Forum home Babies Baby

Breastfeeding question...

Hi girls,

I've also posted this in the breastfeeding forum.

Lucy is 3 months old. She has been breastfed since birth, with a bottle of formula before bed. Over the last few weeks she has really started to fuss at the breast, and the last few days especially, she has started snapping her head back with my nipple in her mouth, which really hurts!!! Just wondering if anyone has any ideas as to what could be causing her to do this, and if there is anything i can do to stop her!

Any help would be much appreciated

Laura x

Replies

  • Kyra did this, I think it's just a phase they pass through. She did it when her gums were bothering her...using my nipple as a teether was NOT good!!! Try some teething gel before feeding her and see if it helps. xoxox
  • how often is she feeding hun? she could be fussing coz she isnt hungry?
    both oliver and evie have had fussy phases, evie still has nosey moments when she turns to c wats going on with nipple still in her mouth. whenever they have been fussing i have just left the feed until they were more hungry and likley to feed rather than faff. might be worth checking for thrush? or even teething?
    sorry not much help. xxx
  • iv replied 2 u on bf forum hun xx
  • My little one went through this hun as did the babies in my mums and babies group at that age. It does pass although as kirst3 says, things change and then they become really difficult to feed as they want to look at everything! Ruby is now 5 and a half months and every little noise and she is on/off on/off. You do get used to it!
    i try and feed her in a quiet room now with no one around, I was at my mums today, feeding her in the lounge and my dad started whistling in the kitchen and she was straining to look out the door - i had to ask him to be quiet!
    She clamped down so hard on my nipple yesterday that I yelled out loud and made her cry! Felt so bad but it was involuntary! She hasn't done it again since!
    It can however also be a sign of a slow let down or slow milk supply, have you expressed to see if you are still producing a lot? I went through a phase where my milk slowed down and so i did a few expresses in betweeen feeds for a few days to increase it and it was soon back to normal.
    Hope that has been of some help.

  • Thanks for all of your replies girls, it's really appreciated.

    She is teething at the moment so i'm going to try with the teething gel before the feeds and see if that helps her.

    Also she's started waking through the night where she previously slept through so the hv advised me to feed her every 2 1/2 hours instead of on demand (about every 3/4 hours). I started doing this on Wednesday of last week and it doesn't seem to have helped with the night times and its making the fussing at the boob worse. This would tie in with what you've said, either her just not being hungry or my milk supply/let down not being enough. I think i'm going to chat to my hv and see if she thinks i should go back to on demand feeding.

    Thanks again for taking the time to reply x
  • I've spoken to the health visitor this morning and she advised me to go back to feeding on demand. She thinks Lucy is just playing with me because she's not really hungry at the times i'm feeding her so is just messing around at the breast. She also told me that whenever she snaps her head back i should stop feeding her and not offer her anymore so that she learns that it's wrong. I'm going to feel so mean!

    She also told me to give Lucy another bottle of formula before her bedtime one so that she is getting all of the calories she needs as she thinks she may not be getting enough from me. Lucy was born on the 91st centile and dropped onto the 75th and now she is just below the 50th at 14 weeks. I'll be gutted if it means i have to stop breastfeeding

    :cry:
  • Hiya Laura,

    I had to supplement Oscar with two bottles for a while - one before my bedtime about 10.30pm and one early evening about 5pm, and he had a bf inbetween about 8 before he went to bed. It stopped him fussing so much in the evening and made him have a proper bf before bed too. In time we dropped the 10.30 bottle, and now i've dropeed the early evening bottle too and switched back to bf. was so worth giving him the bottle in the meantime though, and we're back to full strength now, so don't worry, it doesn't mean you have to stop bf'ing at all. I would perhaps express at the time you give the new bottle if you're concerned about your supply and you do plan on possibly dropping the extra bottle once Lucy's weight has gone up a bit xx
  • Thanks Steph, you've really put my mind at ease that i'll be able to continue bfing. I'll definately express at the same time as the addittional feed then i'll hopefully be able to go back to just the one bottle before bed. Thanks again hun x
Sign In or Register to comment.

Featured Discussions