas]

I had the same thing with DS at that age. The problem was wind. It builds up through the day and would peak in the late afternoon. His body was so tense, he wanted to feed so badly, but trying to make him feed while he had "other things on his mind (or bum)" made it too traumatic. There they are with the boob in front of them, they want it so much, and yet they can't enjoy it.

At that age their digestive systems are still young, so they have more trouble processing any wind. Once they hit about 3mths it starts to settle - DS farts like a trooper now.

I suggest giving your bub a bit of gripe water or Infants Friend about 10-15mins before you anticipate a feed - just for day feeds. It helps settle the belly beforehand so that they feed much more efficiently and with a lot less stress.

Good luck.

[Tam-I-Am]

Hi,

It was at about this age that my DD developed colic, which resulted in the same behaviour - we tried heaps of things, we ended up giving her Brauer's colic relief drops with are a homeopathic remedy, all natural, with no nasties that could hurt bubs, and they worked wonders.

The ABA has some good info on colic too.

Good luck, hope B/F gets easier for you and your bubba:)

[Biene]

I'm with Elissas, my DD did this and still does and I found it was because she had wind. She would frantically suck, pull at the nipple, then dribble milk all over her face and cry, when she does this I pull her off the breast, burp her and then put her back on the breast again.

[BabyJoy]

Thanks everyone for the advice. She's settled down a little bit and is only doing this about every second night now, not every night. I think the problem is varied. Sometimes she's overtired, sometimes it's wind and sometimes my milk is low (although this isn't usually an issue as I'm quite often squirting her in the face!).

We've got Marina's Mixture which is a natural colic remedy and it works quite well, but I only use it when I'm tearing my hair out.
Generally, Laura is a good burper and gets that wind out without any problems. When she starts getting violent on the breast, I just take her off, calm her down, she might have a burp and then try the other breast (if the first one is too sore). It was stressing me a lot in the beginning, but I'm prepared for it now and have learnt ways to settle her. Another thing I found that worked was if DH cuddled her... she would calm down straight away (no smell of breast milk to make her crazy) and then we'd try feeding again and have no problems.