help me... am close to giving formula after all this f***ing time...

[Monkeybird]

I know I'm probably being precious about it but I swore this time no formula would enter this house but...

...Junior is 6 months and has always had a bit of 'nursing strike' tendency and now it's happening every evening so we get into these awful too tired to feed/too hungry to sleep things. bottom line is I basically have to endure 2-3 hours of trying to encourage him gently to feed but he just pulls off furiously before he can get a let down reflex. It takes ages in the evenings and evenings are difficult full stop as have two other children and can't just neglect them and go lie on a bed with Junior (although even that doesn't really solve the problem)

Yesterday put a piece of steamed broccoli, some avocado and some baby rice in front of him but he showed little interest. Will persevere but as everyone says that's not going to make much difference till a few months down the line anyway.

I have also tried feeding him earlier than expected but TBH that just makes him REALLY mad and makes him quicker to 'refuse'.

What happens when he refuses is that he screams and screams because he's hungry but will not, cannot suck for long enough...

I have wondered about teething so been trying a bit of Dentinox and Calpol to see if that helps but not noticed a difference.

I've also tried the self attachment thing, feeding in the bath, expressing... all of which make little difference and the expressing is not really practical at present (eg it would take me some days to build up enough 'extra' to satisfy him and neither know where the pump is - have moved! - or have time to sit and do it...

Argh! I know there's probably no magic wand here but could do with a bit of encouragement cos I really don't want to give formula and I really hoped to do some extended BF this time.

disheartened MB...

[Joolyjoolyjoo]

Sorry, not much in the way of advice, but watching with interest! I bf'ed my girls until they got fed-up, at about 7mths and 9mths, respectively. I am now bf'ing ds (16wks) and he seems to get really stroppy if the milk isn't flowing fast enough (ie he is fine at the start, then starts flipping about, arching his back, getting grouchy). I know there is milk there, I can only assume it isn't fast enough for his liking. He will happily wolf a bottle of expressed milk. Like you, don't want to give up, especially not at this stage, and especially as he seems to have (mild) eczema. It seems to help if I switch breasts when he gets antsy.
Could you maybe use the pump just enough to encourage letdown, then park him on?

[zazen]

Have you tried pumping to get your let down reflex going? Then latch on when the flow is going. Could be that your babe is just too hungry to wait for you to let down 'naturally'. Also you could pump and then feed the EBM to your son? That way he gets his milk but you get your evening?

Don't mean to sound pessimistic, but my DD did the same and self weaned at 9 months entirely. Sometimes babies know what they want. I suspect that my milk production went down and she didn't like it as much. At 6 months 'real food' IYKWIM began to hold greater interest. I was happy enough at that stage that a feed or two a day as well as her food was perfect for her, and she grew a lot after I stopped bf - hence my theory that I wasn't producing as much. I used a supplementary follow on milk, not formula, and she glugged it down. It's all the natural weaning process, no doubt you know that!!

Well done on your 6 months of breastfeeding with two other kiddies.

[BumperliciousNeedsaGlassofWine]

Oh monkeybird, I'm sorry to hear you are still having trouble. I posted on your last thread as I had exactly the same problem. The feeding earlier thing seemed to mostly work for us and DD seems to have gotten over it (8.5 mo). I wish I had some more advice.

However, giving a formula does not have to be all or nothing. At this stage in the game you could give an evening bottle to get over the stress and that might be the thing that keeps you both going. Don't through the baby out with the bath water yet

Oh, I just remembered another tip, I always found pumping to get a let down first to be more stressful and not effective so how about the other way round, use a bit of EBM to get him started then pop him onto you. I had success with that one on occasion.

[Monkeybird]

Thanks Bumper - appreciate your support - and everyone's...

Yeah last time we had a nursing strike phase I tried expressing first to get a letdown and TBH it put enormous pressure on me - he was screaming, the other kids were arguing and I was trying to relax and think of dolphins, milk fountains blah blah but nothing happened for ages... The one thing that seems to speed up my letdown is DH coming over, putting his arm round me and whispering sweet nothings (ah bless!) but he's either busy moving stuff, doing jobs in our new house or holding the other two apart from killing each other!

I take your point about it not being all or nothing, I'm just worried that without an backup of expressed milk, if I give a bottle it will be a slippery slope away from BF when neither of us want that yet...

[Monkeybird]

haha - think I just may have solved my own problem with, er, a Petit Filou...

Result! (sleeping like an, ahem, baby)

[BumperliciousNeedsaGlassofWine]

MB, the sainsbo's kids ones are sweetened with fruit juice - might stave off the fruitshoot police for a while

Glad you have made some progress anyway!

[mehdismummy]

my ds loves petit filous(dont care about fruit shoot police) i use to give him one then bf. Or pureed food. I weaned ds on to solids at four months. He had his breakfast then he bf maybe an hour later. Lunch bf tea then bf! So not really weaned but doing both! He still does now! If he had a moan i would give a little bit of food then bf. Btw why does everyone get so stressed about fruit shoots!