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Baby screaming through feeds


20 Reasons Why Baby Fusses Or Cries While Breastfeeding

From letdown issues to teething, identifying the cause can make breastfeeding easier for you and your baby.

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You may often notice that your baby cries while breastfeeding. Babies may cry when breastfed for various reasons, ranging from simple distractions to a significant feeding problem.

While occasional weeping during nursing is normal, persistent crying and reluctance to breastfeed may necessitate medical treatment or a consultation with a lactation consultant-IBCLC (International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners).

Read on to learn why newborns cry during breastfeeding and ways to avoid it.

Causes Of Crying In Babies While Breastfeeding

The following factors or situations may make babies fussy or cry during breastfeeding (1).

1. Overactive letdown

 

Sometimes, if the mother has an overactive or forceful letdown of breast milk, the baby may tend to bite the breast or cry since they cannot swallow too much milk. An overactive letdown may cause colic symptoms for the baby. Hyperactive milk ejection reflex and oversupply may cause gagging or choking while breastfeeding, making your baby cry while nursing.

Quick tip

When your baby is having a colic episode while breastfeeding, you can calm them by holding them close to your heart so they can hear your heartbeat (2).

2. Slow letdown

Slow letdown reflex could cause a slower or inadequate milk supply. Babies may become irritated or cry if they do not get enough milk while breastfeeding.

Related: 5 Helpful Ways To Increase Breastmilk Supply

3. Slow milk flow

Babies can be impatient while waiting for the milk to flow while feeding. Slow milk flow can be due to various reasons, including a slow letdown reflex. Sometimes, a fast milk flow due to overactive letdown followed by a slower flow could make your baby cry since they become frustrated by the changes in the milk flow.

4. Done with feeding

Babies should be the ones ending a feeding. If you continue to feed even when they are refusing, it is normal for babies to cry.

5. Want to burp

Image: Shutterstock

Babies may cry or pull off the breast if they want to burp while nursing, especially during the first few months. Most babies do this while changing the breast or after feeding, and a few may not burp without the assistance of the parent. Older babies can relieve gas while they move, and it is rare for them to burp while nursing.

Bottle-fed infants may burp more than breastfed infants as they are fed too fast. Paced bottle feeding method should be used to help the baby get what he/she needs at that feeding not more.

6. Not hungry

Babies who are not hungry may cry while feeding since they do not want to be fed. Crying can be a means of communication for the baby.

Related: 11 Reasons Why Baby Refuses To Eat And How To Help Them

7. GERD or acid reflux

Regurgitation of stomach acid to the food pipe could make babies gag or throw up often. Acid reflux may cause irritation or cough and often make babies cry while feeding due to the discomfort.

8. Unusual body odor

Babies may refuse feeding and often cry when they smell a new perfume, soap, or lotion on the breast while feeding since it is unusual for them.

9. Changes in the taste of breast milk

Babies may cry or refuse feeding if the taste or texture of the breast milk changes. Maternal diet, periods, high lipase levels in the milk or second pregnancy may cause changes in the milk.

10. Growth spurt

Growth spurts or frequency days are times when your baby has more intense growth. Babies can have many growth spurts during infancy, usually during two to three weeks, six weeks, three months, and six months.

The duration of growth spurts may vary in babies, and it may last for a few days. Babies may appear hungrier and feed more during this time. The baby can be fussy and may cry when feeding while experiencing a  growth spurt.

11. Preference for bottle-feeding

Image: iStock

Babies who are mostly fed from a bottle may prefer bottle-feeding to breastfeeding due to the bottle’s instant and continuous milk flow. They may also find it is easy to feed from a bottle since it involves minimal effort than feeding from the breasts.

12. Preference feeding from one side

Some babies tend to prefer one-sided feeding due to various reasons, and they may cry if you offer the other breast or change the breast during nursing sessions.

Related: Breastfeeding From One Breast: Causes, Side Effects And Tips

13. Cluster feeding in the evening

Babies may feed more before sleeping in the evening hours, and they can become fussy and cry if you end feeding before they feed enough. A slow letdown of milk during cluster feeding may also irritate the baby and make them cry.

14. Teething

Teething may cause swelling and pain in the gums. It can make the baby cry while nursing due to the discomfort in the gums.

15. Thrush

Image: Shutterstock

Thrush, also known as oral candidiasis, is a fungal infection caused by the yeast Candida albicans. You may notice whitish coating of the tongue and oral cavity in this condition. Babies with oral thrush may have difficulty breastfeeding due to mouth dryness, burning, or lack of appetite.

They may cry or become fussy due to thrush while feeding, and often the candida infection can spread to the mothers’ breasts while nursing if it is left untreated.

16. Stuffy nose

Babies may cry while breastfeeding due to breathing difficulties caused by nasal congestion. Common cold or flu can be the reason for congested or stuffy noses in many babies. Blocked nose due to an inappropriate breastfeeding position may also cause feeding problems.

Expert says

According to Naser Danan, MD, Pediatrics, UH Rainbow Northeast Pediatrics, Willoughby, using saline nose drops before each feeding can help babies with nasal congestion breathe better while eating (3).

17. Food sensitivity or allergy

Babies with food sensitivities or allergies may cry during breastfeeding due to gastrointestinal discomforts. Colic, vomiting, gagging, excessive gas, diarrhea, or skin rashes can be symptoms of sensitivity to foods in mom’s diet.

18. Ankyloglossia or tongue-tie

Tongue-tie is a condition wherein a tight and thick band of tissue tethers the tip or any part of the tongue to the mouth’s floor. Lip and buccal ties can also cause feeding challenges. This condition could affect babies’ ability to suck, and they may turn fussy or cry while breastfeeding.

19. Stress

Image: Shutterstock

Babies may feel stressed for various reasons, such as teething, physical illnesses, or even psychological problems, such as fear of being away from the caregiver or parent (separation anxiety). Stress may cause the baby to be irritated and often cry more than usual, including during the nursing sessions.

20. Tiredness

Illnesses or lack of sleep could make babies cry while feeding, and you may also notice them being more irritable in such situations.

Babies may become fussy or cry while breastfeeding due to various reasons. Some babies may go into a nursing strike or breastfeeding strike due to these factors. Breastfeeding strike is a sudden refusal of breastfeeding for several days. It is essential to identify the exact reason behind crying while nursing since adequate feeding is required for your baby’s growth and development.

Related: 8 Signs Of Overtired Baby And Tips To Put Them To Sleep

How To Prevent Crying While Nursing?

Sometimes, it can be difficult for parents to find and resolve the cause of crying while nursing. If your baby frequently cries while breastfeeding or if you are unable to identify the cause, seek help from a pediatrician or a lactation consultant.

The following ways may help calm a crying baby while nursing (1).

  • Nurse when the baby is relaxed. You may choose before their sleeping time since babies are less likely to be fussy during this time.
  • Take the baby outdoors and feed afterward.
  • If the mother is stressed or depressed, the other family member or caregiver may carry the baby until the mom relaxes since babies can often sense emotions.
  • Find a calm and dark feeding room or area to reduce distraction.
  • Express and bottle-feed breast milk if the baby refuses to feed from the breast. Shift to formula milk only when there is not enough milk supply and after seeking advice from a lactation consultant or pediatrician.

Image: iStock

  • Do not force the baby to feed if they refuse to feed.
  • Feed from both breasts, and switch the breasts if they cry.
  • Maintain an appropriate feeding position and change if required.

Quick tip

Make sure your baby sits as straight as possible when breast or bottle feeding to reduce the amount of air they swallow and so, to prevent them from crying (2).

  • Burp the baby in between breasts and at the end of each feeding.
  • Opt for surgical repair of tongue-tie after consulting a doctor.
  • Treat stuffy nose, thrush, etc. to avoid feeding difficulties.
  • Use comfort measures to calm and soothe the baby before continuing feeding.
  • Maintain a healthy diet and drink enough water if you are a lactating mother. The maternal diet could be linked to food sensitivity in breastfed infants. Speak to a doctor if you suspect your baby is reacting to the maternal diet.

Related: Baby Crying: Types, Reasons And Tips To Cope With It

1. Is it normal if a baby cries while breastfeeding?

Babies may cry when breastfeeding if they feel uncomfortable. Improper airflow, acid reflux, satiety, and altered breast milk taste could result in a baby crying during nursing.

2. What should I not do when my baby cries while breastfeeding?

Do not stop breastfeeding immediately after the baby starts crying. Instead, offer them the other breast or try a different feeding position to see if it subsides the crying. In many cases, a change in breast or feeding position may work. If your baby continues to cry, express breast milk and offer them the bottle.

If your baby cries while breastfeeding, look for the causes such as acid reflux, overactive letdown, slow letdown, or not hungry. Some babies may also cry and fuss after they are done feeding. Teething, thrush, growth spurts, and preference for bottle-feeding or one breast can also be the reason for crying while nursing. You may feed the baby when they are hungry and relaxed. Seek suggestions from lactation consultants to manage overactive or slow letdowns with various feeding techniques. You may express and feed using bottles if the baby prefers to be bottle-fed.

Key Pointers

  • A baby can cry or become fussy while breastfeeding for various reasons such as overactive or slow letdown, not hungry, or acid reflux.
  • Stuffy nose and teething can cause babies to fuss or cry while feeding due to nasal congestion or pain in the gums.
  • You may feed on demand and address health issues to prevent cry or fussiness. Expressing and giving bottled breast milk can also help some babies.

References:

MomJunction's articles are written after analyzing the research works of expert authors and institutions. Our references consist of resources established by authorities in their respective fields. You can learn more about the authenticity of the information we present in our editorial policy.

1. Crying and feeding issues;  The Children and Young People Urgent Care Advisory Group
2. Breastfeeding challenges; Better Health Start for Life; NHS
3. What to Do For Your Baby’s Stuffy Nose; University Hospitals

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Bottle Feeding Problems - Why Your Baby Squirms, Appears Uncomfortable – Baby Care Advice

When your baby squirms, appears uncomfortable during a feed, fusses, cries or refuses a bottle, seemingly fights the bottle despite being hungry, it can be challenge to figure out the cause. The timing and type of behavior she exhibits provides vital clues.

Signs of bottle-feeding problems

Does your baby display troubled behavior in relation to bottle-feeding, such as….

  • Refuses a bottle
  • Turning away from the bottle.
  • Refusing to close her mouth around the nipple.
  • Holding nipple in the mouth but not sucking.
  • Taking only a small amount and then refusing more.
  • Screaming when placed into a feeding position or at the sight of the bottle.
  • Milk pouring out of baby's mouth.
  • Feeding too quickly.
  • Feeding too slowly.
  • Falling asleep before the feed is completed.
  • Coughing and spluttering when feeding.
  • Not consuming as much milk as expected.
  • Wanting more milk than expected.
  • Throwing up large amounts of milk.

Then there may be steps you can take to remedy the situation and get your baby to calmly and happily take a bottle.   

Behavioral reasons

‘Behavioral’ means baby’s behavior is in response to the circumstances rather than a physical cause. Behavioral reasons are the most common of all reasons for infant feeding problems. There are numerous behavioral reasons for a baby to experience feeding problems and/or display problematic feeding behavior. Common reasons include:

1. Misinterpreting baby's cues as signs of hunger

Does baby at times refuse feeds?

Does she take only a little and not want more?

Babies are in an oral stage of develop. Sucking is the primary way babies soothe. They also learn by sucking and mouthing objects. Many babies have a strong desire to suck for reasons that extend beyond hunger, such as tiredness, boredom, discomfort and soothing. There may be times when you mistake your baby’s desire to suck for these reasons as hunger. 

Newborn babies have an active sucking reflex. This means a newborn baby may accept a feed even when she’s not hungry, and she might guzzle down the bottle because she cannot choose to not suck when her sucking reflex is triggered. Once her sucking reflex has disappeared (usually by 3 months of age) she will willingly take only the amount she wants to take. 

If you have mistakenly interpret her fussing or desire to such as hunger and offer her a feed, she might take a little and refuse the rest, or she refuse from the start. If you try to make her drink more than she wants, she will understandably get upset and fuss, cry and pull back from the bottle. 

WHAT TO DO
  • See Hungry baby for more reasons why babies often appear
  • See Infant reflexes

2. Unrealistic expectations

Is baby not drinking as much as you expect?

Is she fussing if you try to get her to finish a bottle?

In around one third of consultations I have had with parents regarding an infant feeding problem, I found that parents were trying to make their baby drink more than he or she needed. In some cases, this was because of errors made their health professionals. They either failed to adjust calculations as baby matured or failed to consider baby as an individual.  As a result, overestimated baby’s milk requirements.

If you think your baby is not drinking enough milk (breast milk or infant formula) you’re naturally going to feel concerned. If your concern translates into trying to pressure her to drink more than she wants or needs (gently or otherwise), you’re going to upset her. So it is very important for your peace of mind and your baby’s enjoyment at feeding times that you have realistic expectations about how much she needs. 

WHAT TO DO
  • See How much milk does baby need for standard estimations for age and weight, and reason why a baby might take more or less than recommended.
  • Follow your baby's feeding cues. Don't try to make her take more when she indicates she has had enough.

3. Tiredness

Is your baby at times too tired to eat effectively?

Does she often fall asleep while feeding?

Sleeping and feeding are closely related when it comes to the needs of babies. Both are equally important to a baby's health, growth and development and feelings of wellbeing. You are no doubt aware that if your baby does not feed well she might not sleep well. But are you aware that the opposite is equally true. If she’s not getting enough sleep this has the potential to negatively impact on her feeding. 

Physical fatigue can cause baby to fuss during feeds or falling asleep before the feed is completed. If you have a hungry/tired baby on your hands, tiredness will usually win out.

WHAT TO DO
  • Ensure baby gets enough sleep.
  • Feed her before she becomes too tired.
  • Aim to establish a flexible feeding and sleep routine to minimize the risk of feeding and sleep times clashing.

If your baby is often irritable and not sleeping enough, (see Overtired baby for signs and symptoms) you might find that resolving any underlying sleeping problem will cause feeding difficulties to spontaneously resolve once she receives adequate sleep.

  • See our sleep section.
  • Download or order a paperback copy of my infant sleep book Your Sleepless Baby: The Rescue Guide. There you will find comprehensive information on the reasons and solutions to various infant sleeping problems.  

4. Distractibility

Is your baby too busy looking around or trying to play to want to feed?

Is it hard to keep her focused on feeding?

Babies over the age of 4 months can easily become distracted while feeding. They are often much more interested in the activities going on around them than they are in feeding.

WHAT TO DO

Feed your baby in a quiet environment away from noise and distractions of other children.

5. Feeding management

Some feeding problems can be related to what may appear like insignificant details but which can make feeding difficult or uncomfortable for a baby. For example, how you hold your baby will affect her ability to feed from a bottle. If her head is too far forward or too far back or her neck is twisted this can make it difficult for her to suck or swallow.

WHAT TO DO

See How to bottle-fed a baby

6. Feeding aversion

Does your baby refuse to feed even when hungry?

Does she scream at the sight of a bottle or when placed into a feeding position?

Have you resorted to trying to feed her while asleep?

A baby can develop an aversion to feeding when past feeding experiences have taught her that feeding is unpleasant, stressful or painful. Typically, baby is diagnosed with reflux and/or milk protein allergy or intolerance to explain her aversive feeding behavior. However, a behavioral feeding aversion (related to feeding management rather than a physical cause) is a far more common cause of infant feeding aversion.

A feeding aversion is the most complex of all infant feeding problems. An effective solution relies heavily on accurate identification of the cause.

WHAT TO DO

See Feeding aversion for more information. Or purchase or download a copy of 'Your Baby's Bottle-Feeding Aversion: Reasons and Solutions'.

7. Feeding equipment

Does your baby gag, cough or splutter during feed?

Does baby make clicking sounds while feeding? 

It could be the nipple is too long, too short, too fast or too slow.  

The most important piece of feeding equipment is the nipple. The nipple needs to be the right size and speed for your baby's size, age and sucking ability. If the nipple is too long, too short, too fast or too slow for your baby, she may experience feeding difficulties and express her frustration by fuss or crying.

WHAT TO DO
  • See Feeding equipment for more information on choosing a feeding nipple.
  • Experiment with nipples of different lengths, shapes and speed.

8. The nipple ring is screwed too tight

Does the nipple collapse in your baby’s mouth as she feeds?

Do you find that air rushes into the bottle once the bottle is removed from her mouth? 

It's possible her feeding difficulties could be due to the nipple ring being screwed on too tight.

In order to maintain a neutral balance in air pressure within the bottle air needs to be able to enter the bottle to replace the void left by the milk the baby is removing. If the bottle is vented, this is achieved via the venting system. However, in the case of a non-vented bottle, the only ways air can enter the bottle are between the nipple ring and the rim of the bottle and through the holes at the end of the nipple. While sucking, a baby will maintain a seal over the holes at the end of the nipple with her tongue and prevent air entry in this way. If the nipple ring is screwed down tightly this also prevents air entry. 

If air is prevented from entering the bottle, this causes a negative pressure to build in the bottle. As the pressure builds, baby need to work harder and harder to extract further milk, until such time and the air pressure is returned to normal. The effort required to suck against the negative pressure can cause a newborn baby to tire and fall asleep before completing the feed. An older baby may simply give up or express her frustration. 

WHAT TO DO

The nipple collapsing (not all will) or stopping to burp baby allows air to enter through the holes and neutralize the pressure. But you don’t want to wait for this to resolve the problem. By then baby is already tiring or getting frustrated. See ‘Collapsing nipple’ for ways to manage this problem.

9. Feeding patterns

Is your baby often take only small amounts, refuse more, but then wants to feed again an hour or two later?

Some babies develop a grazing or snacking feeding pattern where they will only drink small amounts of formula at a time and then want to be feed frequently, possibly every hour or two. Although this will not cause any problems for a baby, provided she drinks enough formula in total over a 24 hour period, it can become very tiring for parents to keep up with her constant demands for feeding.

WHAT TO DO
  • Try to encourage your baby to take as much milk as possible within 45 minutes. But don't try to make her feed if she doesn't want to. Stop sooner if she does not want to continue. 
  • Ensure baby gets plenty of sleep.
  • Avoid allowing baby to fall asleep while feeding.
  • Support your baby to extend the time between feeds, by offering a little water, a pacifier, a nap, playing with her, or taking her for a walk. Aim to encourage her to wait at least 3 hours from time you started her previous feed, but only if it's reasonable to do so without distressing her. If necessary extend the time between feeds gradually. As your baby gets used to going longer periods between feeds she will gradually take larger amounts at each feed.  

10. Excessive night feedings

Is baby feeding more often at night than you would expect?

Unless your baby was born prematurely or is very small for her age, developmentally she no longer requires feeding during the night beyond the age 6 months. If nighttime feeding continues past this age its not going to harm her but it could have a negative effect on her appetite and feeding patterns during the day.  

Your baby only needs a certain number of calories in her day (24 hours) to provide for her growth and energy needs. If after the age of 6 months she continues to receive calories from nighttime feeds this will dampen her appetite during the day and she will not need to drink as much formula during daytime feeds. You might find she is content to go for long periods of time between feeds (which is usually what would happen at night). She might fuss or refuse some of her daytime bottles when they are offered simply because she's not hungry at the time. Or she might graze during the day. 

Nighttime feeding will cause your baby no harm, so if you're happy to continue feeding her during the night there's no reason to change a thing. However, it is important that you don't expect her to consume as much milk during the day as she may have otherwise taken if she did not feed at night.  

Many babies will give up night time feedings on their own accord, but others will continue to wake and demand feeds overnight for months and possibly years while parents continue to provide feeds at night. Usually the reason babies continues to demand night feeds beyond the age of 6 months is because they have learned to rely on feeding as a way to fall asleep, or because their internal body clock gets turned around - where the baby has decreased appetite during the day because of the continued night feeds and as a consequence of small feeds during the day the baby wakes hungry during the night. Body clock problems can easily become a cyclical pattern that will continue over the long term unless parents take steps to change the situation. Healthy, thriving babies who continue to demand feedings at night beyond the age of 6 months often require guidance and support from parents to cease feeding at night and turn their body clock around to a normal day-night feeding pattern.  

WHAT TO DO

Aim to cease overnight feeds after 6 months of age. However, before attempting to do this it's important to address any feeding to sleep issues your baby might have. She would need to learn to fall asleep in a different way before you will be able to successfully encourage her to cease night feeds. 

11. Starting solids early

Have you started giving your baby solids before the age of 4 months?

Have you been advised to start solids early?

6 months is the recommended age for starting solid foods. Although a small number of babies may benefit from solids prior to this age, it's generally not recommended to start a baby on solid foods before the age of 4 months. An early start on solids has the potential to cause bottle feeding problems because solid foods may decrease the baby's appetite for milk (breast milk or formula).

WHAT TO DO
  • If your baby is less than 6 months old, either cease or reduce the amount of solids you offer to see if this helps to improve the situation.
  • See our article on starting solids.

12. Solids eaten before or between formula feeds

Do you give baby solids between or before bottle feeds?

If solids are offered prior to bottle feeds, either directly before or mid way between feeds, when it's time for your baby's bottle feed she might be feeling full from the solids, in which case she's probably not going to take much milk from her bottle. 

WHAT TO DO
  • For babies 4 - 9 months (when milk is still the most important food) offer solids 15 - 20 minutes after bottle feeds.
  • For babies 9 - 12 months (when solids are becoming increasingly more important to a baby's diet) offer solids shortly before or shortly after her bottle, whichever you find works best. Babies at this age are often down to 3 bottles per day plus 3 main meals and 1 or 2 snacks. 

13. Too much solids

Does your baby love solids so much that she would rather eat solids than drink milk?  

In these early stages of learning to eat solids (4 - 7 months) solids are not needed to add value to a baby's nutritional intake, rather they are offered primarily to provide learning experiences. The baby is exposed to new food proteins that help prime her immune system. She gets to discover new tastes and textures and become accustomed to eating from a spoon. It is at this age that babies are most willing to accept new tastes. So variety rather than quantity is what solids are about. 

Many babies, particularly very young babies, experience difficulty self-regulating their dietary intake. Some babies will continue to eat solid foods for as long their parents keep offering. Some babies will prefer eating solids compared to drinking formula. However, too much solids and not enough milk is not a balance diet for a baby. It may be necessary for parents to limit the amount of solids they offer in order to encourage their baby to have a greater appetite for milk feeds.

WHAT TO DO

See our article on estimating how much milk your baby needs to make sure she's getting enough.

14. Weaning difficulties

Does your breastfed baby refuse bottle-feeds?

Does your baby have a breast preference?

While some breastfed babies willing accept milk from a bottle many will not, at least not straight away.

Difficulty weaning from breast to bottle is rarely resolved by finding the 'right' feeding nipple. (All feeding nipples will feel equally foreign to a breastfed baby.) Nor does a solution lie in finding a formula with the 'right' taste. All formula will taste strange to a breastfed baby). The difficulty associated with weaning to a bottle most often lies in the fact that bottle-feeding requires a very different sucking action to breastfeeding. While breastfeeding the movement of your baby's tongue milks the breast, where as bottle-feeding requires a sucking action. A baby who has been exclusively breastfed beyond the age of 3 months will often refuse milk from a bottle because it "doesn't feel right" and she doesn't know how to suck from a bottle.

It takes time and practice before a breastfed baby learns how to suck on a bottle. 

WHAT TO DO
  • Try offering expressed breast milk in a bottle initially. (Don't be too optimistic and put too much in to start with. It would be a shame to waste it).
  • A soft flexible nipple often works better.

NOTE: Many breast fed babies will refuse to accept a bottle while they are still being breastfed at times. They will simply wait until a breastfeed is offered.  For these babies it will be the case of breastfeeding or bottle-feeding, but not both.

How we can help your baby take a bottle
  • Your Baby's Bottle-feeding Aversion book
  • Baby Care Advice consultation
  • Rowena Bennett's Online Bottle-Feeding Aversion Program

‘Your Baby's Bottle-Feeding Aversion’ book

In my book, ‘Your baby’s Bottle-feeding Aversion’, I have described physical and behavioral reasons for babies to develop an aversion to bottle-feeding. How to identify the cause and the solutions to match. Included are step-by-step instructions on how to regain your baby’s trust and resolve a feeding aversion caused or reinforced by repeated pressure to feed.

While the book was written for bottle-fed babies, many nursing mothers have found that applying the same strategies has also helped them to successfully resolve a breastfeeding aversion.

You might find that reading this book is all you need to do to understand the steps you need to take to resolve your baby’s feeding aversion and get him back to the point of enjoying eating until satisfied. 

Baby Care Advice Consultations

If you would like an individualized assessment of all reasons for infant feeding problems, not just feeding aversion, we also provide a consultation service. Baby Care Advice consultants have extensive experience in pinpointing the cause of feeding aversion and other behavioral feeding problems such as those related to equipment and the parent’s feeding practices. (For more on what’s included in a consultation).

By Rowena Bennett, RN, RM, CHN, MHN, IBCLC.

Copyright www.babycareadvice.com 2021. All rights reserved. Permission from the author must be obtained to reproduce all or any part of this article.

Rowena's Online Bottle-Feeding Aversion Program

Six time-saving modules to help your family enjoy feeding again with Rowena's step-by-step plan. Enjoy additional tools to manage anxiety, troubleshoot any issues, introduce new carers, how to manage illness/teething and much more.

  • Module 1: Understanding feeding aversions
  • Module 2: Identify the cause
  • Module 3: Prepare for success
  • Module 4: How to resolve your baby's bottle-feeding aversion
  • Module 5: What to expect
  • Module 6: Troubleshooting
  • BONUS: Guided meditations

Why does the baby cry during breastfeeding

Yakovleva Ekaterina Andreevna

pediatrician, breastfeeding consultant

Why does baby cry while breastfeeding? The answer may lie on the surface and depend on the situation. Some mothers themselves begin to put forward theories that are often incorrect - “I don’t have milk”, “I ate something wrong”, “The milk became tasteless and bitter”, “I shouldn’t have bought silicone pads” ... Consider the most frequent causes of crying at the breast and options for helping the baby together with Ekaterina Andreevna Yakovleva, pediatrician, breastfeeding consultant and mother of two babies. She knows about the tears of babies not only from professional, but also from maternal experience. nine0003

WHY A CHILD CRYS DURING FOOD

— Ekaterina Andreevna, is crying during feeding dangerous?

— Crying during feeding is a normal way for a baby to communicate with the outside world. So he calls his mother, shows that he wants to eat or something bothers him. The only thing that crying can affect is that the baby will come off the chest and take in air. This will lead to more abundant regurgitation, increased pain in the tummy.


Table. Newborn cries during feeding - 9 reasons0018

— Can a change in priorities of a child affect his behavior at the breast?

- Up to three months, babies have one priority - they need to either eat and sleep or change a wet diaper. After the children become more active, they are already interested in the world around them. Therefore, when feeding in public places, and also when the mother combines the process with talking on the phone or watching TV, the child can be distracted: suck - turn away - suck, ask for different breasts in turn, indulge. nine0003

After three or four months, the baby should not be on the breast very often, but mothers find it difficult to readjust and continue to breastfeed constantly to soothe him. But in fact, the child’s needs are already different - he wants to be vilified on the handles, paid attention to him, played with him, showed him toys.


- Let's discuss misattachment in more detail. What can a mother do wrong if the child does not eat well and cries?

- A very common symptom of improper attachment or refusal of the breast is trouble-free feeding only in sleep. When the child sleeps, he eats calmly, and when he is awake, he begins to twist at the chest, cry. Mom can get tired of this, and in order to calm and feed the baby, during the day she gives him a bottle. In such a situation, it makes sense to talk about breastfeeding and work to restore normal feeding. nine0003

Problems may arise from awkward or repetitive posture during feeding. By trial and error, the mother should choose the position that will be most convenient for her and the child. However, if a baby is fed only lying down from birth, at an older age he may refuse to eat in his arms, break out and cry.



A CHILD CRYING WHEN FEEDING - HOW TO HELP

- Ekaterina Andreevna, everything is very individual for small children. How to understand why a child eats and cries? nine0012

— If the baby cries during feeding, the mother should examine the possible reasons for this behavior step by step and:

  1. Eliminate the reasons related to the child's well-being, which she can deal with herself.
  2. Work on breastfeeding techniques.
  3. Seek medical attention if all else fails - child continues to cry and has additional questionable symptoms.

A triad of symptoms that are always alarming

You should also consult a doctor if, during feeding, the child wriggles and cries from constant acute pain, cannot calm down, vomiting, blood and mucus in the stool, rashes in the mouth, stuffy nose are observed. Fever is an acute condition that is not associated with constant (for example, for a month) baby crying during feeding.

— What should I do if my baby refuses to breastfeed?

— The main thing for a mother is to remain calm and adequate. For a breastfed baby, one break can last an hour, and another five to six hours if the baby has slept long and well. Taking long breaks during the day, the child will still finish his daily allowance in order to develop normally. For example, if he has not eaten for six hours during the daytime, he will breastfeed more often at night. Therefore, in feeding children in the first half of life during the day, it is better not to take breaks for more than 3-3.5 hours. With the introduction of complementary foods, the intervals may be slightly longer. nine0003

Night breaks are individual and depend only on the child - some children are born with a 6-8 hour interval, and some sleep at night for eight to twelve hours or eat every hour.



Read also
  • About the reasons why a child refuses breast milk and whether it is necessary to switch to mixed or artificial feeding in such cases.

— Is it necessary to stop feeding if the baby is naughty?

- Depends on age. Mom should feel what exactly the child needs at this moment. If a newborn cries and refuses to breastfeed, you can calm him down, vilify him with a column, shake him, and then attach him to the breast again. If, having calmed down, the child turns away from the chest, then he has eaten.

An older child is distracted from the breast, becoming interested in something else. Do not force feed him. We must try to remove all irritants - feed in isolation in a separate room, not be distracted by gadgets, sounds, or give the child the opportunity to satisfy his interests, and then offer the breast again. nine0003

— What else can help calm the baby?

- Since most causes of crying are not related to medical problems, medication is not needed. It is necessary to relax, set up the baby, pump him, try to competently organize breastfeeding - apply correctly, do not give a dummy, nipple, supplement from a cup or syringe without a needle. As a rule, this is how most feeding problems go away.

— In what situations can a breast be replaced with a bottle? nine0012

— It is not worth replacing breastfeeding with formula feeding without acute vital signs. When a baby is not accepting the breast well, it is worth removing all bottles, continuing to supplement with “non-sucking” items, and contacting a breastfeeding specialist to try to establish attachment and breastfeeding. This is done by a lot of people.

- Does changing the feeding regimen help to get rid of crying?

- Rather, these are unrelated things. It is not worth forcibly adjusting the feeding regimen, you need to listen to the child - in the first three months, the children constantly hang on their chest, after they begin to form a regimen and the intervals between meals increase. It is important to feel the needs of the child, because not only hunger, but also other things can disturb him, and if he constantly poke his chest, he will not be very pleased. nine0003

Table. Mistakes during breastfeeding

The baby cries during breastfeeding for many reasons. It can be improper attachment to the breast, "tangled nipples", inflammatory diseases of the oral cavity, runny nose, colic, teething, lactase deficiency, or a very nervous state of the mother. It is possible to understand what the problem is only by eliminating the organic and psychological causes of crying. With prolonged ongoing anxiety, the child should be shown to a specialist. nine0003

* Breast milk is the best food for babies. WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of a child's life and continued breastfeeding after complementary foods are introduced until the age of 2 years. Before introducing new products into the baby's diet, you should consult with a specialist. The material is for informational purposes and cannot replace the advice of a healthcare professional. For feeding children from birth. The product is certified.

#advice for mom #breastfeeding

See also

Why does the baby not sleep after feeding?

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The baby is not full of breast milk: how to determine it and what to do

# Lure # breast-feeding # grudnoe-vskarmlivanie # formula supplementation while breastfeeding

Shcherbakova Alla Anatolyevna

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View all nine0003

Why is my baby crying while feeding?

Hunger causes almost physical suffering to the baby: the level of glucose in the blood drops, the cells of the body do not have enough energy for growth and development, and all this is very unpleasant. That is why the baby is filled with loud, demanding crying with notes of disappointment and resentment. Well, how is it - they still haven't fed him - also to me, the parents are called! Previously, when babies were advised to feed strictly by the hour, hungry babies had time to cry almost before each feeding. There was even such a theory that crying is good for a baby - by doing so, he develops his lungs. In fact, his hungry cry does no more good for the respiratory system than your attempts to call a waiter in a crowded restaurant: you want to make an order, they don’t hear you, and sucks more and more in the stomach ... Feed the child as soon as possible, even if he is hungry before the allotted time. nine0003

Just colic

All babies go through a period of colic in the tummy. They arise due to the immaturity of the digestive system, which adapts to milk, formula, supplementary food and complementary foods. Enzymes are still lacking, beneficial bacteria have not yet properly populated the intestines, so it cannot cope with the food load, overflowing with gases: they burst its walls and cause paroxysmal pain. At the same time, the baby screams quickly and piercingly and tenses up: he frowns, blushes, presses his legs to his tummy or twists them, clenches his fists. The screams follow each other for hours, exhausting both the child and the parents. Having warmed up on the handles, he calms down (warmth reduces pain), but as soon as the baby is put in the crib, the crying starts again. nine0003

Are you breastfeeding? Eliminate legumes, cabbage, soda, chocolate from the menu

Lay the baby on his tummy, apply a diaper or heating pad ironed (for warmth), massage around the navel in a clockwise direction.
Give pharmacy infant tea with chamomile, fennel or dill (dill water) - it reduces the formation of gases.

Do not overfeed! And make sure that the baby does not swallow air during feeding: this happens if he does not suckle well to the chest or if the mixture does not completely fill the hole in the bottle during feeding. 50-70% of the gases accumulated in an infant are swallowed air! nine0003

Brain scream
Headache is very hard to bear. It seems that nature protected the baby from her, leaving the fontanelles uncovered. But if intracranial pressure rises quickly, and this system does not compensate for it, and also in the second half of life, when the fontanelles are almost closed, hypertension syndrome inevitably leads to headaches. She makes the baby cry in a special way: quietly, but continuously, monotonously, on one note. In such cases, you need to consult a neurologist. nine0196

Acute abdomen

Infants sometimes develop a very formidable condition - intestinal obstruction, in other words - volvulus (intussusception). It arises due to the inconsistency of the waves of peristalsis that move food through the intestines. If a wave is too strong, intussusception may occur. At the same time, the crying of the baby will change - there will no longer be screams, as with colic, but waves of a loud, desperate cry. The pain is repeated in attacks: between them the child calms down and even falls asleep, but then starts screaming and rushing about again. nine0003

When introducing a new formula or product to an infant's diet, start with mini servings

Urgently call an ambulance! Even if it turns out that this is still not intestinal obstruction, but gases, the child’s tummy hurts very much: let the doctor help him by using a gas tube.

Food is like trouble

Does the baby take the breast or the bottle and then throws it away and starts screaming sharply and piercingly? Another option is a high-pitched cry immediately after feeding. Crying occurs due to a sharp pain in the abdomen, provoked by a lack of the lactase enzyme, which is involved in the breakdown of milk sugar - lactose. Upon receipt of the first portions of milk, the intestinal walls contract intensely, and it itself begins to ferment, causing flatulence with a sharp bloating of the abdomen. And it hurts a lot - hence the crying! In addition, the baby remains hungry: milk is not digested and absorbed. nine0003

Your doctor will give your baby lactase supplements or recommend a formula containing lactase. In many children, the synthesis of this enzyme improves in the second half of life. Then the child can be fed dairy products without the risk of provoking colic and crying.

Teething?
Does the baby have wet eyes all the time: does he whine slowly, then sobs at the top of his voice? Look into his mouth: it looks like his first incisor is making his way below! At the time of the eruption of the next tooth, children's immunity weakens, and the child easily catches a cold. To alleviate the condition of the child, lubricate the gum in the place where the tooth pecks with a special tooth-cutting gel for babies (it has anesthetic properties). Let him gnaw on the gear-cutting rings with some water inside (having cooled first). nine0196

Otitis starts

The child literally takes a few sips and suddenly breaks into a piercing cry! Tries to suck again - and screams again. It hurts the kid to do this, because with every sip he shoots in the ear.

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