March 4, 2008

Nursing Issues - Gassy Baby

First of all I apologize for not blogging in quite awhile. As all of you with kids know it is hard to blog with an infant and a 2 1/2 year old running around. It was much easier to blog while I was at work bored out of my mind. I need to sit down and make a commitment to blog at least 3 times a week.

Lily has been a very gassy baby with lots of grunting, tooting, screaming while nursing and only pooping about once a day. Her poops are also VERY runy and sometimes they are green. I mentioned this to my friend Jen who was (I think she stopped) studing to be a certified lacation consultant. Jen said that Lily is getting too much foremilk and not enough hind milk. Which does make sense to me because in order to make sure I keeps the boobs even I switch her a lot. Lily will also do lots of snacking during the day so she is mostly getting foremilk.

Jen mentioned this to me yesterday so I have been working really hard on getting Lily to nurse much longer. It has been difficult because she will either fall asleep and not want to latch on again, fight me to latch on, or we are in public and it is not the best situation to really work with her. But I think we have been getting better.

Another thing Lily has been doing is getting up around 4am nursing for less than 10 minutes, then falling asleep and she won't latch on again. Then she will wake up an hour or so later and want to eat again. I just want a 2 hour stretch at that point. Today I have been pumping after some of the nursing sessions when I think she did not get enough hindmilk. I think I will feed her a bottle of this hindmilk when she wakes up at 4am tonight and then pump afterwards. Hopefully this will get her more of the hindmilk she needs and also get her to sleep a bit longer.

5 comments:

GreenStyleMom said...

I've been thinking about you!

Do a little research on the hindmilk thing. You don't actually make 2 types of milk, but the longer the milk sits in the breast, the more the fat globules stick to alveoli. So it isn't just how long she is at each breast, but also how often she is eating. If she is snacking a lot, she is probably getting plenty of fatty milk (ie hindmilk). I'd be afraid that pumping and giving her the bottle could make the gas worse since babies tend to take in more air with bottles vs. breast.

Kate was really gassy (I think it was from my strong let down) so I know how tough it can be to have a gassy baby.

Laura Marchant said...

Wow, I just learned something new tonight that no one ever told me...thanks!

Anonymous said...

I had the same problem with Jacob, and I ended up quitting after just a month. I sure hope you can find someone to help you work through it and find what works best. Babies are SO different. I nursed Hannah for 3 months, Jacob for 1 month, and Bridget keeps going and going and going! (now 32 months)

Mrs Furious said...

Hello
I linked over from the Blogher Ad.

I had this same problem with my infant (and in retrospect with my older one too). I concur with much of what GSM said. You might have an Overactive Letdown. Go to kellymom for good info on breastfeeding issues. I found that nursing from one breast per feeding and holding the baby so that her head was above the breast helped a lot (she would pull of screaming and sometimes chocking). And remember that as they get older it does get easier. If OAL might be an issue that does lessen at around 3-4 months (I think). We were done with all of the stressful feedings by 4 months. Hope that helps!

Mrs Furious said...

I left you this back at my site but I don't know if you'll get it:
Tiffany,
I do know what you are going through and I would actually cry after feedings with Baby they were so stressful :( But it got better. I started then with feeding just on one side and a year later that is just how we do it... no issues in that area. And holding her in the "cowboy" position (kind of like straddling your leg facing you in a sitting position) REALLY, REALLY helped with the screaming and pulling off. But mostly time does help and it will go away. Good luck