Possibly a long story; please bear with me if you can.
My dd is nearly 12 weeks. We had an incredibly difficult start to breastfeeding because she didn't latch so I exclusively pumped for the first couple of weeks and then we gradually established breastfeeding with the help of nipple shields. She had never been great at giving hungry cues so I just basically stick to a schedule of feeding every coupe of hours during the day and when ever she awakes during the night (usually only once). She only ever feeds for 5-10 mins at a time but this is obviously all she needs as her weight is progressing perfectly along the 70th.
The last week has been incredibly difficult. She has started refusing most of the feeds. By refuses I mean screams as soon as the boob is anywhere near her. Sometimes I can get some milk down her if I persevere through the screaming. Sometimes she seems to be screaming while hungry and sometimes because she's not hungry. I tried spreading out the space between feeds and to take my cues from her a bit more. This meant feeding every 3-4 hours which seemed to work for a few feeds, then it all went wrong. I tried to feed her after 3 hours. She screamed and screamed. I waited till she was calm and tried again, but she just screamed again. At 4 hours since the last feed, I tried again in a different position. Same again. At 5 hours, I tried to give her a bottle of expressed. Same result. At 6 hours I finally got her latched. She relaxed but fell asleep after a couple of minutes.
I don't know what to do. There is no supply issue, nor is there a let down problem. She doesn't have reflux and is not particularly windy. She is not teething. She is happy and alert the rest of the time. She sleeps fairly well and takes regular naps throughout the day.
Could she just not be hungry? This seems to have been a growing problem for a few days / weeks and it's really distressing because it feels like she hates me. I'm now worried she is not getting enough milk because she seems to have produced slightly less urine in the last 24 hours, but she just doesn't seem to want it.
Please someone tell me this is just a phase. I worked so hard to make the breastfeeding work. I'm stuck now. Most feeds result in both of us crying and where I used to love feeding, I now dread it.
Any advice / hand-holding would be massively appreciated. Thanks for reading.
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Infant feeding
12 week old bf baby refusing to feed- I don't know what to do
2 replies
Londonmrss · 16/01/2013 22:56
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