Pretty much as per the title!
My 8 month old has always seemed ambivalent about breastfeeding and has always been happy to take a bottle. Note: she has only had breastmilk in a bottle not formula, so it’s not a taste thing.
She was never a massive cluster feeder as a little baby but did have a tongue tie rectified at 6 weeks so that may have affected feeding behaviours. It was then re-rectified at 6 months as the tie healed over; I think because she’s always had SUCH short feeds (5 minutes) it wasn’t kept moving enough.
We always seem to get into a cycle of me pumping more and more until she’s on mainly bottles of ebm and I’m killing myself to keep up. I will then decide enough is enough and no bottles for a bit until she’s totally bf again. Then she gets fussy and seems hungry and I give her a bottle and the cycle starts again.
Sorry, the background is all so scrambled in my brain!
I got my first post partum period this week and she just doesn’t want to feed. She WILL feed overnight but cries if I try in the day though will happily drain a bottle. My period returning has caused a massive drop in supply which is just compounding everything. I can’t pump enough to keep up, she doesn’t want to feed, I feel like my supply is dwindling. The freezer supply is going to run out.
The obvious choice seems to move onto formula but I REALLY don’t want to. When she is feeding well I love the bonding / cuddles / oxytocin and in the current climate I want her to have the antibodies.
The combination of period hormones and the breastfeeding issues (likely lockdown too!) is really affecting me. I can’t stop crying, I’m taking the ‘rejection’ from her really personally and the feeling of having ‘struggled’ for the last 8 months has really come to the fore. I feel like I’ve worked so hard and she ‘doesn’t care’ which I appreciate is illogical as she’s a baby!
Can anyone offer any help or have I made no sense at all?!
(I will also say she has taken exceptionally well to solids and eats two large meals a day. She will take milk from a bottle ravenously after rejecting the breast though so I don’t think she’s just dropping feeds.)
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Infant feeding
8 month doesn’t like breastfeeding but I do!
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SpiralLamp · 10/04/2020 17:57
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