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[kirst1805]

Infacol didn't really work for Gemma, so no advice there, sorry. My mum was the only person who could get her wind up when Gem went through a 'windy' stage.

xx

 

[wishingonastar]

Thanks ladies

I've expressed 2 bottles of milk off 1 breast since 5.30am as he was feeding off the right and the left felt like it was going to explode :-| Is this going to cause me more issues than it will solve though? I am concerned now that it will increase my supply and drown my LO even more when he is feeding

I am going out to visit a friend this afternoon which will eb a welcome break from being stuck in the house and as she has 2 LO's I can have a good chat to her about whats going on with Thomas as well. My OH will be home tonight (fingers crossed) so I will get looked after later which will be nice

I hope this does all settle down as I really don't want to stop breastfeeding Thomas, last night was a nightmare though as he screamed on and off for 3 hours which had me in tears feeling like it was my fault

Strangely he BF fine during the night, which I found very confusing! Fed off the one breast but no fussing or crying at all, very confused mummy here! I am just about to feed him again so fingers crossed there is no crying from my lil munchkin x

hi flower girl, in addition to all the other advice given i am also of the overactive letdown variety and found the following:
- stimulating letdown over a sink to drain off the initial powerjets(!!!) meant isabel latched easier and without a face full of milk and feeling like she was drowning

- you said you expressed off bottles as your boobs were so full in the night...whilst this will not worsen your letdown (that is a stable feature which i'll come to in a min), it will trick your body into thinking more milk is required at those times in future. Your supply takes 2-3 days to respond to increase/decrease in demand so doing it that one time shouldn't be an issue, but if you don't want your body to constantly overproduce at that time the best thing to do is express each side for no more than approx 20 secs which you will find will drain off your letdown and soften them up enough to be comfortable, but not encourage your body to think baby had a full feed (i had to do this myself because my boobs were convinced for the first 8 or so weeks that they were feeding sextuplets!)

- regarding letdown, my breastfeeding midwife explained a woman's letdown sorts itself out at different stages (and she was right!). It can either be ok from birth (for the lucky few!), or after the initial few weeks, or at the 3/4 month point or 6 month point. For me it was around 4 months my letdown and supply fully sorted itself out and i had no more drowning or leaking, but in the meantime I had established a system that worked for me of changing my breastpads at specific intervals during the feed, draining off letdown if isabel was struggling and always without fail having a muslin to tuck under my boob to catch split milk while she was feeding so i didn't end up with a soaked bra. Also each time i was letting down i'd hold the palm of my hand firmly over the side she wasn't feeding on which greatly minimised the milk coming out that side and reduced leakage and at intervals in the feed i'd do this. At the 4 month point my body figured out only to letdown from the side she drank from

- Regarding your LO fussing at late eve, but not during a feed in the night, have you had it explained that babies (particularly BF) clusterfeed. This is to build up reserves to encourage a longer sleeping stretch and tends to happen in eve or at night but some mums have babies who prefer doing this at other times! Isabel clusterfed from approx 4:30 til 8pm and i tended to make sure i was home for this period so i could sit with my boob out a lot! She became very fussy towards the end of clusterfeeding and it worked out it was one of several things - a) needing winding and i used infacol with her as she had bad wind b) wanted to change sides as milk flow too slow on current side c) she was knackered and thought it was hunger but just wanted to be rocked to sleep

hope some of this helps

 

[wishingonastar]

Thank you both

Thomas has been quite bad again tonight He has so much wind gurgling around his lil digestive system I am almost certain that is the problem for him

Could it be that when he feeds its triggering his digestion straight away which is what is causing him the discomfort and making him get upset and cry? Me and OH think its colic/wind as he has done the same with a bottle of expressed milk as he does on the boob, poor lil man

Would it be worth giving him something like infacol to help with his wind? I was told they have to have that before each feed though and as he feeds every couple of hours I worry I'd be overdosing him on it!

yep i recommend infacol (it resulted in one big burp from isabel as opposed to nothing without it for the first few months). only thing is you need to use it before every feed and not just at random feed times else it's not so effective. there are also a number of different burping positions to try (good old google can help with this). whilst isabel was newborn (before 3/4ish months) she really struggled to get wind up and it took approx 10 mins of gentle persistent tapping to get one burp up so dont give up too soon

 

[TigerLady]

Great advice going on in here! Thank you, everyone, for helping!

Flower_Girl,

I also wanted to say I have the same overactive let down problem. It can be a nightmare! You've gotten great advice from everyone so far. I don't have much to add. But I will reiterate what others have already said. What happened with me:

DS would choke and gag on the let down for quite some time. It was at its worst right around 6-10 weeks of age. After that, he adjusted and figured it out. I still had a strong let down and loads of leaking right up until I got pg with DD when DS was 5 months old.

DD gulped loads when she was younger. It was her way of trying to deal with the let down, but it caused her to swallow massive amounts of air. This gave her terrible gas and an upset tummy most of the time. I found I had to be very vigilent about winding her well after every feed. That seemed to minimize her discomfort. She started to accomdate the overactive let down better around 4 months old.

DD is 7.5 months old now. I still have a very strong let down and leak quite a bit. Neither DS or DD has trouble with it now. But I still have to be careful to have extra pads and cloths around so I don't end up soaked in milk every feed.

Just stick with it. It will work itself out. Try the different suggestions all these ladies have offered and hopefully you will hit on what works for you and Thomas.

 

[Flower_Girl]

Thank you all so much for all of the advice and tips, it feels so much better being able to talk about what is going on with Thomas without being dismissed, which is what my health visitor and doctor have done in the last week So thank you all again

I've got Thomas on Infacol now so hopefully this will help.

I feel like I'm endlessly asking questions at the moment but I have another now...Thomas is very windy, lots of gurgling and farts but the last few days he really stinks! He smelt like rotten eggs tonight and I'm a bit worried about that. I know its poop and its never going to smell like roses but is it right for a lil baby to stink so bad or could this be indicating another issue?

I did wonder if his crying when feeding could be silent reflux (after reading another thread where it has been suggested as the diagnosis for another ladies lil girl) as he has quite a few of the symptoms, but is not losing weight (he was 11lb 4oz a week ago) and has this very windy/gurgly tummy in addition to the reflux symptoms.

I'm not sure if google is being my enemy in this instance giving me too many ideas about what might be wrong with my lil man

 

[kirst1805]

Hi hun. Don't worry about asking questions.. Hope the Infacol helps you. I can't help with possible reflux.. But I'm sure someone will be along soon. However i can say.. I've always found google to be the devil when checking symptoms.. please don't pay too much attention to it.. As you've said it can give you ideas. . XX

 

[wishingonastar]

god yeah on google you can search 'sniffle' and end up thinking the worlds gonna end...it's not always a good thing!

in all honesty a purely BF baby should not smell bad from their rear...sounds silly but part of me is looking forward to changing a newborns nappies again cos isabel's were never offensive as a newborn i would suggest you've eaten something that perhaps does not agree with him (think about what you ate in the last day or two ) so long as it doesn't persist i wouldn't worry but if he constantly smells bad you perhaps need to seek GP advice (and a different one to your current one!)

don't forget to google baby massage techniques for releasing trapped wind (things like laying them down on mat and gently cycling their legs, but making sure you do big cycles that go up to their tummy to put pressure on it)

 

[lynnikins]

wishingonastar is right a bf newborns poop shouldnt be offensive my OH says it kinda smells like curried yogurt it could be something youve eaten thats made it happen or could be something more if it lasts more than a day or so see a doctor about it, have you considered cutting out dairy from your diet to see if that helps him ? milk protein is the most comon alergy or intolerance for babies so it might be worth a shot?

 

[TigerLady]

I always thought EBF poo smelled yeasty. The only "offensive" smells I encountered were when they smelled like vinegar. That was usually a sign of teething, being sick, or when we started weaning.

 

[bky]

Mine often had foul smelly poos when I ate onions or garlic--that coupled with the awful bellyache and wind she got means I'm still onion and garlic free.

 

[Flower_Girl]

I did have 2 pieces of garlic bread on Tuesday night, maybe that has caused the stinky nappies, other than that i've not had anything different I've tried to cut back on things like onion, cabbage, broccoli etc. but its hard cutting things out of my diet as I'm vegetarian as well so already limited.

I think I'm going to have to give him a few more days on the infacol and if he's really no better will take him to the doctors on Monday, I know if I take him tomorrow they will say 'you need to give it time to work' which is probably true. If he is no better by Monday I will try cutting milk out of my diet, I just thought if I cut it out now I won't know if its the infacol working or if it would be the milk issue

I will google the baby massage in a minute, well after I calm Thomas from his latest refusing to feed/crying fit that is

 

[wishingonastar]

good luck

 

[lynnikins]

good luck hunni

 

[Piperette]

Evening ladies,

I have a quick question. LO is getting little teethies now, one front one has already cut through, another is on its way.

Tonight he has bitten me twice. Ouch! I am sure he doesn't realise what he is doing and the effect it has, but it hurts quite a bit.

So my question is: How do I deal with this?


Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[bky]

Mine got teeth at 4 months, but what I did was just put her down and not look at her every time she bit me. The best way to get them to let go is push them toward you into the boob so they can't breathe. She rarely does it now (usually only when she's tired and frustrated). They find it funny when you squeal (or start crying) so I've found simple ignoring/withholding comfort is more effective.

 

[TigerLady]

DK just go her first tooth yesterday, too. With another on the way any day.

Otter bit me a few times after his first teeth came though. Ouch!

Try not to react -- a reaction might be interesting to them and encourage more biting. Say "No" firmly, unlatch them (if they stay latched, push their nose into your breast, they will let go in order to breathe... don't pull them off as that can damage your nipple), set them down and don't let them feed for 30-60 seconds. If they bite again, repeat the process but don't let them feed for 30-60 minutes. They should catch on pretty fast that biting means the end of mommy's milk.

This worked for Otter. He only bit a few times before he stopped.

Also, watch out for comfort sucking and playing at the nipple. They are more likely to bite then. I had to banish all comfort sucking and playing for about 3 months with Otter. If he wasn't actively nursing, he didn't get to be on the boob. Eventually I could reintroduce that stuff and he didn't bite anymore.

 

[TigerLady]

Sounds like similar things worked for both bky and I. Hopefully they will work for you, too!

 

[polaris]

Thomas only bit me twice, both times were in public when he was getting distracted and didn't really want to feed. I took him off straight away and put him down and ignored him for about a minute. I am lucky though that he is not really a biter in general (yet anyway!!).

 

[JellyBeann]

Either take them off the breast, say NO in a stern voice, then don't let them back on or look et them for a minute or so, or push them into the breast so they can't breathe, then you should be good, we had a period of about 4 weeks of biting, then he stopped, he does it the odd time now, mainly when he's teething, I squeal because he has 6 teeth short of a full set!

 

[ellie]

what the others have said really! K got his first teeth at 6 months and did a bit of biting a few times around 6-7 months. He would look up at me and grin so it was not about him getting milk at that point but playing around. I used to unlatch him wiht my finger (if I wasnt able to do this Iwould have pushed his face into my breast so he would have to open his mouth - this was advised to me by a bf counsellor) and say no biting it hurts mum, give him to his dad or put him down, then bring him back a few minutes later. He didnt do it since. The only time he does it now is if he falls asleep and my nipple slips out of his mouth! Good luck, they usually learn pretty quickly