Please help - baby frantic on the breast

Emcat1980@yahoo.com · April 2009

At this time of night (6/7 pm) for the past 3 nights my son has gone absolutely ballistic.

The first night I was on a walk. H had him and when he woke up he was nearly inconsolable. He scarfed down a 5 oz bottle then seemed happy.

Last night and tonight I am nursing. He nurses initially ok then seems to get frantic - crying, screaming, tugging. When I take him off and walk him around to calm him he's rooting ferociously and trying to latch onto anything he can, as if he's starving. As a result last night I gave him 2 oz bottle of EBM after nursing. It calmed him but he spit up a ton afterwards, making me feel like we overfed him. (he essentially never spits up after nursing)

I know that your milk production goes down normally in the afternoon/night. Is he likely truly starving and not getting enough at this feed? (he gains weight well, has good wet/dirty dipes but I am concerned about my supply). Or is this part of the normal "witching hour" fussiness I've heard about? Anybody experience anything similar?

Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks so much-

rachl500 · April 2009

DD does that when I've pumped before trying to feed her and there isn't enough milk. A few times I have had to give her the milk I pumped.

Maybe he is going through a growth spurt and just needs a little more now? If you keep nursing, your body should catch up. Good luck!

Mominator · April 2009

He is rapidly approaching the 6 week growth spurt and at this age is also when a lot of babies start to cluster feed in the evening. My DS cluster fed from 5pm to 8pm for like 4 mths. Basically, he was attached to my breast for the entire 3 hours. I wouldn't give DC any more bottles during this time if you can help it and just keep putting him to the breast as much as possible to help bring and keep up your supply.

Emcat1980@yahoo.com · April 2009

thank you both. I was wondering if he was trying to cluster feed but is frustrated cause there isn't enough? I will hold off the bottles, let him nurse all he wants. I am eating oatmeal everyday but will consider a reglan rx if I am still concerned about my supply. Thanks again!

bride_to_be27 · April 2009

My DS went through this and still does it occasionally. I too thought it was due to low supply, but now I think sometimes it's because he wants to comfort suck and is annoyed by the milk. Is your LO overtired when this happens? My advice would be not to give bottles - don't want to mess with your supply . . . unless of course you are worried about your LO's weight?

azuremama · April 2009

Like the others said, if he's growing, he'll nurse a lot and your supply will respond in a day or two, but don't give him a bottle.

I think fussiness peaks around 6 weeks, so that might be part of it, too. The evening hour is usually when babies get tired, plus your supply is lower at night and probably comes a little slower. I bet it passes in a week or so.

DR&RN04 · April 2009

Well hello over here as well!

Natalie did this for a while, and ditto all the other advice. Sounds like cluster feeding, and we adopted the "feed into food coma" mantra. That worked, sort-of, but what really helped (when we had fed her a TON, and knew she wasn't starving), was the Happiest Baby on the Block methods (tight swaddling, brisk rocking/swinging, shhing in her ear, etc). She'd still cluster feed plenty, but at least she'd be settled and sleeping for *some* time in between, and it was only 3 hours of craziness/cluster feeds instead of the 6-7 it had become.

I don't know if there is a book about it, but we got the DVD and it was a lifesaver!

Namast · April 2009

My DD does the same thing when she is tired and is annoyed by the milk. I just give her a pacifier while she is at the breast and if she calms down I know that's what the issue is. She will usually go to sleep pretty quickly after that.

My DH calls it faux feeding

ncbelle · April 2009

My kiddo got fussy at the breast around a month. Part of it was due to my fast let down (which he has since figured out). But at night I think a lot of it was due to general evening fussiness that peaked around 1 - 1.5 months. My supply never seemed to be an issue as I could always hand express milk. He will still do this sometimes if he is overtired - it's like he wants to suck to go to sleep and then gets mad when milk comes out. Or he's both tired and hungry and can't decide if eating or sleeping would be better.

Best advice - just hang in there. I know it's frustrating, but keep offering him the breast and try all the other calming tricks. We had a huge improvement in our evenings at the 3 month mark.

jenella17 · April 2009

Your situation is the story of my life right now! And I do believe its the witching hour I am experiencing. She would act so very hungry then fight me at the breast for an hour straight at times. I would try to calm her down so we could try again and that only worked some of the time. The other night we tried a bath to calm her down then tried feeding again and it helped.

The past couple of days I have been pumping to have a bottle ready for this time of night cause its like she cannot get the food fast enough. I only have about an ounce pumped but that seems to help her calm down enough so I can breastfeed her without the fight.

crawtater · April 2009

ncbelle:

My kiddo got fussy at the breast around a month. Part of it was due to my fast let down (which he has since figured out). But at night I think a lot of it was due to general evening fussiness that peaked around 1 - 1.5 months. My supply never seemed to be an issue as I could always hand express milk. He will still do this sometimes if he is overtired - it's like he wants to suck to go to sleep and then gets mad when milk comes out. Or he's both tired and hungry and can't decide if eating or sleeping would be better.

This is similar to me - he continues to get milk and then gets madder, and then if I keep holding him to the breast he latches on and then ends up spitting up huge amounts just a couple seconds later. My DS is 7 weeks now, so I also am starting to think it's just general fussiness combined with wanting to comfort suck. Holding him and offering a paci seem to help more than keeping him on the boob.

laurandjim · April 2009

DR&RN04:
Well hello over here as well!
Natalie did this for a while, and ditto all the other advice. Sounds like cluster feeding, and we adopted the "feed into food coma" mantra. That worked, sort-of, but what really helped (when we had fed her a TON, and knew she wasn't starving), was the Happiest Baby on the Block methods (tight swaddling, brisk rocking/swinging, shhing in her ear, etc). She'd still cluster feed plenty, but at least she'd be settled and sleeping for *some* time in between, and it was only 3 hours of craziness/cluster feeds instead of the 6-7 it had become.
I don't know if there is a book about it, but we got the DVD and it was a lifesaver!

This is a great idea. DS went through the same thing as your LO--frantic kicking and crying and being hopping mad, especially at his evening feeding. I thought about low supply and maybe he didn't want milk but wanted to suck (both ends of the spectrum) but I think he just was overtired and was freaking out and nursing was just too much to handle at that time. Usually just calming him to sleep--HBOTB video worked great!--worked and then he'd usually wake up an hour later and finish nursing without getting frantic.
We checked out the HBOTB video when DS was around 7-8 weeks and it made a huge difference for all of us. He used to hate being swaddled but loved it (and still does sometimes) once we got huge, lightweight blankets (Aden and Anais) and committed to a solid swaddle. It helped DS be less fussy and he started to STTN at 2 months!

Emcat1980@yahoo.com · April 2009

All of these are AWESOME ideas. Thank you all so much. I love this board! Last night after I felt like he'd nursed for a while and he kept freaking out, I went ahead and did our bedtime routine (bath, book, swaddle, paci). He settled way down and I nursed him a litle more and then he was out like a light

I haven't gotten the Happiest Baby book or DVD, but I think I will now.

Thanks again ya'll!

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