Diane, you could be describing my first baby and my first nursing experience
almost to a T. With the exception that 22 years ago, I had no idea what
OverActive Ejection was, and thought I "didn't have enough milk" (confirmed
by a doctor, despite fact that Baby Sarah gained weight like a piggy, and
swallowed like crazy when nursing, but no one asked me that) so we started
AIM "supplements" once a day, with the result that Sarah, in addition to being
the Fussy Baby of the Year, also became Nipple Confused, and would go on 2
day long nursing strikes bite me, scream when she saw my breast and finally
took us nearly 4 months to get it worked out, and throw away the darn
bottles. EEEK!
All this baby's symptoms could well be based on the OER, in addition to a baby
with a Strong Temperament (Fussy, as it were.) These babies tend to rarely, if
ever nurse for comfort, especially if they are good, efficient nursers. They also
have a tendency to wean earlier, than babies with an "easier going"
temperament. This may be due to love of Novelty or just being bored in one
place (as they often refuse to nurse when out of their home turf.) OER looks
slightly different in cases where the baby has different personalities, I have
been seeing. My own three children all have the same mom, with the same
OER, and all handled it differently. (As well as my learning more with each
child.)
Sarah nursed for FOOD, and would never nurse in public because everything
she saw, heard, sensed, felt ect would overstimulate her, and cause her to
pull off, look for the intrusion, and then scream. By Four Months, the only way
I could nurse Sarah, after her father came home from work was to go into the
bedroom, pull the shades, lie down on the bed, look AWAY from her, and nurse
her that way. Any stimulation would cause her to stop nursing. She rarely fell
asleep at the breast, my dh would "bounce" her on his shoulder for up to an
hour, several times a night, just so she could fall asleep. She rarely slept more
than 8 hours out of 24, until she was about 2 years old. (Most of that sleep
was in 45 minute stretches for the first four months.) She weaned as soon as
she could, at around 16-17 months (I also had a miscarriage at this time, so it
could have been that, the fact that at this age she also had a severe vaccine
reaction, or she just felt she didn't "need" to nurse anymore.)
With my second child, I, obviously still had OER, but a baby with a completely
different personality. She still choked at Ejection (and then began to get the
milk spraying, pull off, and play in the spray, with her hand, only "cute" at LLL
meetings, BTW.) had green stools, spit up a lot, gained, again like crazy.
However, she was not as easily overstimulated, and would nurse for comfort,
and nursed longer. She would also fall asleep at the breast. This baby, for
obvious reasons, never used bottles, or AIM. I picked up a small cover less
book from LLL while my first day on the Hot Line and read about something
called Over Active Let Down, when Becca was 10 months old (in 1989) and
yelled "OMG, that's IT!" A few years later I started writing and speaking about
OER.
My third baby was still different. I still had OER, she was a month Pre Term,
she came home, with me, at a little over 5 lbs. She nursed in the Recovery
Room of the OR. She was swallowing, audibly, during her first nursing. I called
the nurses over to hear, because they didn't believe me. (They confirmed it,
though.) Milk would shoot out of her nose, when my ejection kicked in. She
(or maybe I did) learned how to control the flow early, when to take herself
off, and we had less problems with green and frothy stool ect.But, she spit up
huge amounts. Hannah also gained weight well. This child nursed for 4.5 years.
She nursed for comfort quite a bit.
It sounds like the baby you are seeing, Diane, must be a combination of a Mom
with OER, and a "High Need" baby. This mom may never be able to comfortably
nurse in public. When Sarah DID nurse in public,(a rare occurrence) she
wanted everything out, no blanket (it "bothered" her) and wanted to make
sure she could get a good look at it before she nursed. Then, she would only
take what she needed to get her home and comfortable again to nurse and
get full. She also "demanded" solids earlier than my other children. I think she
likes novelty, but it wasn't the best thing for a highly atopic baby. (Wish I
knew then....)
Sarah also hated when the Ejection was over. I think part of this was due to
the bottles, and the nipple confusion, but also she really (unlike my other
babies) LIKED the strong flow, as she never seemed to choke as much, and
never popped off on her own, and rarely spit up. Again, it was Novelty and
Excitement, the Ejection, New Foods, ect. This is most likely Personality as
well as OER.
Mary Jozwiak IBCLC, RLC, LLL
Private Practice
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