Baby agitated at the breast-please help!

[Yo_Yo]

For the past few days, my ds has been agitated during breastfeeding. It seems to come on during evening feeds.

He will latch on, pull off and kick his legs and arms around whilst crying. Then he will immediately look for the breast and do it all over again! This is sometimes accompanied by a few farts!

I don't think supply is a problem. As I can tell he is getting milk. Also, I wind him after every feed (always get a few huge burps too!)

He is restless even in his sleep at night, making noises and wriggling lots.

What's wrong? And what can I do to help him?

 

[superfrizbee]

My dd did this with trapped wind and ds is starting to do the same! So frustrating... I just keep trying to wind him in different positions or calm him upright in my sling.

 

[purplecupcake]

If he's farting, I think it's pretty clear that it's gas.

My son sometimes wants to comfort suck and gets upset when he gets milk; he unlatches and spits milk everywhere, arches his back and cries. Usually in the evening as well.

 

[Linnypops]

^^ that was my daughter to a T at nights around 3-6 weeks old. Couldn't hold a dummy so comfort sucked- enraged by the milk.

 

[Vicki_Cream]

My DD was the same at that age, and also got angry when she got milk by comfort sucking. I found that infacol and tummy massages really helped relieved her trapped gas, and she was a lot happier afterwards.

 

[Zeri]

My 5 wk LO has been doing the same. Feeding, then crying and pulling off the breast, arching his back, kicking his legs etc, even after he's burped. If I offer him back the breast he will take it and drink for a few min, then do the same thing again over and over for about 3 hrs It usually happens in the early morning. I was reading and I think it's colic- caused by tummy pains/trapped gas. I started giving him gripe water and it's helped a bit. He makes noises at night but I think that's due to reflux..

 

[Prinny_1]

Same here with 3wk old, usually in afternoon from 3ish until bedtime. I don't think it's true colic (he's not crying non stop for hours) but is uncomfortable, unsettled and tries to suck for comfort, but I think that actually makes wind and indigestion worse because his tummy gets so full. There are lots of things you can try; feeding them keeping baby in upright position, winding several times through feeds, infacol, I love u massage, but I think it is unfortunately one of those things that you have to ride out until their system matures and can cope with the gas better.

Hoping it rights itself ASAP for you. Colic generally goes on until 12 ish weeks, but I do remember DS1 being a bit like this and it was def gone by 12 weeks. X

 

[minties]

When my babies did this it often helped me to nurse them in a more reclined position (me) and them in a more upright position so they were pressed tummy to tummy and were parallel to me rather than across my body. I think it's refered to as biological nursing?

The pressure on their tummies seemed to feel good and help push excess air through.

 

[susywoosy]

Its probably not the case, most likely wind or colic, but my son would do this. Short feeds from the breast, then cry in discomfort and then would b hungry and looking for another breast feed an hour later as he was obviously still hungry.

I tried lots of things and at 4 months when he hadn't really improved, I went over to formula as a last resort. It made issues worse to the point he'd refuse bottle.

Got him to Dr and it turned out tummy pains, excessive farting (runny poos too) and short feeds that he had a milk intolerance. My supply had dwindled by this stage so we moved on to comfort milk and it was like night and day.

Try to cut dairy out your diet for a couple of days so as their is no lactose going into your breast milk. If he seems better at the breast, it may b worth a trip to DR to investigate a milk intolerance xx

oh and just to say, he was often worse with pain as day went on and his body struggled to break down the lactose he had consumed.

 

[Literati_Love]

Although it definitely sounds like it could be trapped gas/burps, just wanted to throw this out there that my dd does this when she is tired and cranky. I got freaked out that I didn't have enough milk for a while but then she went up from 87 to 95th percentile so that clearly wasn't the case! What I do is once she latches on I very persistently (gently, but enough that it calms her) pat both her back and her bum over and over until she calms down. My DD loves being patted to sleep so this is why I do this (yours might like rocking or something else). Anyway, she fights it very briefly but usually very quickly gets nice and sleepy and will finish her feed in a calm, relaxed manner and fall asleep. Of course, this would mean nursing to sleep so you may be against that - but in my experience when my DD does this, most of the time she is just overtired and needs help going to sleep!

 

[Princesskell]

My 14 week old has started doing this, usually on the second night feed. I don't think he is hungry but waking to comfort suck, then seems cross at the milk. He will cry if I try unlatch and wind, but gets so agitated by the breast. Wish there was a button for milk flow!
Any more tips?