My 3 week old son is having so much pain after he eats. He is swallowing so fast when eating that after every feeding he wails in pain due to the gas he has. I burp him after every feding and have tried Mylicon nothing seems to be working, I feel so bad for him because I know he is in pain I was hoping to get some advice from moms on any tips. I am breast feeding and even tips on getting him to slow down when eating would help. Thanks
Is it possible you have overactive letdown? This is when your letdown is so forceful that baby ends up gurlping fast to keep up and in turn takes in a lot of air. Some Mom's will have a burp cloth handy and just before letdown, will pop the baby off and spray into the cloth until the spray slows down a bit and is more manageable for the baby. Some will do this but spray into a bottle, so as not to waste. Here is some info on that.
http://www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/fast-letdown.html
http://www.llli.org//FAQ/oversupply.html
If it doesnt seem like this is what you're experiencing, message me back so we can get to the bottom of this. Good luck, hope this helped!
~Tara Breastfeeding Counselor Buffalo NY
mylicon worked for my daughter - do you give it to him before he feeds? maybe that would work - prevent the gas before it happens - you also have to be very careful of your diet - anything that might cause you gas - you have to stop having....hope he feels better soon
Not sure how to slow him down but maybe massaging his belly or pushing his knees up to his belly may help with the gas. My son has always been gassy but it was never painful he just farts all the time.
Congratulations on your new baby! I highly recommend going to a La Leche League meeting, or at least calling a LLL leader. They know tons more about bf than any one mom, and since there are several possible causes (overactive letdown, dairy intolerance, etc.), it's best for you to speak to an expert.
There's some terrific advice posted here already...especially LLL meetings ( www.llli.org) is important even if you don't have any problems!
There might be other reasons and since your baby is still so young, it would be best to figure it out quickly.
A good Lactation Consultant could help you figure it out. To find a local one go to www.ILCA.org and click "find a local LC", put your zip code in.
Hope this helps!
Heather
Heather Kay, BS, IBCLC, RLC
Princeton Lactation Consultants, LLC
Princeton, NJ 08542
office: 609-921-3400
office & home visits by appointment
Hi Danielle
Congratulations on your new bundle of joy. I am a mother of two ( 3 year boy and 4 month old girl). I found that my second baby is alot has alot more gas / colic. I generally use a combination of gripe water and a colic homeopathic medication by 'BOIRON'. It seems to settle her down.
I also started taking break in between the feeding to help her digest.
Hope this helps...Good Luck
Jyoti
It might be something in the food that your are eating that may be creating the discomfort for him. I had to really pay attention to what I was eating and how my daughter was responding to it. I quickly learned that she (unlike her 2 siblings)she was very sensitive to a number of different foods; dairy, wheat products, corn, chocolate and a few others. Once I figured out what she could not handle, I stopped eating those things and her tummy stopped hurting. She was like a different child after this. This process took a lot of patience and time. I used info I found in a Achademy of Pediatrics book. It had a list of items that commonly upset babies stomachs when eaten by a breast feeding mother. I started there one item at a time.
I would remove it from my diet completely and try it again three days later. I got very clear results with this. Talk to a professional (LLL or your pediatrition) about it.
Good luck.
Hello Danielle,
I had a similar problem with my son. It can be from several things. It is not likely because he wants to swallow fast, but because he is either getting milk too fast (the most likely reason) or because he has reflux or another allergy and is having discomfort when he eats.
Are you nursing on one side at a feed or on both sides? You should only nurse one side at a feed until your supply slows down.
Best of luck.
Congrats on your baby boy!! My daughter was very gassy (she's now 6mos.) and I had a very fast letdown. She would choke and swallow alot of air and was not a good burper. So the gas just mounted throughout the day. I used a product called Colic Calm that you can find at coliccalm.com. It works great and is homeopathic. It is used for gas, colic, reflux and even teeting. Check with your ped. first before giving anything like this to your baby.
Also, kellymom.com is a great web site for all of your breastfeeding concerns/questions. I agree with pp....hire an LC. they will help you solve this problem and get you and your son more comfortable with your breasfeeding realationship. Good luck!
Hi Danielle - My 3 week old is also a gulper and I notice is gassy worst when I've had a lot of dairy 1 or 2 days before ... I dont know if I'm imagining it, but the few times that she's been that way is when I overindulged on cheese and cream ... could that be it with you too???
Danielle,
I'm a mother of 4 and 2 of my children had severe reflux. The pediatric GI explained to me that babies with reflux are in pain and that the milk is soothing, this is why your baby gulps like a starving little man, it feels good going down....inevitably though it refluxes and causes awful pain. I went completely dairy free with my last baby in addition to giving him reflux medication and he did remarkably better. 50% of babies with reflux are also lactose intolerant (according to my dr.) going dairy free meant all dairy products and beef products (same protein string). I had to read labels and avoid all products with any dairy product in them (casein,whey, etc.) It wasn't easy but once I was used to it it was fine, added bonus I dropped all the baby weight quickly. Both boys have outgrown both the reflux and the lactose intolerance. Mylicon has never worked for any of my babies, I would highly recommend finding a good pediatric GI in your area.
Good luck,
Danielle,
My first daughter would always scream and pull her legs in after she would feed. After a lot of trial and error, we discoverd that she was reacting to what I was eating. Everytime I would have any milk product, she would be very gassy and scream. As long as I din't have any dairy or any kind, she would be fine. As she got older, I would try and reintroduce dairy and watch for a reaction. She was about 7 month old when I was finally able to begin eating dairy again. Take a look at your diet and see when it is the worst. It could be dairy, it could be spicy food, just about anything. Good luck and stick with it, you will figure it out
Danielle
I also breastfed my children. I did not have this problem, but with babies that are formula fed you should do the same thing. When your son is halfway through his eating, take him off your breast and burp him. This gives him the opportunity to burp before he's done, and it might help him to slow down.
Shannon D.
Hi Danielle! First, Congrats on your new little baby boy!! How exciting!! I am a maternity nurse who helps with breastfeeding all the time. Are you nursing long enough? You want to make sure you completely empty the breast, otherwise he's just getting hte fore milk which is thinner and causes gas. You want to make sure he gets the hind milk which is creamier and has all the fat in it. So, make sure you are feeding a good 20 minutes on each side (maybe you need to feed longer to empty your breast). Also, are you feeding him often enough? If he's gulping that quickly, maybe you need to feed him a little more frequently? Another thing to consider is maybe you have TOO much milk. Do you live around the Stratford, CT area? If you do, email me as I have a number for a great lactation specialist. If not, ask your pediatrician for a number for one. They're a great help!!! I hope that was some help to you. Let me know how it goes!
Try burbing 1/2 way through feeding and again after feeding.
Hi Danielle,
This sounds very familiar--I had the same problem with both of my children when they were newborn. I finally went to a lactation consultant and it turns out to be very common. It could be that you are overproducing milk, and the flow is very fast and very hard and your son is doing his best to keep up. The other tricky part of this is, if you're feeding both sides each time, he's getting mostly foremilk which is more sugar loaded and more gassy. Their suggestion to me was to feed one side only at each feeding (and if he needs a supplement before the next feeding, to do that same side again). This will eventually slow down the production and flow, and it will give him more of the nourishing hind mild. Whatever you do, do NOT pump off the other breast or you will simply continue the problem. It takes a little while, but your body will adjust and you will not walk around uneven for months. It will take a little while for your son to feel better with this too. You can also nurse him on top of you, so that he can use gravity to help him control the flow. Also, keep in mind his digestion system is very immature, so he's going to have some issues until 4 or 5 months. Stick with the whole thing; it becomes so easy. And ask your hospital or ped for a lactation consultant--they're usually covered by insurance and can make a world of difference.
Since you are breast feeding, you might want to start looking at what you are eating as the catalyst for his gas - (It's happened with a few of my friends). If there is nothing obvious like caffeine, chocolate, gassy vegetables, etc., then you might want to experiment with milk products. (If he's got exzema, that might be a sign of milk allergy too) Good Luck!
Deborah T.
This happened to me as well, it turned out to be a combination of acid reflux, milk allergy and over-abundance of milk.
One quick fix was the use of a nipple shield, you can buy them at Babies-R-Us or Target for about $5. I would not feed without it, it slowed down the flow, and led to less upsetting feeds.
Good luck!
Maybe what you are eating is causing all that gas in your baby. You may need to limit your intake of broccoli,cabbage or beans. Also, are you feeding him from a bottle or actually breast feeding. If you are using baby bottles there are some that actually cut down on the intake of gas for example the playtex brand or the new one out there that I have heard is very good is called dr browns natural flow bottles. Don't forget that babies shouls be burped after every 1/2 ounce. Good luck,
Liz,R.N.