Anyone know what this is? (Re: BF & colic)

eas15905

DH and I are taking turns with DD because she is just so fussy, especially at night.  I thought maybe she was wanting to cluster feed so I've been trying to feed her but she refuses to eat and just arches her back, pushes off with her legs, and screams.  She is already on Zantac and I think it helps a bit.  I've been trying to burp her more often and we are using gripe water and mylocin.  I'm at a loss as to what is wrong or what else we can try....

Any suggestions or thoughts? 

LemonLime10

I wish I could help you out. My LO started doing this about 7 weeks ago when BF, since then she has essentially completely refused my boob and is now on pumped milk and formula. I hope you get it figured out soon. Have you done anything different that would make your milk change? 

lkstor

We commonly associate that arching back with reflux.

ETA - though there are many shades of grey in the spectrum of colic and reflux...

What is her dose of Zantac and her weight?

Have you tried babywearing?  Like a Moby or something to keep her in that upright position?

eas15905

LemonLime10:

I wish I could help you out. My LO started doing this about 7 weeks ago when BF, since then she has essentially completely refused my boob and is now on pumped milk and formula. I hope you get it figured out soon. Have you done anything different that would make your milk change? 

No, and she only does this during this time of night.  Throughout the night and all day she'll BF just fine.   

eas15905

LemonLime10:

I wish I could help you out. My LO started doing this about 7 weeks ago when BF, since then she has essentially completely refused my boob and is now on pumped milk and formula. I hope you get it figured out soon. Have you done anything different that would make your milk change? 

No, and she only does this during this time of night.  Throughout the night and all day she'll BF just fine.   

eas15905

LemonLime10:

I wish I could help you out. My LO started doing this about 7 weeks ago when BF, since then she has essentially completely refused my boob and is now on pumped milk and formula. I hope you get it figured out soon. Have you done anything different that would make your milk change? 

No, and she only does this during this time of night.  Throughout the night and all day she'll BF just fine.   

eas15905

lkstor:

We commonly associate that arching back with reflux.

ETA - though there are many shades of grey in the spectrum of colic and reflux...

What is her dose of Zantac and her weight?

Have you tried babywearing?  Like a Moby or something to keep her in that upright position?

I'm not sure of her weight but I'd guess 10 lb.  She is on 1.3 ml twice a day.  I wear her in a moby quite often and that seems to help her fussiness during the day but if I wear her during this time of night she usually just screams.  

Also, I'll say that when I feed her during the day and through out the night she feeds for a good bit off of each side (I can tell she's drinking a lot by all of the gulping and she seems drunk on milk afterwards).  But, during this chunk of time where she is the fussiness she hardly eats.  When I can get her to latch she barely drinks anything and spends most of the time arching her back and screaming.   

lkstor

eas15905:

lkstor:

We commonly associate that arching back with reflux.

ETA - though there are many shades of grey in the spectrum of colic and reflux...

What is her dose of Zantac and her weight?

Have you tried babywearing?  Like a Moby or something to keep her in that upright position?

I'm not sure of her weight but I'd guess 10 lb.  She is on 1.3 ml twice a day.  I wear her in a moby quite often and that seems to help her fussiness during the day but if I wear her during this time of night she usually just screams.  

Also, I'll say that when I feed her during the day and through out the night she feeds for a good bit off of each side (I can tell she's drinking a lot by all of the gulping and she seems drunk on milk afterwards).  But, during this chunk of time where she is the fussiness she hardly eats.  When I can get her to latch she barely drinks anything and spends most of the time arching her back and screaming.   

That is a good dose for her weight.

Do you think she is just mad with nursing at night because of your natural drop in supply in the evening?  Have you tried to do massage beforehand and *relax* (I know - hard to do with a screaming infant)?

If NOTHING helps - she's not happy in the Moby, she's not happy on the breast, she's not happy walking, etc, etc, etc = COLIC.

My Dyson is the only thing that got me through those dark days with DS.  I would hold him over my shoulder or wear him and vacuum....  He seemed to like the white noise and it made the crying a little more bearable for me as well

HUGS!

lkstor

Oh - and I am a firm believer in the OWT that a beer helps nursing mom.

It might not really help your production but it sure helped me to relax in those difficult evening hours!

eas15905

lkstor:

Oh - and I am a firm believer in the OWT that a beer helps nursing mom.

It might not really help your production but it sure helped me to relax in those difficult evening hours!

I didn't know that there was a natural dip in the evening.  Maybe that could be part of the problem.  If that were the problem, do you think it would help to try and pump a bit during the day and then feed that to her in addition to trying to nurse?  I guess it's worth a shot at this point.  

Also, I will say that I did have a beer tonight with my pork and sauerkraut and I was able to relax a bit (and joke around on fb)  

lkstor

eas15905:

lkstor:

Oh - and I am a firm believer in the OWT that a beer helps nursing mom.

It might not really help your production but it sure helped me to relax in those difficult evening hours!

I didn't know that there was a natural dip in the evening.  Maybe that could be part of the problem.  If that were the problem, do you think it would help to try and pump a bit during the day and then feed that to her in addition to trying to nurse?  I guess it's worth a shot at this point.  

Also, I will say that I did have a beer tonight with my pork and sauerkraut and I was able to relax a bit (and joke around on fb)  

You could certainly try that.  Although you know that I'm a bit crazy about that topic myself.  LO only got a bottle when I was at work.  If he was annoyed that there wasn't enough at the breast he just kept trying to tell my body to make more.

Definitely try the good massage before offering the breast as well - might speed up the letdown and give her a few good swallows right away so she doesn't have to work too hard.

GL

eas15905

lkstor:

You could certainly try that.  Although you know that I'm a bit crazy about that topic myself.  LO only got a bottle when I was at work.  If he was annoyed that there wasn't enough at the breast he just kept trying to tell my body to make more.

Definitely try the good massage before offering the breast as well - might speed up the letdown and give her a few good swallows right away so she doesn't have to work too hard.

GL

True - I guess I'm worried that my body isn't being told to make any more since she doesn't want to BF.  I will definitely try the massage too.  Thanks for your help! 

lraymeremtp

Ditto to all that is said above, but I suggest trying to put her on her stomach and pat her back. Or, some have suggested putting LO's on your arm, tummy resting on your forearm, and walking around with them like that. The pressure put on their tummy seems to help relax them. I put LO across my lap, tummy down, and pat her back and butt. If done in a steady rhythm, it seemed to help more. (not sure why on the last part, but it helped) Seriously, good luck, and I hope you are able to find something that helps restore some sort of peace in your home!

hopingwaiting

Sounds like colic if it's only happening during the evening witching hour. At our worst I would try to calm down LO as much as possible with his fav soothing measures before offering or he would be too riled up to latch/nurse. It did seem to help his fussiness to cluster feed/comfort nurse as much as he wanted in the evening, so I kept trying. But on really bad days he would do just like you're describing. I beat myself up about possible diet factors, supply issues, overactive letdown, reflux, milk allergy, etc but I wish I hadn't since in retrospect I really think it was the colic since it went away completely as the colic got better.