Latching issues

[Billiebee17]

My 7 and a half week old baby has decided she can't latch anymore. I'm really struggling and not sure what to do anymore. She has to have top up formula feeds every 3 hours because the midwives said she wasn't putting on enough weight (although, to me, she seemed fine and alert) I'm worried the bottle is making her not want to latch on anymore. What's worse is that she is selective when she can't latch on, 4/6 feeds she can latch perfectly fine and feeds till she comes off on her own. It seems to be the mid evening feed that she just can't latch and screams at me and goes mental on the boob smacking her tongue. It's making me feel really down and a bit of a failure. Is anyone else experiencing this? I try to express for her too but my milk supply has dropped so much, I barely leak anymore and I don't feel like I'm giving her enough milk.

Thank you mummas! X

[Jimmythefish]

First thing, you're not a failure! I could have written your post a few months ago
Don't worry about not leaking. about now your supply will regulate a bit and you won't feel so overfull.

Your supply is naturally lower in the evenings, at that age My Ds would feed constantly on/off like a maniac until finally settling.

Do you have a local bf support group you could go to?

I'm still doing formula topups at 6mo and want to let you know it's ok to mix feed. Doesn't have to be all or nothing.
I thought I'd 'have' to stop bf, or that it was pointless to continue. Bf isn't just getting milk into baby, it's comfort, bonding, reassuring, all those other nice things too. Good luck x

[Jimmythefish]

Have just read replies on another post and feel I should add that I'm not telling you to top up.
But if you have to, and believe me I tried everything not to/to get off bottles, it is ok.

[Whatsername17]

My dd does this. I think she gets frustrated with the slower flow. It usually happens during a growth spurt. She has a bottle of expressed milk before bed at about 11pm. I find that taking her for a bath when she gets screamy helps to 'reset' her. Then I dress her, wrap her in a blanket, play some white noise and stand to feed her. Through white noise and jiggling around settles her.