Fussy feeds - suspect overactive letdown - anyone btdt?

[cath~]

The last few days H's feeds have been getting fussier and fussier.  She's also a bit fussier generally.

She feeds for a few mins then stops and is v reluctant to take any more

She often splutters when the letdown comes, pulls away and then there is milk spraying everywhere

She is a bit windy and we're getting some explosive poops.

She's not feeding for comfort at all.

Reading the FAQs it sounds like I have over active letdown.  It was same with L but she never got fussy like this.

I am already only offering one side per feed and she's feeding quite frequently (every 2-2.5hrs during the day).  I am going to try and take her away from the breast when the letdown comes to see if that helps.

Just wondering if anyone else has gone through this, what they found helped the most and if/when things started to settle down?

I love bfing and really enjoyed the long snugly BFs I used to have with L, but ATM I am finding it really frustrating

[anna*]

I had this with both of mine. What worked as far as I remember
- feeding from each boob twice rather than changing sides at every feed
- lying back to nurse and having baby lie on top of me (so gravity is working in their favour) (google biological nurturing)
- take baby off and express a bit just a minute or two until the first letdown is out the way
- time. As they get bigger they can handle it better - although of course I can't remember when that happened.

Oh, and, don't express. I was expressing milk with Stan and it made matters so much worse!

[Brock~Tahlia~Mummy]

We had this only weeks ago! Started at 5 weeks and continued until 8 weeks. I did exactly as Anna suggested and it helped but took  about 3 weeks for DD and my milk to match up. (I remember having 1 really rough week with it too). I still have to pull her off occasionally when my letdown happens otherwise she gulps and gets very windy. I just have a face flannel close by and let the milk spray into that until it stops then I put DD back on. You'll get your snugly feeding back in no time. Xx

[Bryony's mum]

I had that too with ds1 - I did the same things as Anna.  the main thing that helped I think was feeding on one side for 4-6 hours before changing sides, then everything settled down. 

[cath~]

Thanks everyone

So if you fed on same side for a few hours, did you find the other side was huge when you switched, so wouldn'tt have even more strong letdown? Or was that ok?

Today it's just me and H at home so I've been watching v closely (not easy when L is around..) and I've noticed she feeds (well) for around 5-8 mins then stops.  And today she's actually been dealing fine with the first letdown. I burp her and wait a bit. Sometimes eventually she'll latch on again but other times she refuses completely.  If she does latch on again she sucks for a bit but when the next letdown comes she comes off and stops feeding.  Do you think the refusal to feed more than 5-8 mins could be cos she's full?  L used to feed for more like 45-60 mins (if we had the time..) so such short feeds are all new to me.  Offering her more milk just seems to make her upset but I do wonder if just 5-8 mins is enough and, enough of the hind milk.

Wdyt? Is 5-8 mins enough? Is there any other reason why she might be refusing to take more after that point?

I'm feeding approx every 2-2.5 hrs during the day (when she awakes from, usually short, nap). And at night she goes anything from 2-3.5 hrs between feeds, usually around 2.5-3hrs.  She has gone 4hrs at night once or twice ever.

[anna*]

Thanks everyone

So if you fed on same side for a few hours, did you find the other side was huge when you switched, so wouldn'tt have even more strong letdown? Or was that ok?

To begin with, but after a couple of days the supply adjusts.

Do you think the refusal to feed more than 5-8 mins could be cos she's full?  L used to feed for more like 45-60 mins (if we had the time..) so such short feeds are all new to me.  Offering her more milk just seems to make her upset but I do wonder if just 5-8 mins is enough and, enough of the hind milk.

If she's satisfied and can go to her next feed on 5-8 minutes - then yes she's getting enough. Neither of my babies really fed long. 10 mins TOPS for Stan (usually more like 5), Audrey a bit longer but still 10-15 mins and she was definitely done. All that advice ('feed 30 minutes from the first breast') was just entirely baffling to me.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

M was a 5-10 min feeder from birth...she had better things to do than eat and still does! Her sisters not so much, E finally takes only 15 min.

I did block feeding with S and we got to the point where I fed from one side for daytime feeds and the other at night (because she hated to feed from the left but didnt know better when she was half asleep!). She was having formula at that point too so a couple of the day feeds were bottles.

[lily_layne]

I had the same and did all of the things that anna suggested and found they really helped.  DD also only fed for 5-10 minutes and I got really worked up about it because everything says it should be 15 min-1h.  I finally went for a consultation and a few minutes into the feed, DD popped off and I had 7 (yes 7!) streams of milk spraying across the room! The consultant said that if I was producing that much milk 5 minutes can be enough.  After that I relaxed about it and feeds got easier because I wasn't forcing  her to take more than she needed.  I let her feed until she came off, burped her and then offered the breast again but didn't sweat it if she didn't take more.

The first few days of block feeding were uncomfortable because my unused breast got incredibly full but it settled down after a week or so.  Somewhere around 3-4 months, DD switched to feeding from both sides at a feed.

[KCP]

Feeling relieved that I am not alone in this! My 10 week baba usually sucks on for 10-15 minutes but of late, it has reduced to 5-7 minutes. When I get him to latch on again, he gets highly irritated and moves his head away. Noticed too that my let-down comes out in full force, so I usually feed him on one side till I feel it's time to switch in his next feed. Thanks Anna for those suggestions - will be trying them out today.

[Techmom]

I've had the same issue with all 4 of my kids.  I found this article to be very helpful: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2075483/

Hope that helps!!

[Brock~Tahlia~Mummy]

Again we had this! We just have forceful milk and I think that results in quick feeding? OR! Our babies are very efficient eaters! At 12 weeks we're fully settled with my milk and DD's feeding. Xx

[scruffymax]

Sounds a lot like my DS - now 3.5 months and from birth fed 10 mins max.  Weirdly he has recently started to take longer feeds (sometimes) - the opposite of DD whose feeds got shorter as she got older.  I have had weeks when I have been tearing my hair out over his fussy feeding but then it seems to get better.  I'm still not entirely sure what the issue is - I think I have a fast flow and he probably gets what he needs in a few minutes and then gets annoyed if I keep trying to feed him.  If he wakes from a nap and is still tired he will occasionally go into a "feed back to sleep zone" which is surprising as he never does that any other time, and those are some of his longest feeds.  His overnight feed is also one of his longest, presumably because he is so relaxed (and half feeding, half dozing).  So I'm not actually helping or giving any advice, just commiserating, but also letting you know that it is getting better over time!