BFd newborn and gulping sounds -- advice please!

[MarisaSF]

Any experience with /advice about a newborn making really loud gulping sounds when nursing? Seriously... he sounds like a sea lion. LOL, but it sounds like a throaty "Arr! Arr!" sound. You can hear him across the house.

He seems to have a good latch and he's growing appropriately, but he's very gassy and I fear the gulping noises are him swallowing air(?). I've played with positioning and holds, but can't figure out a "fix" for it.

[elephantmeg]

this month's la leche league magazine just did a mom's letter on that. Her baby was having stomach spasms too-they ruled out reflux and were going to do a barium swallow when she realized he was swollowing a ton of air. The advice her LC gave was to block feed-feed on left side, then left side again, right side, right side.... No IRL experience but I was just reading that section this morning and thought I would share...

[egoldber]

He could be swallowing air. Do you think you may have a fast letdown? He could be gulping to deal with that.

[Moneypenny]

DD did that. I didn't know enough to think anything of it until my mom was over one day and remarked on it. I had strong letdown and a bit of an oversupply issue. DD was also very gassy. I actually didn't do anything about it, because I didn't know what to do and never really recognized it as a problem, and by the time DD was maybe 6 weeks old, it had stopped.

Susan
mama to my cutie pie, Avery
http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_sapphire_24m.gif[/img][/url]

[Katia]

Fast letdown was the first thing that came to mind for me, too. Nursing DD was like that in our early days, and like you, I had a hard time fixing it with re-positioning. Here are some tips from kellymom -- see the section on block nursing. We tried that and some of the other tips, and eventually it got better. Not sure if the changes helped or she just outgrew it. HTH, and congrats on your new baby! :-)

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/fast-letdown.html

Katia
DS 2003 and DD 2006

[MarisaSF]

Thank you all. I will look into block-feeding (I'd never heard of that before). I considered overactive letdown, but I didn't have an issue with that with DD and I don't see anything different this time around, but will look into that too. Thanks for the tips -- I had searched kellymom, but nothing came up re. "What to do if your child sounds like a sea lion." ;)

[american_mama]

Why I remember this, I don't know, but Rashmi (papal) posted ages ago about a barking sound that her daughter made when she was a newborn. They had to get it checked out by a doctor and I think there was a medical reason for it. I have not been able to find her post about it, which I assume was in the Lounge, but you could try contacting her directly if your little guy seems to be making barking noises.

[MarisaSF]

Thanks, Karen. I found this post regarding stridor, which is probably what you remember.
http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=86&topic_id=9404&mesg_id=9404&listing_type=search

I will do more searches and ask the ped/LC at our Friday appt.
Thanks for the tip!! I tried to "feed uphill" today in case the problem was oversupply, but it didn't seem to help.

[hellbennt]

maybe this will help?
OAL:Gaining, Gulping, and Grimacing?
http://www.wiessinger.baka.com/bfing/trouble/gulping.html

or any chance it's a short frenulum?
~laura in miami~
ds1 7/03
ds2 7/06

[daisymommy]

Yep, it sounds just like Hannah did when she was small, and I had really overactive letdown. I followed the advice of the LaLeche Leage article and did block feeding (2-3 feedings in a row on each side before switching to the next side) and after a month there was a HUGE difference. I also did various holds that would cause my milk to work against gravity (Kathleen Huggins book The Nursing Mother's Companion has some info on this).

http://www.lalecheleague.org/NB/LVSepOct95p71NB.html
http://www.lalecheleague.org/FAQ/oversupply.html

Good luck, and I hope things get better there for you!

[MarisaSF]

Thank you all!
Baby is either outgrowing his gulpiness or the block feeding is working... or both!
He had gained a pound from birthweight at his 2-wk visit, so no worries digestion-wise.
Ped is not worried about stridor... phew.

[o_mom]

Glad he's outgrowing it!

I was listening to DS3 last night and he does the same thing. It does sound just like a sea lion. He's got other issues, but it does seem to be a gulping and uncoordinated suck thing going on.

[maestramommy]

Glad to see this thread! Arwyn doesn't sound like a sea lion, but she does gulp a lot. She makes swallowing AND smacking noises. And she's very gassy. My LC suggested pumping for a couple of minutes before a feeding if I'm very full. Since I'm down to pumping twice a day now, I do it before the first feeding of the day and after her long nap.

I will also try the block nursing. One side really outproduces the other so it may be contributing to this issue.

[Nooknookmom]

Another sea lion over here. She's a strong sucker and has no patience.