We've all had our babies fussing during feeds.
How do you know if it's normal or not?
Today, I'm answering your question,
"My baby has started fussing during their feeds.
What's going on?"
Hi, I'm Amanda, founder and co-creator
of Little Ones Sleep Programs.
At Little Ones, our purpose is to help families
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Now, before I get into this video
we're going to have a very quick disclaimer.
Most babies will go through periods of fussing.
However, if those periods do last longer
than a couple of days, then please make sure
you visit your GP or talk to your lactation consultant
to get some further advice.
Now, back to today's question:
what might be causing those fussy periods of your baby?
Now, looking right back at the youngest age in a newborn,
the most common reason that your baby would start fussing
during feeds is because of trapped wind.
Now trapped wind can be easily fixed,
often by sitting your baby upright, burping them
or belching them and making sure they have room
for more milk to go in.
When the baby has trapped wind, it will feel
like they're full and they don't need to feed anymore.
So we need to get that wind out of course.
Now there's varying degrees of trapped wind.
I had one baby that only needed to be burped one time
in the middle of a feed, and then once at the end
and I had another baby who had trapped wind all the time.
She needed burping almost every few minutes
and she was the worst fussy feeder that I have seen
in a long time.
Now this brings me onto other causes of trapped wind.
Now, there could be a reason why your baby is getting more
than sort of the normal amount of trapped wind.
In my case, she couldn't really breathe properly.
Often, this happens when our babies get a cold
or are a bit snotty and they can't actually breathe properly
through their nose.
So in my oldest's case, it was actually
because her adenoids were too big and that just meant
that she couldn't breathe through her nose.
So she was coming off all the time
and unable to actually breathe
through her nose and swallow at the same time.
Other reasons that your baby can be fussy
at a newborn age is they may have a tongue tie
or they may have reflux as well.
So both of those things, obviously, please go
to your GP or your lactation consultant
and get them to check those things
if you've got an extremely fussy feeding baby.
And if you are curious, if your baby might be showing signs
of reflux, we do have a fantastic article
which we will link up here and also I'll pop it
in the comments that you can read later on
and see if your baby is showing any signs of reflux.
Now moving on from the newborn stage
onto about four months old babies,
when they're feeding can become really distracted
and really nosy at this age.
So what you can try and do is feed in a really dark room
or you could maybe wear like a necklace
around your neck that they can play
with whilst they're feeding or give them a snuggly toy
to play with while they're feeding.
That will help distract them whilst they're feeding
to make sure they actually are getting a good feed.
If you're bottle feeding and your baby is getting
really fussy, it could be a sign that you need to move
onto the next flow of teat.
Maybe the milk flow isn't fast enough for them
or when they're a newborn, maybe the flow
is actually too fast for them
and they're really sort of drowning in that milk
and they need a little bit of a slower teat
to help them feed at a better rate.
If you are breastfeeding and you have a really fast
let down, this can also be a cause of fussy feeding
at that beginning part of the let down
where the flow is just too fast
and they're just struggling to keep up.
The other side of it is it could be that the milk
is coming out too slow or there isn't enough milk,
and the baby is just getting frustrated by that.
Now, if you think that either one of those things
might be the issue, please make sure you talk
to a qualified lactation consultant
and get a proper assessment.
From around five to six months of age,
babies can be starting to introduce solids
and now solids can also affect your milk feeding times.
Either they might be having too much solids
and they're actually not really hungry anymore
for those milk feeds.
Depending on the quantities and the age of your baby
you might want to play around and adjust those amounts
at either one of the solid meal or the milk feed.
Another thing that can really start to impact
from around four to six months of age of fussy feeding
during the day is how much they're feeding overnight.
So if your baby is actually feeding a couple
of feeds overnight, they actually probably don't need
too much milk during the day anymore,
especially in that morning period.
So if you're finding that your baby is not feeding well
at seven, eight o'clock in the morning, it's probably
because they're actually full from the overnight feeds.
So have a look at what's happening overnight
and adjust accordingly.
So some other tips of dealing with fussy feeding
is to also determine that your baby isn't overtired
when you're trying to feed them.
How you can counteract this is by feeding
straight after they wake up from a nap to make sure
they're really alert and getting a good feed,
and that can help with making sure they've got a lot
of time to get their wind out before the next nap as well.
If your baby is getting really frustrated and upset,
then please make sure you give them a break,
go and do something else, doing an activity with them,
and then come back when they're calm
and please don't continue if your baby
is getting really frustrated.
And other things that you can do is try
change the scenery, go to a different room,
go outside and feed.
You can change sides to make sure
that it isn't a milk flow issue.
And if all else fails, just give them a nice cuddle
and try and calm them down and start again.
I hope you found this video helpful
and answered any questions that you might have
around why your baby might be fussing during their feeds.
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And as always, if you have any questions,
pop them in the comment section below
and we'll do our best to answer those.
And we'll see you in the next video.
Talk soon.