fussing at breast

L

li555

Registered User
My ten week old is being breastfed only. Sometimes baby fusses and doesn't want to feed. Latches on and then even before sucking pulls off and arches body and screams.

Could it be that I'm mistaking his signals and he's not hungry? He likes to stick his tongue at me and open his mouth. Or is it because let down is slow? I've tried expressing a bit before but once he starts screaming, he doesn't want anything. Or maybe it's gas?

I usually just give up and put him down and skip the feeding. He likes to nurse to sleep, so he's probably getting milk then.

Not sure...?
 
It is difficult to say exactly why your little one is upset to nurse. Is this a recent thing? If so, has anything changed in your life or in your feeding habits?

You ask if it could be because the flow to too slow? Have you been doing anything which might reduce your milk supply and therefore the flow? For example, pumping a lot instead of feeding directly, and giving lots of bottles? Or trying to space the amount of time between feeds? It is quite rare that your flow would start to upset a baby after ten weeks of the baby being happy with it.

Often babies pull away because the flow is too strong. When your baby feeds can you see any milk around his mouth? Changing positions so the baby is in a more upright position may help.

One suggestion is to limit the number of tries at feeding your baby to three or four. This way you don?t keep trying when clearly the baby isn?t interested. Also babies who refuse the first and second latch often will take the third.

Your baby is now ten weeks, just at the age that naturally many babies start to get interested in the world around them. When your baby is interested in playing he may not want to nurse. This is part of growing up. He?ll make up for it later. Around three or four months the daytime feeds get quite short but the naptime and bedtime feeds remain long.

Best wishes,
SARAH
 
Sarah,

Thank you for the reply.

I'm not pumping or bottle feeding, just feeding right from the breast. He feeds fine at night, 'waking up every two hours, but daytime, it just seems like he doesn't feed much. He is starting to get more interested in his surroundings, so maybe that's the reason. He's not hungry and I'm forcing my breast in his mouth, so that's why he pulls away.

As baby gets older, do feeding times decrease? Milk changes to meet his needs for less feeds? Increase in length of feeds?

Just wondering.
 
As baby gets older, do feeding times decrease?

Yes as babies grow they get very efficient at getting the milk from the breast. So what used to take 30 minutes may become as quick as 5 minutes.

Some feeds, especially the ones before naptime and bed time, may still take awhile. This isn’t because the baby is less efficient at these times rather because the baby likes the comfort of sucking to sleep.


Milk changes to meet his needs for less feeds?

Your milk is constantly changing. It changes from the beginning of the feed to the end of the feed, from the beginning of the day to the end of the day and as your baby grows.

A one month old fully breastfed baby will drink about 750 mls (28 ozs) a day (24 hours) and a six month old baby also drinks about 750 mls a day. The quantity of the milk stays the same but the quality changes, so that your milk is always prefect for your baby – no matter what age he is.

Usually as the baby grows he will take more milk at each feed and so have less feeds. Some babies, however, continue to like having lots of small meals and this is fine. The baby will get the same amount of milk with 11 feeds of 2.5 ozs or 7 feeds of 4 ozs.


Increase in length of feeds?

All babies have growth spurts or frequent days. These are times when the baby wants to drink a lot and get lots of milk to grow quickly. Remember the more times your baby feeds the more milk he takes – so it tends to be number of feeds rather than length of feed that is important.

These growth spurts traditionally occur at three weeks, six weeks, three months and six months. But don’t worry if your baby has them at different times. It is good to be an individual even at an early age!

Best wishes,
SARAH
 
I'm also experiencing some difficulty breastfeeding my 3 month old lately. After 5 minutes she begins to fuss and refuses to continue feeding. Nothing has changed in my diet but I have noticed that she is sucking her hands and toys more and that her gums look whiter. Could she be teething? Would this also affect the length of her feeds? :teeth:
 
Dear Niahbear,

Three months is a time that babies do beginning to get more interested in the outside world and often reduce their feeding to five or ten minutes.

Is she generally happy and content or miserable?

If she is happy and still gaining weight then reducing the feed time is no problem.

If she is unhappy and fussing most of the time she may be having a nursing strike. You might be interested in the LLLI web page,
My Baby Is Suddenly Refusing to Nurse. Does That Mean It's Time to Wean?
http://www.llli.org/FAQ/strike.html

Three months is a little early for teething but I have known babies start this early. When babies start teething the first sign is usually putting anything and everything in their mouths and their hands are the most convenient. Remember that teeth can start moving in the gums two or three months before they actually erupt.

Best wishes,
SARAH
 
Thanks Sarah,

That helps alot. She is pretty happy most of the time and is gaining weight normally. She has started putting everything in her mouth lately and cold things seem to help soothe her during her fussing times. Thanks for the link!

Niahbear:rollbaby:
 
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