# 2 1/2 week old dd pulling on nipple



## LucyJaynesmom (Sep 18, 2006)

I am a new mom to my beautiful dd of 2.5 weeks. The past couple of days she has started pulling and tugging on me while she is bf-ing. She stiffens up her entire body, legs straight out, turns red, and starts pulling. Sometimes she lets go and then gets really mad and starts crying. My thinking is that maybe this is gas...but I really have no idea. She has PLENTY of wet and dirty dipes, she is growing fine. She is really starting to make me very very sore, please help!!

TIA LJM


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## Selesai (Oct 26, 2005)

I hope others will join in. Perhaps you have an oversupply or overactive letdown, the latter meaning that milk will flow very quickly, sometimes overwhelming your baby. Look at kellymom.com for more information.
There are several solutions to an overactive letdown-- nurse on an incline, block feed, meaning feed from one breast only for a period of several hours, then switch, etc. The website gives more.
If this is indeed what you have, it may lessen as your baby gets older and your milk supply regulates.
Another possibility is that the baby may just want to suck, and gets angry when milk comes out. Some mothers here dont' have that problem, but I sometimes do.
Finally, it could be that she's just angry and doesn't want to nurse, but wants to be comforted in another manner (or, maybe just wants to be upset).


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## acupuncturemomma (Dec 31, 2005)

I had a similar problem; dd would fuss and pull. Make sure you pop her off when she starts pulling so that she doesn't learn that as habit.
I second the advice to check out the kellymom site--there's a particular article that goes over reasons for baby pulling off and fussing. For me it's due to overactive letdown sometimes, and gas/poop sometimes. See if you can notice a pattern. For example, does she poop shortly after one of the episodes? Can you feel you letdown to notice whether it's related to that?
If you can't find the kellymom article please respond and I'll try to post a link.
Good luck!


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## alfabetsoup (Jun 13, 2005)

My dd did this. She would brace herself against me and pull with all her tiny strength. It was pretty unpleasant but she doesn't do it anymore. I have no advice--at least you can comfort yourself with the knowledge that she has a good strong suck.


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## aja-belly (Oct 7, 2004)

both my dc have done this. we have found 3 causes -

1 - trying to get my milk to let down
2 - trying to stop the flow of milk if it's too fast
3 - trying to poop or fart (and occassionally pee)

it's most often number 3. we are ec'ing though, so maybe we're hyper-aware of that.


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## pandora665 (Mar 13, 2006)

My baby did that (still does) all the time. I completely agree with the above poster... it's usually that she is hungry, but also either...
a. has a wet diaper (she gets hyper aware of this at night only)
b. needs to burp
c. is SUPER overtired.

I would cry when she'd do this, b/c it was always late at night, when I was fried, and I thought it was a milk supply issue... probably not, based on the fact that we've now figured out how to get her to stop. Good luck, and HTH!

erin


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## _betsy_ (Jun 29, 2004)

My baby is 4 weeks old and just started doing this a couple days ago. I'm pretty sure it's gas. I tend to pull her in closer, not break the latch as suggested earlier, and when I do, she relaxes, farts or burps and keeps feeding (most of the time, anyways).


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## LucyJaynesmom (Sep 18, 2006)

Just an update:

I had a clinic visit today with a LC...she thinks it yeast. So I am taking Diflucan and the baby is being treated also this time with some kind of mouth swap stuff. She said that there aren't any bad side effects if it is OALD, so we are treating the yeast if nothing else to rule it out.

Thanks to everyone for their help. LJM


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