8 week old refusing breast, at the end of my tether. Pls help!

[MoreGilmoreGirls]

DS was ebf, thought it was going ok though he was feeding for hours and hours. HV weighed him last week and he's not put on much weight and has massively dropped on the weight chart. She thought maybe tongue tie and she advised topping up with formula. I did not want to but my concerns for his weight outweighed my desire to ebf so started using formula as well. Saw a consultant last week and yes he had tongue tie so she snipped it.

Now however he is really fussing when I put him on my breast till he is screaming, kicking and arching his back. He is clearly very frustrated but there is milk there.

I'm just so stressed out by it all, my back and shoulders are agony. I want to carry on breast feeding but I also have a toddler who's been rather neglected these past 8 weeks and I just can't spend all day in bed with baby.

I see other mums effortlessly popping their babies on the breast for a quick 10 min feed and am so jealous. Any advice on how to get him to stop regecting my boobs? I've tried expressing but it takes even longer and I get very little off.

[Fakehungarian]

Hello. Sometimes this is a sign of thrush so I'd check her mouth for any other signs. Also, my baby does this sometimes and it has been wind before but I also discovered last night that just didn't want to feed in the position I was trying. I just lay her on my stomach and let her find her way to my breast and she then fed fine. But then again it could be something still related to your lo tongue tie. Sorry, not particularly helpful!

Have you spoken to your hv again?

I hope it gets resolved. I know how frustrating and upsetting it can be.

[SpeakNoWords]

Sometimes babies can get frustrated at the slower flow and harder work needed to breastfeed, compared to a free flow teat which doesn't require any effort to get milk. What kind of teats are you using? I used ones that mimicked the breastfeeding action (specifically Medela Calma) to try and prevent/reduce this issue.

Also, as irritating as it sounds, it's really hard to get a let down of milk if you're stressed and anxious. Try and relax as much as you can and take it one feed at a time. I would put her to the breast a little more frequently than you would normally so she's not starving hungry when you try to feed.

[SpeakNoWords]

Sorry, got the sex of your baby wrong! "him" and "he" is what I meant!

[callmeadoctor]

I personally would say, relax, enjoy your baby and formula feed. (No doubt I will a load of abuse for saying that). When your baby is 18 you won't care about how you fed him. But you can't go on as you are, and it isn't fair on him either. xx

[MoreGilmoreGirls]

Thanks all for the responses, I do need to relax a bit. Currently using Avent bottles but did use Madela with DS 1 so might invest in some more of those if this continues.

Spoke to the consultant today she said it can take babies a while to get used to their "new" tongue and to be patient. Going to a support group Thursday as advised by my HV so I'll see if they can check him over.

Callmeadoctor I know in the future it won't matter how I fed him but I'm not quite ready to give up yet, I'm a bit too stubborn good news is he does look like he's putting on weight so I'll give it a bit longer.