Expert: ruth kraft - 4/29/2009

Question
My baby is 8 weeks old and I've been breastfeeding her exclusively for the past four weeks (I was slow to produce milk) For the past week and a half she's become very gassy, fussy.  Crying over the gas pains daily. She has very forceful, runny, mustard colored stools.  I have been off dairy since the beginning of my pregnancy since my boyfriend had a serious milk allergy as a child (as per my ped.).  I have the most bland diet known to man so I KNOW it's not the food I'm eating.  She also seems to feed constantly, probably on avg. every 45min -1 1/2hrs at a time.  Sometimes every half hour.  She rarely sleeps longer than an hour to an hour and a half and mostly wakes up crying from gas.  She immediately wants on the breast after waking.  I've heard to having a fast letdown and I do have a bit of a spray if I hand express.  I also considered having a hind/foremilk imbalance but how do you really know for sure?  Should I hand express before a feed?  What if I express all the foremilk that comes at the start?  How do I know how much to express?  As for the imbalance, I find my baby has a shallow latch and she is a bit lazy so sometimes she'll just hangout on my breast for an hour or so, seemingly sucking, definitely no just flutter suckng.  She never seems to want on the other brst so how often would I feed her on the one side?  My brst after a feeding is far from empty, I usually still have the ability to spray some milk (usually only out of one duct, so nothing crazy).  I leak but very little, usually only about two quarter size dots.  Do you think I'm experiencing both forceful letdown and an imbalance?  Also (off topic) how would you recommend I re-introduce dairy back into my diet, I would hate to not be enjoying my cheese for nothing.. :)

Answer
Hello! it seems to me that your baby is going through a growth spurt which is why she is wanting to eat so frequently, because you had slow milk production at first, ( and I assume gave bottles of formula to suppliment ) she needs to build your milk up to where she needs it now, take lots of deep breath as this stage wont last forever.

It seems to have coincided with the waning of colostrum from the milk. Her stools sound perfectly normal to me, and at the age that she is , the gassiness is appropriate. At birth you have colostrum that stays in your milk for about 6-8 weeks ish which has a laxative in it to help stools be passed easy, then starts to fade usually around 6 weeks. so babies have to for the first time learn to move their own bowels. it makes them gassy, they dont like it, they fuss and act uncomfortable... its not easy using muscles you never used on your own before.  It is like us having a loose stool with barely any effort vs having to go ourselves . more effort is needed to build those muscles so that they as they age, don't have incontinece.

So , unfortunaly, its a thing mother nature made so that babies can learn to go when they want to. Fortunaly, you can take a deep breath and know, theres not much you can do. You can bicycle her legs, give her warm baths and massages on the belly to help stimulate her bowels ( movement of legs etc helps get everything going ) give gripe water or mylicon might help a little gas. but it isnt going to go away until she learns to control her own bowels.

This is a hard part of motherhood, watching your child learn to do something on its own knowing it doesnt really feel like learning ...

I do not think you need to express any more ahead of time etc. If her poop is yellow theres no imbalance of any milk. and I would continue switching breasts, have your latch evaluated by a lactation consultant or go to drjacknewman.com and watch his videos about latch to make sure yours is good and how to get her more on.

I think you are fine to wean dairy back into your diet. a little at a time . have a cup of milk or cheese or whatever a little at a time  as to not overwhelm either of you. :)

Hope that helps!
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