I was reading that thread on diagnosing and treating thrush and I realize that a lot of what my daughter and I have been experiencing lately might be due to Overactive Ejection Reflex. I haven't noticed a signifigantly strong or painful letdown but I was haivng trouble with some clogged milk ducts. I took care of those by taking a hot bath and massaging my breasts. I do have lots of leaking and spraying of milk. Isabela has most of the symptoms which include Gasping, choking, gulping or trouble “keeping up” with letdown, sometimes she has Green stools, she has pain and gassiness, very loud tummy noises, and she will reject my breast in the middle of a feeding sometimes. She will scream and pull away while milk is spraying on her cheek. I feel so bad. I can't stand to hear her scream like that especially when I know she is hungry. It hurts me so bad to hear that. She hasn't been comfort nursing as much and I have been having to give her a pacifier a lot more these past few days. I give have been giving her infant gas relief drops which seem to be helping a little bit before feedings. She does seem to be gaining an adaquete amount of weight though. Does this sound like a problem and should I discuss this with her doctor??? I am really worried.
I'd cut out any milk products from your diet....just in case... Try all of the things Maggie Sugar has listed for helping with Overactive Ejection Reflex... and just getting ahold of LLL or an IBCLC.
try nursing with her laying on top of your chest, rather than in a seated position. Try latching on off center, works kinda like putting a kink in a garden hose, slows the flow down. Or point your nipple towards the roof of her mouth, so the milk doesn't shoot down her throat. If she's gaining weight, I wouldn't worry too much, everything you describe does sound like overactive letdown, and as soon as your hormones straighten out your breasts will produce just the right amount of milk for your baby. I would most definitely NOT discuss this with a medical doctor, they invariably give horribly bad advice when it comes to breastfeeding. If you feel a need for the help of a professional, find a board certified IBCLC lactation consultant.
I have overactive let down as well, and did with my son too. It is very frustrating, like you said, she will pull away from the breast or choke just because the milk is coming out too fast. I have found that it helps to work against gravity and make sure she is above the nipple level and it comes out slower. Once I feel let down and if she pulls away, I will squeeze the excess milk into a cloth diaper until it slows down, that also helps. I have read that the green stools are from too much foremilk. I usually only feed on one breast per feeding so that I make sure she empties it and gets enough hindmilk, once it is empty and she is burped (burping often helps too), I will offer the other breast, she rarely takes it. Good luck, for my son it got better as he got older and was able to handle the letdown.
I had over active letdown with JUlian for a few months. I used to have him nurse, and when my milk let down, I would un latch him, and let my milk spray into a diaper or towel or something. When the floods eased up, I would have him latch back on. that seemed to help some. Also, only offer one breast for 6 or 8 hours. Then switch to the other breast. Julian always nursed a lot at night (still does :lol), so I would actually do one berast all day, and one breast all night. that won't work very well if your baby sleeps a lot at night though. I hope you guys figure something out soon! its no fun to have a cranky baby!!!
Thanks, I found the advice in that article to be a little confusing, maybe b/c when I was reading it I was dealing with a cranky baby but things have gotten better now. When she pulls away I let her stay unlatched until she finds my nipple again instead of pushing her back on right away, that has helped. She usually only nurses from one breast in each feeding anyways, she rarely wants the second breast. I will try nursing her lying on top of me, it sounds kinda challenging but I haven't tried it yet. I have also found that when I get stressed out while feeding her it makes it worse for her as well so I have been tryng very hard not to let it get to me. Having kids really does help build patience which I have never been good at! Thanks for the advice. If things don't get better I will get in touch with a lactation consultant. I have been thinking about getting involved in a breast feeding group just for the support when I feel down about it or stressed out. I think it would help ease some of my worries to meet with other mamas who may be going through or have gone through some of the same things that I am or will experience. On a good note, Isabela is gaining weight very well. She just had her 2 week check up (a week late, she is 3 weeks old today) and she has gained 1.5 lbs more than her birth weight, so I assume she is getting plenty to eat.
Absolutely. Virtually NO medical schools in the USA or Canada have ANY classes or any education at all in lactation. Lactation is a health issue, not a disease issue, so most doctors know little to nothing about it. What you will most likely hear from a doc is what his wife did. or in a female doctor what SHE did, and chances are she went back to work so sonn that the cord was still attached and really had little experience breastfeeding. A good PRIVATE PRACTICE Lactation Consultant can help you. You can call 1 800 TELL YOU. (this is Medela, the breast pump company and they have a referal service of home practice LCs) or go to www.breastfeeding.com or call your local LLL and if they can't help, ask them if they know a local Board Certified LC who can help you. The article above (in the stickeys) is a good article about this issue. One of the important things to do is to take the baby OFF the breast, while you are letting down, until the spraying or rapid dripping is going on. This could be a few seconds or up to a minute. Maybe print the article out, and then you could read it when you are not stressed. Also, there is a good book called "The Fussy Baby" by William and Martha Sears. Not all "fussy babies" have mamas with OER, but most mamas who do have overactive letdown DO have fussy babies. The book (about the ONLY book on the subject of real colic, which is a neurological problem not a digestive one) which was available when my first baby was born, 20 and half years ago. I think it may have saved my life, as everyone was just telling me shit like "The baby is stressed because YOU are stressed." Dr. Sears makes it clear, colicky babies caused stressed mamas, stressed mamas don't "cause" colic. I don't know if your baby has full blown colic or not. The definition, is a rule of 3-3-3. At LEAST 3 hours of non stop crying a day, at LEAST 3 days a week, which has persisted for at LEAST 3 weeks. Your baby may not be truely "colicky" but the fussy baby and overactive letdown tecniques will help with any kind of fussiness. And, as you have found, most babies whose mamas have OER tend to gain weight very well. But, it's best to treat it, as a few babies will go on "nursing strikes" if the problem persists with no treatment. (My first baby did, and there wasn't even the term "Over Active Let Down" back then, but she would go as long several days at a time refusing to nurse, I was getting horrible "help" and terrible information from people who had never succesfully nursed a baby, so I made it WORSE by giving her bottles. When I saw a LLL leader, she suggested using a little cup or a spoon to feed her, when she absolutely refused to nurse, and it helped us get over the Nipple Confusion, which had only complicated the Overactive Letdown AND the full blown colic my oldest child had. I don't know how we got through those first 6 months (that's how long it took before nursing was actually pleasurable for us) but I refused to give up and we did it.(She then nursed for well over a year. And I loved every minute by then.) It gave me the strength to help other mamas, I figured, "If I am persistant enough to get through this, and not give up, I know I can help other mamas." You can get through this, we know a lot more about the mechanics of lactation than we did even a few years ago, and there are people who can help virtuallly anywhere. If you can't find a private practice LC (please don't call the hospitall LC, she may be good, but she does not have the time, and most of her training is in NURSING, the profession, not in lactation issues that arise more than 72 hours after birth) I can go on find someone for you.
