Urgent - please help! Baby refusing to breastfeed today

[McSnail]

Hi - baby fed fine this morning but later, during a bit of a crying fit, she point-blank refused the breast when usually she would latch on for the comfort. This has carried on throughout the day - right now she's screaming her head off and wouldn't latch on when I tried to feed her earlier. We have EBM but I'm terrified this is going to keep going... I have no idea what to do. She doesn't seem unwell - just won't stop screaming.

[McSnail]

She's almost seven weeks old.

[thisisyesterday]

oooh mcsnail, my ds3 does this now and then!

i remember posting about it the first time he did it cos i was so worried. he literally fed once in 24 hours!
then, next morning- absolutely fine!

i never got to the bottom of it.
my only thoughts were maybe i was missing some earlier hunger cues, so when he cried he was too hungry and cross and then got so worked up he just couldn't feed?

that doesn't help much, but hopefully yout LO will start feeding againsoon

[neenz]

Hi there, sorry you are going through this.

Try the la leche league for advice - you can ring their helpline for advice.

Good luck - it will not harm her to not feed for a few hours so try not to worry, just keep calmly trying to put her to the breast.

Have you tried the dr karp method of settling her?video link on this thread

[fishie]

a cold maybe? blocked nose? don't force her anyway, go gently. could try going to bed together or having a bath. skin to skin is good.

[CharCharGabor]

I agree that the best thing to do is calmly keep trying. Can you hop in the bath with her? Sometimes the naked closeness and warmth of the water can relax them enough to feed again. If not, can you pass her off to DH/P to try and settle while you have a rest? Good luck

[ParanoidAtAllTimes]

My ds does this sometimes which worries me, too.

I have found that he feeds better straight after a nap when he's still sleepy, or after settling with a dummy, or failing that having some skin to skin cuddles seems to help.

No idea why he does it though.

I hope you get it sorted mcsnail.

[IwishIwasmoreorganised]

Lots of skin to skin contact worked for me when ds1 did this.

We literally spent 24 hours in bed doing nothing more than snuggle, sleep, and eventually he started feeding again. I still have no idea what caused it.

[McSnail]

Thanks - finally managed after a lot of stress to get her latched on (literally weeping with relief)

I'll try all of the above advice if it happens again - thanks again.

[Ripeberry]

My DD1 did that. I think it was because she did not like the taste of the milk. I expressed that boob and she then took to it.
Babies know when you've eaten something gross ...DD1 hated garlic.

[pushmepullyou]

My DD wouldn't latch after I'd eaten brassicas (sprouts, broccoli, cabbage etc). Made for a very distressing christmas night last year!

She was fine after though, it does seem to be one of those things that happens from time to time for some babies, my friends DS was funny about orange juice.

[neenz]

That's interesting Ripeberry - when my DD was tiny she sometimes wouldn't latch on. So I used to put her twin on for a couple of minutes first and then put her on... she always fed quite well then.

I think she just couldn't be arsed to get the letdown going .

Mcsnail, You could try expressing for a couple of minutes to get the milk going and then try to latch her on.

But it sounds like you have cracked it now.