Natural Birth and Baby Care.com

Baby Fussy After Feeds?

by Nida Sarosh
(Kuwait)

I'm wondering if mother's milk can get bitter-tasting to my baby? My son is three months old. I've always given him my milk along with formula milk. Suddenly he's drinking my milk and crying - I almost have to force him.

What do I do? Should I just nurse at night while he's sleeping (and doesn't fuss)?

Please give me some advice. Thank you.

Answer:

Hi Nida,

Your baby may be fussing all of a sudden because something you ate is going through your milk and making him gassy. This happens from time to time. It's especially common if you've eaten a lot of onions or other "gassy" vegetables like broccoli. Beans can do it too. Sometimes babies get fussy when you eat a lot of dairy products.

If you're supplementing with formula he may also be impatient with feeds at the breast. Formula milk flows quickly and easily from the bottle, in fact baby has to stop it. But to get milk from the breast baby has to work hard.

Some babies get used to how "easy" it is to drink from a bottle and complain about the breast.

I would recommend that you offer him the breast very often and let him nurse as long as he wants on both sides at each feed. See if you can cut down on the amount of formula milk he's getting. You can also try to start giving him the formula from a cup, slowly, rather than from a bottle.

Other things to do are to make sure you're somewhere where it's calm while he's trying to breastfeed. He may be getting distracted if there's lots of noise. Getting him calmed down, even swaddling him may help.

I think it is just fine if you want to nurse him in the night, a lot of babies get a lot of their nutrition at night in the early months. But I would not stop nursing him during the day. Keep trying, because breastfeeding is best for his health.

Make sure you are burping him well and you might also try keeping him upright after a feed to help him get rid of any gas and wind he takes in during the feed.