Breastfeeding My 4 Month Old

I am wondering if your daughter really has acid reflux. I bet she has some type of food sensitivity.

You need to change your diet and track it. Do you drink a lot of coffee or soda? What about eating broccoli and cauliflower? Those are YUMMY - but cause gas in breast feeding babies. it's not just about acidic foods....like I said broccoli and cauliflower are VERY gassy foods!! Other foods to avoid?

chocolate - I know right? I got Dark Chocolate and it appeared to help...
spices - cinnamon, garlic, curry, chili pepper
citrus fruits and their juices, like oranges, lemons, limes, and grapefruit; strawberries; kiwifruit; pineapple

gassy veggies - onion, cabbage, garlic, cauliflower, broccoli, cucumbers, and peppers

fruits with a laxative effect, such as cherries and prunes.

Find a lactation consultant. They will help you out as well. It could several things other than your diet...
* your milk is coming out too fast for her - and yes - each breast can "let down" differently.
* There is a big difference between the milk that comes out first (fore milk) and the milk that comes out last (hind milk). Fore milk has the vitamins, etc. the hind milk has the fat. And they taste different.

The arching of the back? Try burping. If she is showing signs of NOT wanting to nurse? Okay - put her on the floor and take her legs in your hands and move them like she's riding a bicycle. it will help with any gas she might have.

Hope this helps!

I see others have posted about possible forceful letdown and possible food sensitivities. If your doc didn't look into these before diagnosing the reflux, you may have missed an easy fix.
This is not a substitute for medical advice in a doctors office, but as a pregnancy and pediatrics specialist Chiropractor, I had to answer. Love to help if you need it, I'm located in Oak Park.

As far as her refusing one side, have you tried to nurse her in a "football" hold? Sort of tuck her under your right arm instead of across your chest when you nurse her.... it may be that laying across your chest while nursing on your right side is putting extra pressure on her stomach or something, which is forcing the acid up into her esophagus.

Talk to friends or family and see if they can recommend a good lactation consultant in your area. If not, try La Leche League. I think every breastfeeding mom, especially those who are struggling with issues like you, should have a trusted and reliable lactation consultant they can go to for help. Best of luck!

My niece had severe acid reflux and I know that my sister found that her own diet had a huge effect on how well my niece would eat and keep things down.

I don't remember everything but I know she had no coffee, cut out peppers and onions and never ate any over spiced food.

Maybe try doing some research into how your diet can affect your breast milk and the baby.

It sounds like she may have an ear infection and it hurts to lay on that one side.

Also, ask the doc about Reglan for the reflux. It relaxes the lower stomach muscles so the food goes through faster so there's not so much in the tummy at any time.

Sounds like your letdown is too heavy/fast. Try expressing some of your breast milk for a few seconds before having her latch on. If your milk comes out too fast or forceful, babies will typically pull away and then try to latch back on. They also cry when this happens. This also makes them very gassy. Also, if the letdown is forceful, she may get too much foremilk and not enough hindmilk, since she'll fill up on the foremilk. This is very upsetting to little bellies. If this is the case, her stools will be greenish in color. Sometimes slimy or mucous in consistency. Expressing beforehand will help make sure she gets the good stuff- the hindmilk.
Hope this helps!!!

If it's the positioning that you seem to be causing her problems while eating, you may have better luck with pumping and bottle feeding her. I exclusively pumped for a good 3-4 months when my DD was young; it's not really much more time consuming if you can get a decent pump, especially if Dad takes over some of the feedings.

You can also give her a tummy massage, if you haven't tried it. Lay a damp, warm washcloth on her tummy to help relax the muscles (or after a warm bath) and rub her tummy in small, clockwise circles working your way from your left to right. Only use about as much pressure as you would comfortably put on your eyelid.

try a different hold with the right breast. my daughter did this, so I do a football hold when she nurses from my left breast so she can still lay in the same position as when she nurses on the left. This was my hubby's suggestion, btw, and it worked! I hope it works for you too.

I have a couple tips.
1) when my son was on prevacid, they prescribed a quick-dissolving tablet that I could put in any liquid I wanted. I would drop it into a 5 ml syringe, add 1 ml of water, shake, and then give it to him. Thus, no compounding liquid. You might ask about this.
2) I'm not quite sure what position you are nursing in, from your description. I nursed my reflux baby in a vertical position. I would basically have him sitting, strattling my thigh, looking straight in at my breast (when he was smaller, I put a pillow under him to make him the right height, and as he got bigger he could sit right on my leg, and as he got bigger still, he could sit on the couch next to me). This way he was never lying flat during any part of feeding.
3) Preferring one breast over the other is really common, although it can be uncomfortable for you because you may end up a bit lopsided. I would start with the less preferred side when she's really hungry so she'll take at least a little from that side, then switch. If she refuses entirely on the right, your body will adjust and she can get a full meal from only one side.
4) if she's starting to look around while nursing, breaking her latch and wanting right back on, she's probably just getting more curious about the world around her. It might help to go to a quiet, semi-dark room to nurse so she's less distracted.
5) look at forceful letdowns on kellycom.com and see if any of this applies to you.
6) eliminate dairy from your diet to see if it helps.

Good luck! It can definitely take some trial and error to work through the possibilities, but if you try one thing at a time, you can find what works.

Please, please consider one session with a very good lactation consultant. She will be able to evaluate latch, examine your breasts and make dietary suggestions as well as position suggestions.

You've gotten good advice - my first thought was forceful letdown. Most babies do prefer one breast over the other but I would have the right one examined to make sure there isn't a reason why (that is how I found a lump when nursing my second baby). You might also be having latch issues. I had no trouble with baby #2 initially but as he got older we had latch issues and had to try other positions until we found one that worked better.

Good luck! C.

She seems to have bad gas problems.
My daughter was like that.
I breastfed her.
I'm not a Doctor though.
Anyway, with my daughter, the Mylicon Infant Gas drops helped her a lot.
She did not have reflux, but bad gas problems.
And she rarely farted. Excuse my language. And she hardly ever burped, though I tried. But so, the gas just accumulated in her. And gas, causes pain. Internally.
I would try the Mylicon Infant Gas drops.

Arching back/stiffening of limbs/crying, is also an indication of gas, pains. In an infant/baby.

Also, the letdown of breastmilk, can also cause an infant to act that way. Which is maybe why she breaks her latch then re-latches. She may be trying to gauge the letdown/swallowing/sucking coordination.
If your letdown is strong fro example, sometimes, it makes a baby get too much all of a sudden, and in tandem with mouth/sucking/swallowing of an infant, it can throw them off.

Or try holding her differently while nursing.
Each baby is different in their "preference" of positioning while nursing.

My son had a lot of nursing issues early on, and it turned out to be a dietary sensitivity. I eliminated all dairy, nuts, eggs, and soy from my diet, and within 12 hours he was a ridiculously happy, comfortable baby. I've heard of other people just eliminating dairy and wheat, with the same results. Before that, I tried eliminating acidic and gassy foods (e.g., broccoli), and that just made things worse. So, I really recommend eliminating the common "trigger" foods. Infants have immature digestive systems, and many, many of them can't handle things like the caesin in cow's milk.

This may or may not be the case, and I don't want to do damage, but I think that it bears consideration. My baby was not a spit-up baby AT ALL. When he started spitting up (I think at about 4 months), my pedi tried to call it acid reflux and even wrote a prescription. I never filled that prescription. I always knew that it had something to do with how he was nursing, the rhythm that we had not yet perfected. I talked to my lactation consultant and did my own research about foremilk and hindmilk and figured it out. We got it together, but it was a trying time. Good luck. This is part of the journey.