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Breastfeeding may be i of the most natural things in the globe just that does not mean it is e'er easy. Many mothers find the early days and weeks of nursing difficult. Breastfeeding is a big learning curve for mom and infant and tin can at times experience anything but natural.

A common feeding consequence for both nursing and bottle-feeding babies is choking. This can be a frightening experience and if it happens regularly can cause parents to feel anxious when the time comes to feed their baby.

So, why do babies choke on their milk? What can parents do to stop their baby choking while feeding? Luckily, there are answers and solutions to all of your worries most your babe choking on milk and you can observe all the information you demand hither in this commodity.

Table of Contents

  • i Is Information technology Normal For A Baby To Choke While Breastfeeding?
    • 1.1 Why Is My Babe Choking On Their Milk?
    • one.2 What Is An Overactive Letdown And Oversupply Of Breastmilk?
  • 2 How To Stop Your Baby Choking On Milk
    • two.1 Modify positions
      • two.1.one Nurse reclining dorsum
      • 2.ane.2 Nurse lying down
      • two.1.3 Mitt express before feeds
      • 2.i.4 Block feeding
      • 2.1.v Avert breastfeeding supplements
  • 3 Position To End Bottle Fed Babies From Choking On Their Milk
    • 3.1 Hold baby upright
  • 4 What To practice If Your Baby Is Choking On Milk?
    • 4.1 Take the milk away
    • 4.two Position babe upright
    • four.3 Administrate infant CPR
  • v How To Administer Infant CPR
  • 6 The Final Thought

Is It Normal For A Infant To Choke While Breastfeeding?

When we think about choking usually our minds conjure upwards an image of someone choking while eating solid food, their optics wide in panic and hands clutched badly to their throat.

Choking on milk may not exist something new parents have always thought about before they find themselves holding a coughing and spluttering baby for the starting time time, dislocated every bit to what is happening.

Babies choking on their milk is more mutual than you may retrieve.  Commonly, when a infant 'chokes' at the breast, they cough and splutter and it tin can accept them a few moments to catch their breath.

At that place are rare instances where the choking is serious enough to require a parent to administer life-saving first aid or even a trip in an ambulance to the Emergency Room may be needed.

Choking on milk is something new parents demand to be aware of and know what to practise if information technology happens just there is no need to exist overly anxious equally information technology is very common and tin can exist avoided the majority of the time.

Why Is My Infant Choking On Their Milk?

The main reason your baby is choking while breastfeeding is because too much milk is getting into their rima oris. Both breastfeeding and canteen feeding require babies to coordinate their breathing with sucking and swallowing.

If also much milk gets into the baby's mouth at once then information technology becomes harder for them to coordinate their breathing and swallowing and this is when they get-go to choke.

In society to figure out the all-time method to assistance your baby to end choking on their milk, you outset need to empathize why in that location is too much milk getting into your baby'southward oral fissure during feeds.

The most common reasons why babies may choke on their milk are:

  • An overactive (fast) letdown causing the infant to drinkable too fast.
  • An oversupply of breastmilk causing the baby to beverage too fast.
  • Poor latch and/or positioning.
  • Using a nipple that is too fast flowing.

If your baby appears to be drinking really fast, gulping and gasping loudly, or pulling away from the breast upset, it is likely your milk is flowing too fast for them.

When milk leaves the breast too speedily, babies often have to potable faster to go on upwardly with the milk flow. Yet, breastfeeding is a tricky skill for new babies as it is, add in an overactive letdown and it is no surprise some babies come into difficulty whilst trying to nurse.

What Is An Overactive Letdown And Oversupply Of Breastmilk?

Letdown is the give-and-take used to describe the moments when sucking releases the hormone oxytocin in a mom's body and her milk begins to move downwardly through the milk ducts and flow from her nipples at the beginning of breastfeeding.

Moms can sometimes experience a tingling sensation in their breasts and nipples when their milk starts to let down. An overactive letdown and an crowd of breastmilk ofttimes come hand in mitt, making nursing challenging for both mom and baby.

When a mom produces an backlog of breastmilk, this can cause her letdown to be more forceful than if her milk supply had finer regulated.

This abundance of breastmilk can cause a mother'southward letdown to be extremely powerful and the forcefulness in which the milk enters their babe'due south mouth (along with the volume of the milk, too) can cause cough and choking.

A fast letdown and oversupply of breastmilk tin can make nursing difficult only not incommunicable. In that location are ways to help your baby to slow downwards while feeding and to reduce the risk of them choking on their milk.

How To End Your Baby Choking On Milk

Information technology is possible to reduce the run a risk of your baby choking on their milk and it is ofttimes something every bit simple as adjusting the infant's position or solving the oversupply and fast letdown issues.

It might not happen straight abroad and there may still exist the odd occasion where your babe still chokes on their milk only it is possible to teach your infant to stop drinking too fast.

Modify positions

There are several different positions you can use to nurse your infant and some increment the risk of choking whilst others reduce it. It is best to avoid feeding positions where gravity is just going to make a fast letdown even more than forceful.

For instance, any position where the mom's nipple is pointing downwardly into the babe'south rima oris will increase the speed of the milk menses; imagine lying below a tap and someone turning information technology on at full speed, you are going to struggle to beverage easily and comfortably that manner.

Here are some breastfeeding positions to try that will help to end baby choking on their milk:

Nurse reclining back

Sit down with your baby lying the length of your belly instead of across your body in a traditional cradle hold, then recline back in your chair or bed then your infant is almost lying on top of your breast (rather than your chest dropping down into their oral cavity).

From this angle, your babe volition have better command of their swallowing and without gravity exacerbating the bug, your fast letdown may non be as unmanageable as usual.

Nurse lying down

If you lot lay on your side in bed and have your babe facing you, this tin can help with choking equally information technology is easier for the babe to let excess milk dribble from the side of their mouth.

In a traditional cradle, hold a baby is held very close to the mom, and the merely way to effectively stop the excess milk flowing likewise quickly into their rima oris is for the baby to pull away.

From a side-on angle, even with a proper latch, it is easier for the unwanted milk to drip out of the baby'south mouth onto the bed (don't forget to place a towel down before you lot kickoff a feed!). This is also a actually comfortable position for mom and can be particularly useful during the night.

Another fashion stepmoms can accept to assist their infant to drink more slowly is to try and rectify their oversupply of breastmilk or address their overactive letdown event. Here are some tips:

breast pumping mom

Hand express before feeds

1 matter you lot do Not desire to do if yous have an oversupply of breastmilk is to pump betwixt feeds. Pumping will exacerbate the issue and may pb to more than milk existence produced.

Breastfeeding works on a supply and demand basis and if mom pumps between feeds then she is signaling to her torso to make even more milk – this is not what we want at all!

What you tin do though is manus express before a feed, just relieving the pressure level and assuasive the forceful letdown to happen earlier you latch a baby onto your chest.

Equally choking is most common during the initial letdown, if you start feeding your babe later on this milk has already come out and then they should exist able to feed more comfortably.

Cake feeding

Block feeding can be used as a method to right an oversupply of breastmilk. Block feeding is when a breastfeeding mom feeds her babe simply from one chest for several feeds in a row.

The unused breast becomes overly total and this will send signals to the torso that it is making also much milk and doesn't need to go along to produce milk at this volume. You so repeat the process on the other side until your milk supply has regulated to match your baby's needs.

Avoid breastfeeding supplements

Whilst some moms take supplements to boost their milk supply if you have an oversupply of breastmilk you should non take these nursing supplements. You don't want to have annihilation that promises to upwards your milk production.

You are making more enough milk right now mama and if you are eating a healthy counterbalanced diet you don't need to worry about taking any additional supplements.

Position To Stop Bottle Fed Babies From Choking On Their Milk

Information technology is non just breastfed babies that potable milk likewise fast and choke.

Choking is a common event for bottle-fed babies as well and bottle-feeding parents volition besides benefit from knowing how to reduce the risk of choking and assistance their baby drinkable their milk more slowly and safely.

The main reasons bottle-fed babies choke are poor positioning and the wrong size bottle nipple.

If yous are sure the nipple is the right size for your baby and is not the reason your baby is drinking as well fast, then information technology is time to try and feed them in a different position.

Concord baby upright

Again, gravity is not a infant'southward BFF when it comes to bottle-feeding fourth dimension. If you feed a infant while they are lying flat on their back, either in your artillery or in their crib, then gravity will cause the milk to catamenia more quickly.

Sit your infant high upward your artillery, concur them diagonally across your body so their caput is higher than the rest of their body. When feeding your baby a bottle keep the bottle parallel with the ground and make sure the base of the canteen stays in line with the nipple.

If y'all hold the bottle at an angle and betoken it into the baby'southward mouth, the milk volition flow more quickly and the baby volition accept less control of the speed at which the milk enters their mouth.

Holding the bottle so a baby has to work to get the milk out and tin pace their feed, is a method of bottle feeding that more closely replicates breastfeeding and also reduces the risk of choking.

What To do If Your Infant Is Choking On Milk?

Now you know why your babe may be choking on their milk and have all the tips and advice you need to help them feed more comfortably and safely. Yet, sometimes choking tin can not be avoided and information technology is of import parents know what to exercise if their baby is choking.

How to Choose Avent Bottle Nipple Sizes

Take the milk abroad

The first affair to do if your baby is choking is to either remove them from the breast or take the bottle from their mouth. At that place is also much milk in their mouth already and yous don't want to add together any more.

Your infant volition be coughing and spluttering and struggling to catch their jiff, if this happens take their milk abroad immediately.

Position baby upright

Lift your baby upwards so they are in a vertical position and gently but firmly tap and rub their back. This should encourage them to spit up the backlog milk, making it easier for them to breathe properly once again.

Administer infant CPR

If your babe continues to exist unable to catch their jiff then it is time to administer babe CPR. It is a good thought to take a newborn and child beginning help form during your pregnancy so you are equipped with all the knowledge you demand prior to your baby's arrival.

If your baby turns blue and falls unconscious yous must call for an ambulance immediately.

How To Administer Infant CPR

New parents are advised to accept an infant kickoff assistance class during pregnancy. A first aid form can prepare parents with the cognition they need to deal with any emergency if the worst were to happen once their baby has arrived.

There are also several videos online demonstrating vital first help, including infant CPR. We encourage y'all to learn as much start assist equally possible but hither is a breakup of baby CPR and then you can learn the nuts now.

  1. Identify babe over the length of your forearm and support their neck and head with your paw, infant should be facing the floor. Administer five firm backstrokes down your infant's back towards their head.
  2. If your baby is still not animate, plow them over onto their back and requite them v chest thrusts.
  3. Continue to alternating between five backstrokes and 5 breast thrusts until your babe regains consciousness or the emergency services arrive.

The Last Thought

Newborns and young babies drink a lot of milk every single day and feeding should be a peaceful time for bonding, not a time full of anxiety and stress.

At present y'all know why your baby is drinking too fast, how to reduce the adventure of your babe choking on their milk, and what to do in an emergency if your babe is choking.

Nosotros hope you tin can experience a lot more than relaxed when it comes to feeding and is able to relish the milky cuddles with a new peace of mind.

For a full feeding guide. cheque out our Guide to Feeding Baby.

Hello, I'1000 Emma and I'one thousand a mother to 5 beautiful children anile from 1 to 21 years sometime- life is hectic! I accept learned so much forth the mode, not merely from my own children just also through my professional person life. In my positions every bit a Childminder and Teaching Assistant, I have studied Child Development and The Early Years Developing Exercise. I wish to share all of this knowledge and help you with your own parenting journey!