5 week old issues - frustrated FTM

[@llli*gbc528]

You say it may be a fast or heavy let down and flow, but she will eat really good in the beginning and then pull off and fuss. I can hand express into her mouth and she will keep eating for a few sucks if I am pushing and massaging my breast so it flows faster for her. If I stop she cries and turns red until I pull away from her, then she calms down. Sometimes she might not calm down and takes a pacifier or bottle. I tried to give her a bottle and she took it and had no problem. Then I slowly pulled it out and tried to give her my nipple and she would latch but kept squirming and fussing and eventually would pull off and cry. Is that meaning she's not getting it fast enough? I don't want her to take a bottle and not my breast because she doesn't want to work for it.... What can I do?

[@llli*mommal]

A lot of babies are "Goldilocks" eaters. They don't like their milk coming out too fast, and they don't like it too slow. They want it just right. So when milk flow is a little too rapid, they fuss. And when it slows down, they fuss.

The best way to deal with this is to power through it. Don't swap in the paci or bottle for the breast- that just teaches the baby that fussing, rather than working, is what gets results.

[@llli*maddieb]

You say it may be a fast or heavy let down and flow, but she will eat really good in the beginning and then pull off and fuss. I can hand express into her mouth and she will keep eating for a few sucks if I am pushing and massaging my breast so it flows faster for her. If I stop she cries and turns red until I pull away from her, then she calms down. Sometimes she might not calm down and takes a pacifier or bottle. I tried to give her a bottle and she took it and had no problem. Then I slowly pulled it out and tried to give her my nipple and she would latch but kept squirming and fussing and eventually would pull off and cry. Is that meaning she's not getting it fast enough? I don't want her to take a bottle and not my breast because she doesn't want to work for it.... What can I do?

Yes, I said it MAY be fast flow, as fast flow can casue the latch issue you described in your previous post. I also sugested it may be gravity pulling baby off the nipple. Of course it could be something I am not even thinking of. But I was responding to your concern about latch.

If the issue is baby is pulling off the breast and fussing, not latch, or as well as latch, then maybe baby is finished eating for the moment. Short, frequent nursing sessions at odd intervals are normal. Maybe baby needs to burp, or needs some other comforting measure, by which I mean being held upright, rocked, walked around ,talked to, change of scene etc. When baby is calm again, you can offer to nurse again. Some babies like to nurse for a long time, until they are deeply asleep, others may prefer to be comforted to sleep another way, many prefer different ways of getting to sleep at different times. I am not saying the problem is not "flow," it may be, but mommal covered that. I would add, bottles may encourage baby to "expect a fast flow."

Baby only needs supplemental feedings (bottles) if baby is not getting enough milk at the breast overall. Intake per session will not normally be the same everytime. It will ordinarily be different each time. Has your baby's weight gain been poor? Not pooping, or peeing enough? You can tell a baby is not getting enough milk if baby has poor weight gain or not enough output (poops and pees.) Baby taking a bottle does not mean baby neccesarily needs a bottle.

Baby is nursing frequently around the clock now, right? No more super long stretches between feedings?

[@llli*gbc528]

Correct, feeding her when she's hungry- which is about every 1-3 hours. She only eats for 5-10 minutes on one side. At night she eats at 2 an 5am, that's been when she's woken up pretty consistently. She will eat for 20+minutes at night and go right back to sleep.

She is still having green poop though. Probably 1-2 times a day her poop will either be all green or mixed with yellow. And she has 1-3 HUGE full poopy diapers a day.

I have been pumping one time a day because she doesn't completely drain me, and I have gotten between 5-8.5 oz in that one feeding after she eats. Like I said, plenty of poopy and wet diapers and she's definitely gaining weight, but why the green poop?

[@llli*mommal]

Green poop often accompanies high supply. When a mom has a lot of extra milk, the baby tends to take in a lot of lactose (milk sugar). Now, babies are designed to digest lactose. In fact, a baby's capacity to produce lactase, the enzyme that breaks down lactose, is usually much higher than an adult's. But even with their high lactase production, babies' digestive systems can be overwhelmed by lactose. The extra lactose in baby's gut will cause some extra gas and some green poop.

So, what do you do about this? Number one, don't worry about it! Green poop that occurs when baby has good weight gain and is being nursed frequently- you can consider that to be in the spectrum of normal poop colors. Second, don't worry about whether or not the baby completely empties the breast. If you nurse on demand and trust the baby to take what she needs, she will maintain your supply at the right level. Third, put the pump away for now, unless you absolutely need to be pumping. You and baby together make the perfect nursing equation. Adding a third variable into that equation- i.e. the pump- will just throw your supply off.