"clicking" while nursing, gulping air, massive gassiness / spit-up

kat81again2

Title: "clicking" while nursing, gulping air, massive gassiness / spit-up

DD is 5 weeks. She has overall nursed well and gained weight well throughout her life. However, she has always had a spitting up / gassiness problem. If you fail to burp her sufficiently, she will spit up and cry. And even if you do burp her she spits up at least a bit every feeding anyhow. 

During the day this is a nuisance but not a big deal, unless she cries a lot. Overnight it can be a real problem, because she won't be able to go back to sleep and/or you have to hold her upright for some inordinate amount of time (and undefined amount of time) after feeding her. 

Initially the problem was clearly due to overactive letdown & oversupply. I brought my supply down over the course of a few weeks and things got a bit better. 

However, recently the problem has gotten a lot worse. It appears as though DD is taking in a lot of air almost every time she nurses. She makes this clicking noise, and it seem like air gets in each time that happens (which is almost every suck post-letdown.) Why did this happen all of a sudden? I think I heard this might be a latch problem but she's only just now developed this problem. 

We've tried lots of positions. Overnight I almost always do "laid back nursing" so the letdown is against gravity. Otherwise I'm doing a cradle hold. But really it happens in every position I've tried (those plus cross-cradle, and side-lying.) She's gassy no matter what. 

Any thoughts/tips? Last night was a nightmare - DD was awake fully from 1:30-4am with gassiness and was fussing in her sleep until 7 when we all woke up. 

SnoopyLuv

Has she been checked for a tongue tie? Treat the gas, there's no reason not to. Gas drops were super important for us last time.

Clicking is something we dealt with for a long time. It was a combo of crappy latch, tongue tie and thrush for us. LO was also extremely gassy. I had a massive oversupply, overactive letdown and foremilk imbalance. I had to block feed for weeks and completely wean from the pump before it got better. Her tongue tie was never surgically fixed, but we got a better latch once she was a little bigger. If she's taking in a lot of air, she's got a bad latch, IMO. I'd try and see an LC in person to get that corrected.

amberdt03

We dealt with a clicking noise/bad latch when I weaned from the nipple shield. It sounds like a bad latch since she's clicking and taking in air.

shlittertoots

Could also be a lip tie.  My LO made a clicking noise (which got better as she got older, maybe because her mouth grew and my supply evened out--I also had a problem with oversupply/strong letdown)  She has a bad lip tie but the dr didn't feel like it needed to be clipped.  The lip tie would keep the upper lip from being able to flip up during the latch, so that means there isn't a good seal between your boob and their mouth.  The clicking is from the seal breaking.

KaramelSutra

mayaruth81 said:

Could also be a lip tie.  My LO made a clicking noise (which got better as she got older, maybe because her mouth grew and my supply evened out--I also had a problem with oversupply/strong letdown)  She has a bad lip tie but the dr didn't feel like it needed to be clipped.  The lip tie would keep the upper lip from being able to flip up during the latch, so that means there isn't a good seal between your boob and their mouth.  The clicking is from the seal breaking.

Ditto this but LO just got his corrected last week. He's still clicking sometimes but he's relearning his latch. Good luck

pb_bride

DS had clicking and was really gassy when h e was that young. We gave gas drops at night and it might have helped a little.  I also was holding him upright for 20 minutes after nursing, including MOTN feeds.  He eventually grew out of it (both the clicking and the gassiness); it was just a matter of time.

kat81again2

SnoopyLuv said:

Has she been checked for a tongue tie? Treat the gas, there's no reason not to. Gas drops were super important for us last time.

Clicking is something we dealt with for a long time. It was a combo of crappy latch, tongue tie and thrush for us. LO was also extremely gassy. I had a massive oversupply, overactive letdown and foremilk imbalance. I had to block feed for weeks and completely wean from the pump before it got better. Her tongue tie was never surgically fixed, but we got a better latch once she was a little bigger. If she's taking in a lot of air, she's got a bad latch, IMO. I'd try and see an LC in person to get that corrected.

@SnoopyLuv - 

tell me more about thrush & clicking. Does the clicking cause thrush or vice-versa? 'cause I just got thrush, too.

As for tongue tie she was not checked but she didn't have this problem for the first 5 weeks of life and nursed beautifully. I didn't think it would pop up only later if she had tongue tie all along.

jezabella

I am in a similar situation and DD is 6 weeks old now.  We both have thrush, though luckily (and I don't know how) she doesn't have it in her mouth, only on her bum.  I nurse her in a football type position but I have her basically sitting straight up and down beside me.  After she's latched I will lean back a bit so she is still working against gravity as well.  When I'm super engorged, I will have to pump a bit off before feeding her.  I also have found that stopping during the feedings to burp her helps a lot, especially if I can hear her taking in a lot of air or if she gets fussy on the breast.  Some things that I've found help me get her difficult burps up sometimes is trying different burping positions and something about the switching helps bring them up.  Sometimes lying her on her tummy on the breastfeeding pillow helps a lot.  Also burping her over my shoulder while bouncing her a bit helps to bring it up sometimes.  I try to burp and keep her upright for about 30 minutes after feeding, but honestly sometimes I'm so exhausted I can't stay up that long and just put her down anyways.  She spits up in bed a bit and I just do the laundry :P I have found the clicking happens during times when I have stronger letdown and oversupply (such as right now, after her growth spurt has upped my production).

kat81again2

AmyG* said:

going thru a growth spurt and upping your supply will cause gulping and clicking as baby loses suction due to a high supply. I will bet your oversupply is not totally under control.

They let go and stop nursing when they have thrush, they might click or gulp when they do this.  it's cause thrush hurts their mouth.  if you have thrush, baby needs to be treated for thrush.

the clicking started two days before I felt symptoms of thrush, so I think she got it and gave it to me. we are both going to get treated asap.

SweetPeaK26

Mine has been doing a clicking thing and a tiny little slurpy sound too. I've been able to stop the slurping by wiggling dd's head into a different position. But she still clicks and gulps quite a bit.

I'm going to the LC tomorrow because I'm having pain still (7wks tomorrow) and crazy sensitivity over the whole breast, as well as shooting pains at random, nursing or not. Hoping its all latch problems. No physical signs of thrush for us.

SnoopyLuv

SweetPeaK26 said:

Mine has been doing a clicking thing and a tiny little slurpy sound too. I've been able to stop the slurping by wiggling dd's head into a different position. But she still clicks and gulps quite a bit. I'm going to the LC tomorrow because I'm having pain still (7wks tomorrow) and crazy sensitivity over the whole breast, as well as shooting pains at random, nursing or not. Hoping its all latch problems. No physical signs of thrush for us.

Still having nipple pain and shooting pains in your breast ARE signs of thrush.