>Bfing has been painful for whole 4 months, particularly at latch on.  Baby
>latches on and off, a couple of times has 'come off' nipple.
 Baby is very
>fussy all the time, and this aggravates mom, but she sounded fairly calm
>and competent on the phone.  Baby's weight gain is ok- 15 pounds at last
>check.  (8 lbs, 12 oz at birth).  Plenty of diapers, etc.

I'm hearing food sensitivities here.  Fussy baby, latching on and off,
weight gain ok, etc.

Food sensitivities can cause a baby's mouth to be itchy and he may use the
nearest thing to scratch it.  Did you every use your tongue to scratch the
roof of your mouth?  Also the off and on can be that baby either tastes or
smells that there is something here that is not good for me, but he is hungry.

I would begin, of course, with eliminating ALL dairy from mom's diet. Iron
in vitamins is another common problem. And I always recommend eliminating
aspertame (Nutra Sweet) when there is fussiness or gas pains.

Another possibility is some structural problem from birth.  I am learning
more and more about Cranial Sacral treatments from the experiences of my
clients.  I believe that these treatments can alleviate many feeding
difficulties now and, if corrected, may prevent further problems throughout
the child's life.

I worked with a baby in the past 5 weeks who was so fussy all the time.  She
wanted to only suck, either at breast or on a finger.  She cried with pain
often.  We tried the diet route and had some improvement with gas pains, but
she was still in some kind of discomfort, which only sucking would help.
The parents were reluctant to try the Cr.Sa. work because their insurance
wouldn't cover it.  They finally found a practitioner who doesn't charge for
infants.  After one treatment (BTW, it is completely non invasive, most
gentle) the baby was much better for 4 days.  They went for a second
treatment and now they have a happy little girl, who feeds and either sleeps
or lies awake smiling and cooing.

I learned about this treatment on Lactnet.  If you want to read about it you
can do a search.  I have had only success with this treatment.  One case was
of twins, one of which gave mom much pain while feeding and the other
didn't.  After three Cr.Sa. treatments all is well, the improvement
increasing with each treatment.

Patricia Gima,IBCLC
Milwaukee
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