Only one breast will do..

[hercules]

DD (five months) has never really liked feeding from one breast and for the last few days has totally refused the left side. She manages fine on the one side but it is starting to get painful and by the end of the day I am dripping.

I've tried starting her off on one then switching over but she now wont be fooled by this.

[hercules]

Any tips?

[FairyMum]

I haven't got any real advise, but can you pump the breast she refuses so it doesn't get painful? Perhaps you can ring one of those bf counsellors? They might have heard of this before?

[hercules]

Thanks FM.
Forgot to add that ds does feed off it during the night as lying down but I dont want to do this daytime.

[SofiaAmes]

My ds much prefered one breast over the other. In the end, for the last 3 months I only fed him from that breast. I was a little lopsided, but it wasn't too bad. The only difference is that this was from 12 - 15 months and I was only doing 1 or 2 feeds a day so my breasts were no where near as full as they would have been at 5 months. good luck.

[bea]

hercules - dd1 at 9 months decided she preferred one to the other and no amount of switching sides, rugby positioning etc could fool her and like sofiaames, i decided to give up and just let her have the preferred side... it was no probs but as sofiaames has also said, this might be a little more complicated at 5 months old...

sorry can;t offer any other advice except call a BFC like FairyMum has suggested and offer my good luck vibes to you!! and hope you don;t become very lopsided!!!

[amess]

DD fed mainly from one but eventually would feed from both if only for a little time which eventually helped the least favourite time to get the balance right it felt like it anyway!

[prettycandles]

On another similar thread recently, someone mentioned babies having head-turning preferences, and that maybe that was the reason they sometimes prefered a particular breast. My dd had a distinct preference for things on her left, and certainly fed better from my right breast (ie with her head turned to the left). It never ocurred to me that the two might be related until I read that thread. At about 6m, IIRC, I discovered a way of feeding her from my left breast without changing her position much: I would feed her lying down, first from my right breast, so she was in her 'comfortable' position, then I would lean over her a bit more to bring my left breast to her. She usually turned herself on to her back a little bit, or if she wanted to stay on her side I might help by slipping my arm under her head to raise it just enough. It made for a much more relaxed and easy feed, and seemed to help her get over her aversion to my left breast. Her current preference is for swopping to and fro between breasts mid-feed!

[Jimjams]

ds1 was the same. In the end I gave up and dropped feeds on the left. I just went around lop sided for 13 months......

[shrub]

i have had same problem with both ds's, until someone asked whether i always sat in the same chair when feeding. the upshot was my ds's have always fed better on right because i always sit to the right of my sofa therefore relaxing the weight of the crook of my arm and my ds's weight of head on that particular side. i now feed my ds2 upstairs in bed, in the dark with my top off, pillows propped up on bothe sides and no distractions. it took a bit of patience and a few days for him to relax completely on the left side but he is now has no preference.

[newbymum]

yor DD sounds exactly the same as my DD so all I do is give her her fav boob in the day and the other one at night and if my boob starts to hurt in the day I exspress. good luck hope things go well for youxx

[hercules]

Thanks for messages. I am already doing what newby mum suggested and my left b is pretty much used to it now iyswim.