baby crying while bottle feeding

Mothers sometimes experience the phenomenon of their baby crying while feeding. The problem affects infants and bottle-fed children. Crying accompanied by other manifestations of discontent indicates discomfort. It is necessary to find out the reason for this behavior as quickly as possible. There are certain answers to the question why a baby cries while breastfeeding.

Reason for baby's crying

Among the most striking reasons why a baby cries while breastfeeding are:

Mother's milk has a special taste.
When sucking, milk does not flow well.
A copious flow of milk, the baby begins to choke.
Lack of mother's milk for one time.
Incorrect position.
The shape of the nipple makes it difficult for the mouth to properly latch onto the desired area.

There may be other reasons for regular crying; you need to closely monitor your baby. Unpleasant sensations may be caused by the child’s own health condition.

Possible reasons

Incorrect chest grip . Sometimes the baby cannot latch onto the breast correctly. When this happens, it is uncomfortable for him to eat, and it is difficult to suck out the required amount of milk. And sometimes a lot of air gets into the stomach along with milk. All this causes very unpleasant sensations, so it is quite natural that the baby is worried.
Intestinal colic is another common cause of crying. In this case, the baby begins to scream at the end of feeding and immediately after it, draws in his legs.
Taste of milk . Also, a baby may cry during feeding due to the unpleasant (unusual) taste of mother's milk. The taste may change when the mother eats spices, hot, smoked and other undesirable foods.
Amount of milk . If there is too little, the baby cries from hunger, does not fall asleep for a long time, and reaches for the breast. If there is too much, he gags and does not have time to swallow, so he may become nervous and cry.
Thrush, stomatitis and other similar diseases . Contrary to popular belief, they do not necessarily occur due to lack of hygiene. Other reasons can also cause them. Plaque and ulcers in the mouth are very painful, so the child feels discomfort when feeding. He may cry and breastfeed even if he is very hungry.
Otitis or sore throat . The child screams because he experiences pain when swallowing.
Runny nose . If the small nose does not breathe, normal feeding is impossible. The baby will interrupt and whine. The main causes of a runny nose are either acute respiratory diseases or allergies.
Teething is a painful and painful process for every child. The gums become swollen and painful, and the discomfort may intensify during feeding.
Neurology . Sometimes babies just have headaches. When they eat, they tense up and the pain becomes more pronounced.

Help the baby

The lactation period must be accompanied by the woman's compliance with a special diet. It is important to saturate the milk with all the necessary vitamins and microelements. This is the key to the proper development of the child.

You will have to give up some foods and introduce them gradually, in small quantities. The taste of milk is strongly influenced by hot, smoked, and spicy foods. The baby will refuse to drink such milk, which will lead to lactation problems.

You can make it easier for your baby to suck breast milk by pumping a little before feeding. The procedure is performed manually using a special breast pump.

It is necessary to completely avoid underwear that compresses the breasts, as this interferes with the flow of milk.

When there is a lot of milk and the child does not have time to drink it and chokes, then feedings are carried out vertically. Additionally, it is recommended to do a little pumping to reduce the amount of milk.

Crying is caused by a lack of milk for one feeding. It will be necessary to feed the newborn with artificial formulas prepared in advance. You cannot stop breastfeeding completely; lactation tends to improve.

Situations arise when you cannot independently determine the cause of crying. Attempts to change the situation were unsuccessful, then it is recommended to consult a pediatrician.

Application is mandatory if:

The baby does not have a bowel movement for three or more days.
Body temperature is increased.
Restless sleep.
The child's condition is lethargic.
Profuse regurgitation, vomiting.
The crying is intense and very difficult to calm down.

An examination by a pediatrician will reveal the cause of crying and prescribe recommendations. Self-medication using any medications is not allowed.

The baby cries during feeding, what should I do?

In order to decide on the course of action if a baby cries during feeding, you must first understand the reasons for what is happening. There are a great many reasons for this behavior; in order to prevent their occurrence, the process of feeding the child should be properly organized.

How to feed a baby correctly

Proper feeding of a child involves placing the baby and mother in the most comfortable position for them. Recommendations for doing this could be:

the baby and his mother should be placed in the most comfortable position for both, for which it is recommended to lie on a sofa or soft bed, hold the child on his side, or press him to the body;
the baby’s head should be in a position slightly above his butt, and his neck should not be bent;
You should not forcefully press the baby’s head to the chest, you should only indicate the direction in which the baby’s head is turning;
Maximum contact between the bodies of the nursing mother and the baby should be ensured; it is better to free the baby from clothing if possible.

If the process of feeding a child is organized correctly, he will always eat well, which will have a positive effect on his development, growth and health.

How to prevent your baby from crying when feeding

In order to prevent the baby from crying during feeding, it is recommended first of all to establish a good psychological balance between him and his mother. To do this, you need to hold him in your arms as much as possible when feeding, sleep next to him more, and feed him according to the appropriate requirements on his part. If necessary, you can limit the baby from communicating with everyone around him, except his parents. You should talk to him more; the sounds of the parent’s voice themselves have a calming effect on the baby. If the use of such recommendations does not help to correct the situation, it is recommended to consult a pediatrician. This will help to accurately determine the cause of the baby’s crying during feeding and prescribe the correct recommendations to correct the situation. In particular, if the cause of crying during breastfeeding is colic, then the pediatrician may prescribe medications such as Espumisan,

anonymously

Hello! Sorry for the long letter. I beg you, help me with advice. My daughter turned 2 months old on May 9th. Since the maternity hospital, she has been a little restless, sleeps little (about 10 hours a day). For the last month he has been sleeping well at night for 6-7 hours straight. He sleeps little during the day, about 3 hours the whole day. The birth went well (I gave birth and live abroad), but there was a single entanglement in the umbilical cord. Birth weight 3.715 kg. Since birth, she has not eaten very calmly, and every day she becomes more and more restless. She spits up almost every feeding, sometimes like a fountain. We were on guard from birth, there was little milk, I downloaded a maximum of 80 mil from both. She bit her breasts and cried, threw up, and arched her body. We visited the pediatrician, a general examination showed that everything was fine, there were suspicions of reflux, the doctor gave an anti-reflux mixture, but even with it she continued to scream during and after eating. He eats somewhere between 40-60 mils and starts screaming, throwing the pacifier, arches, twists his legs, turns red, and his forehead sweats. We went to the doctor again, suspected LI and gave me a mixture with already split milk protein to try, at the same time he told me to eliminate all dairy from my diet and continue to express and store the milk in the refrigerator, which is what I did. We ate the new formula for 5 days and her condition improved significantly, she almost didn’t scream while eating, the regurgitation decreased, the doctor said that she had LN. After 5 days, the doctor asked me to give her my milk again, which I had expressed when I didn’t consume dairy products, the baby screamed again on the third breastfeeding, then the doctor said not to breastfeed anymore and give only this special formula, so we did, I stopped pumping altogether. We also give drops for colic - an analogue of Ispumisan, also based on simitikon. Now we are completely on this mixture, there has been an improvement but barely noticeable, she eats very little (about 40-60 mil) and begins to scream a lot, kick her legs, bend in an arc and throws the bottle, then feeding lasts longer than an hour, I try to feed in between screams. He eats 600-700 mil per day. The first feeding in the morning after a night's sleep is almost calm, and with each subsequent feeding it gets worse and worse. We had different stools: green, dark gray, with mucus and a rotten smell, the doctor says that this is because we tried different mixtures. Our weight at 2 months is 5.220 kg. The doctor can’t say anything, we didn’t have any tests because, according to the doctor, neither a stool test nor an ultrasound will show anything. He listened to her, looked at her mouth, ears - he said everything was fine. When I complained that I slept little and was restless and was afraid that it might be neurology, he said that the tone was normal and there were no signs of increased ICP. I don’t know what to think or what to do anymore, what could it be? Thanks in advance for your answer!

Hello! On May 18 I answered you: “Hello! And I would be glad to say - but I can’t do this based only on your story. There's just not enough data. Therefore, today I can only help you with information. Anxiety during feeding and insufficient sleep can be a manifestation of some serious diseases (from endocrine to gastrointestinal pathology), and a symptom of ordinary functional gastrointestinal insufficiency, which often occurs between the ages of 2 weeks and 3 months. If a girl is not gaining weight well or is lagging behind her peers in development, then she definitely needs to be examined. In Russia, if there was expressed concern, they would still start with an examination. If the girl is developing well physically, perhaps you can try to correct her behavior and nutrition with nutrition. But what kind of formula does the baby eat? soy? with goat milk? antireflux? or obtained by protein hydrolysis? In my opinion, you shouldn’t have given up breastfeeding (maybe you can still return it?). If the matter really is a lack of the lactose enzyme (I’m speaking in a speculative tone, because I’m not very sure about this: this situation is rare; in my entire life I have encountered true lactose deficiency only once), then it makes sense to take the drug “Lactase Baby” or a dietary supplement "Lactazar." In the first weeks of life, all the digestive glands are not working well enough; Over time, they become more and more “involved” in the process, and digestion improves. Another possible explanation has the vague name “false refusal of breast (or formula)” (“false” because it lasts from several days to a couple of months; then the child begins to eat). Many experts believe that the reason for refusal to eat is intestinal spasms (still the same? colic?). Some authors associate this behavior with irritation of the stomach walls (with artificial feeding - from irritation with mixtures). In this case, Maalox also helps children (despite the indication in the annotation that it can only be used in schoolchildren, in practice it is prescribed even to premature infants). Other children are helped by changing their body position during feeding: (I know a case when in such a situation the mother was forced to feed the baby while standing - I did not agree to eat in any other position!). There is a point of view that false breast refusals are associated with the development of the nervous system and the predominance of arousal processes at this age. Then children agree to suck while half asleep, when falling asleep, or even in their sleep. But all authors agree that the main thing in this difficult time is to feed the child as often as possible, at his first request. All this time, the mother is recommended to be with the child as long as possible and as close as possible: they practice co-sleeping and wearing in a sling. It is recommended to change the environment in which you feed and the baby’s usual position during feeding. Most authors consider these behavioral disorders to be transient and recommend doing without medications, only with patience, love and affection. From the point of view of herbal medicine, I would advise you to take chamomile tea or an infusion of chamomile flowers, a decoction of mint leaves, a decoction of the roots (the latter - a few drops 4-5 times a day between feedings, and you can drink chamomile and mint from a teaspoon of 2 - 3 times a day instead of water). The course of treatment is 1 month. Improves sleep by bathing in herbal decoctions with a sedative effect (from chamomile, oregano, lemon balm to a decoction of valerian root, etc.). It is recommended to place a linen bag with dried hop cones under the baby's main pillow - it also has a sedative effect. Another completely outdated piece of advice: try wrapping your baby loosely in a blanket to sleep. Young children often wake themselves up involuntarily. Their sleep is still shallow, involuntary movements of the limbs are often observed - it’s not for nothing that our grandmothers and great-grandmothers swaddled the child to sleep. But now it is unfashionable; we talk about “personal freedom” - and as a result we have a frequently waking child and a sleep-deprived mother. Meanwhile, many children react very positively to wrapping; they feel calmer and more comfortable. If the anxiety is related to bloating, children sometimes sleep more calmly on their stomach. Not everyone, but many kids like it. If this is your case, do not interfere with your child. In this position, you can’t really wave your arms, and the gases are less painful. Neurologists often prescribe drug treatment for poor sleep - from to phenibut, but I don’t dare replace them in this “behind the scenes”: I’m not a specialist. Even for sleep pathologies, a homeopathic remedy is sometimes prescribed. I’m not a specialist in homeopathy - but why not try, since you can’t quickly get to a neurologist? See for yourself which of the above is closest to your situation. I will be glad if I can at least somehow point you towards the right path to solving the problem. Good luck to you!" If it's a technical glitch, I'll duplicate the answer. It seems to me that you need to address the question to a neurologist. I'm afraid that I can't tell you anything new. Just remember the practical experience of a pediatric neurologist. Many years ago, one of them, an experienced practicing physician, suggested that in rapidly growing children (namely, in children who are rapidly gaining height and weight, such complaints are more likely) the nervous system does not seem to “keep up” with the growth of the body. She even suggested swaddling such babies during sleep in a special way, simulating the uterine position of a child with arms and legs bent and brought to the body. The legs are bent at the hip and knee joints, raised forward to the tummy, the feet are compared one with the other (I understand that I am not describing it clearly; imagine that a child lying on his back is sort of “sitting cross-legged” - the position of the legs will be approximately the same. Swaddling the arms in the usual way; they try to bring their head (pressed) to the chest as much as possible. I don’t know how scientific the doctor’s assumption and her technique are - but it really worked. After a couple of weeks of sleep with this swaddling, the babies’ behavior returned to normal without any medications. Maybe this recommendation it will be useful for you too.

Many young mothers are concerned about why the baby cries during feeding. Often the problem is relevant both in cases where the baby is artificial, and for babies who are fed breast milk.

How to prevent your baby from crying

First of all, special attention is paid to posture. Having sat comfortably, the child will be able to eat normally. There are some recommendations for this:

Comfort should be provided to mother and baby. More often feeding is done horizontally. If necessary, the child can be turned on his side by holding his back.
The head should be above the level of the butt, bending of the body - part of the neck - is prevented. Blankets and special pillows are used.
You can’t force it, you can’t hold it near your chest either. It is enough to direct the child’s head and he will perform the subsequent necessary actions.

Proper attachment allows the child to fully eat, grow, and develop.

Other reasons for crying

Physiological characteristics and dysfunction of the body are not the main causes of crying. Sometimes the behavior is explained by overstimulation.

You can make your child calmer by creating a suitable environment. The room is well ventilated beforehand. There should be no unnecessary noise during meals. It is recommended to dim the light a little; use night lights with soft diffused light at night. During the day, you should close the curtains - this will reduce light transmission.

Baby anxiety problems often end when they reach the age of three months. Until this time, the baby does not always cope with his emotions, which have an undeniable impact on behavior.