Milk has dried up due to illness and baby refusing bottle!

[nutella81]

I have pretty much EBF my 8 1/2 month old apart from the odd occasion where she would take a bottle of formula. She is a fantastic eater having 3 large meals a day, and as a result my feeds fell down to three a day - first thing, mid afternoon and bedtime. Last week she fell ill with diarrhoea and her appetite fell and then I caught it, and being dehydrated affected my supply to. This morning my boobs were half full and I now want to stop BF so I know she is getting enough (and she has started biting a bit and fussing on the breast).

The thing is she point blank refused the bottle and then sippy cup. I'm going to try again late morning as she should be hungry then. Has anyone just tried (& found it worked) the tough route that eventually they'll take it when they are hungry? Or any other ideas?? She sips water well from a sippy cup during the day, and I do wonder if she needs so much milk when she has so much food (e.g breakfast is 1 1/2 weetabix with 130mls milk). Although NHS says 500ml min a day.

Thanks!!

[EauRouge]

It is extremely unlikely that your supply has stopped due to a bout of diarrhea, your supply will be very robust after 8.5 months. If you do want to wean then it's best to go gradually to prevent engorgement, which can lead to blocked ducts. Obviously it's still very important for your DD to have milk- when is the last time she had any?

[jessebuni]

I would stop gradually because even if your supply has dropped a bit it will go back up. My 9 month old has been EBF from day one and refused all bottles and cups for ages. We wanted to give her lactulose in some water or juice due to her being very constipated when her meals upped to 3 a day. She also has been a good eater but we struggled immensely to get this medicine in her with the extra water. I syringed it to her in the end! Anyway after the we decided that we needed her to at lease be willing to drink from something else in case for some reason I couldn't feed her. At our wedding last year DD was 3 months and I expressed into a bottled and thought if she's really really hungry she'll drink it. Because obviously I couldn't stop the ceremony to feed her I was the bride! Nope! She would not drink it and screamed and screamed! Anyway. A month ago I got a tommee tippee first sips cup. I put either water or weak juice in it and offered it to her at every meal to start with. Eventually she started taking a first mouthfuls. Now she's quite happy to drink from one if she has to although she has all her milk from BFing she has water from her cup with meals happily. It took 3 weeks for her to take to it though.

[nutella81]

Thanks for the replies. She refused late morning, so had lunch normal time (with water) and I tried again at 3pm. She initially refused so I put her on the breast, but in between switching breasts I tried again and to my amazement she took it! She had just forgotten how to drink from a bottle.

I was surprised at how much milk seemed to have come back to my boobs - I must just have been a bit dehydrated this morning. I still plan to stop BF but will do it gradually, starting by dropping the afternoon feed.

Sorry for the panic!!

[potas]

Milk supply can drop with illness, just as it can improve if you eat well and get lots of rest. Some people are lucky they produce a lot of milk and barely notice a drop - other people are only just making enough and so it becomes a problem. Not everyone is blessed in the lactation department. If you want to keep feeding then offer often, skin to skin, relax and persevere and hopefully your supply will bounce back. Exactly the same senario happened to me - my baby reduced his feeding off me and started eating more solids then we both got ill, I felt I had nothing there - he would feed only for a few sucks at a time. We went cold turkey one day - I didnt get engorged - I didnt even fill up at all - really there was nothing there. He is quite happy on formula and solids now.