please advise! scared to night feed after baby gagged and stopped breathing

[ele]

I wanted to see if this has happened to anyone, please!!! DD of almost 4 months stopped breathing while she breastfed. I had to do emergency pumping on her for what felt like few minutes! and we also ended up in ER. She tends to gag on breast but this time instead of gagging and coughing she froze up not breathing.

Also I am now panicked about breastfeeding her at night. She is only 4 months old tomorrow, so she may want to eat and also my breasts are over full if I don't feed her.

Has this happened to anyone? Did It happen only once? How do you overcome the fear after what happened and did you continue with night feeds?

[lily_layne]

((hugs)). That is a difficult experience. I don't know of any babies that stopped breathing during a NF but I do know of  2 that just stopped breathing. For both, it never happened again.

Could you express some milk before feeding her so it does not come at her so quickly?

[newkidontheblock]

No experience with this but just wanted to give you some hugs. That is a terrifying experience. What did the doctor say? Do you have access to an LC who might be able to ease your fears?

[becj86]

I've not had this happen, I can imagine it's scary!

Did the ER give any indication of what caused her to stop breathing? Did she aspirate some milk? Does she have a blocked nose from a cold? Was your breast covering her nose so she couldn't breathe? The cause would be something I'd want to know in your shoes so you can be rational about trying to prevent it recurring.

However it happened, it sounds like you may have oversupply, overactive letdown or both. Have a read around how you can help baby with that, lying back to feed can help, as can expressing. IIWM, I'd probably be feeding with a bottle of EBM at night so I could watch the feed and control the flow more easily.

[newkidontheblock]

I haven't been able to stop thinking about this. Generally if baby's nose is covered while nursing, they unlatch as the breathing reflex takes priority over feeding. Have they suggested a neurological workup or asked for an evaluation by a specialist? Great suggestion to use a bottle of expressed milk. That way DH can help out and you can get some rest too.

[ele]

She gagged from milk and that's a natural response from preventing it to go to air channel. that's what they say. also, it's normal . but it's MY daughter and it's not normal to me and I don't want this to happen again ever.
Thank you for your comments, may be I try bottle, we are EBF so far.

[weaver]

Oh that's scary for you hun.

Maybe have a think about the position you were feeding in, can you change that a bit? Make sure you and she are well supported, I'm thinking your back and arms in particular.  I second the idea to read up on over active letdown, if that's part of it, then it will help to hand express a little before she starts to feed. One key sign is gulping when she feeds, does she do that? I have minimal experience with bottle feeding (some EBM) but most people say the flow from a bottle is faster and easier for babies to gulp down.

I know it's hard to accept people saying "that's normal" because clearly it isn't for *you*, but all sorts of scary things happen to babies as a one off, and if there is no other sign that you need to be concerned about her, then the real challenge here is to deal with the fear (which is very real and powrful) and not let it rule your bfing relationship. More than anything she needs that source of food and comfort.

Hugs

[jessmum46]

(((Hugs))) hun it must have been a very scary experience for you.  These things do happen with babies sometimes, though I totally understand this is not "normal" from any parent's perspective and it must have felt like a lifetime before she was breathing normally again.  I agree with others though that this shouldn't ruin your breastfeeding experience, and if you can get some hands-on support from a breastfeeding group or consultant that would really help you get your confidence back xx

[*Liz*]

My baby has reflux, and has had a few episodes where his breathing has paused. It isn't due to the feeding - it is due to the milk being regurgitated.

My son is bottle fed, and has been since birth basically. Most of the episodes we have had have been when he is lay asleep in bed, and will start gagging and then I pick him up and the breathing pauses  . They are getting less frequent as he gets older  .

Try not to assume it is due to you breast feeding - the same can happen with bottle fed babies as well. Obviously your choice how to feed and more forwards from this as it was clearly very frightening.

I have breast fed 2 other babies, and this third one of mine is bottle fed. All have had reflux, and my 3rd is the worst really  , but he def gags and brings up more milk than my others did. I assume partly due to the extra wind etc from the bottle.

Lots of hugs