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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