16 month old on nursing strike

[strikeordone]

Please any advice as I am feeling increasingly upset about this. My 16 month old has HFM and a throat infection. He's refused to breastfeed for 2 days despite being a round the clock feeder before hand.

Is this the end of our journey? I've been pumping and will continue to do so. He is taking his milk with a syringe and I'm worried he's getting too used to this and won't bf again.

He literally won't go near a breast, pushes it away. He's clearly in a lot of pain with his mouth.

All the threads I've read have said this means the end.

I tried a bath and skin to skin, no luck - any other advice?

But op if he doesn’t want it, he doesn’t want it. If he’s struggling to sleep and he wants it then he will go back to it. Or something else will work. Please don’t panic.

My 16 month old self weaned like this too, just woke up one morning and would push away from me when I attempted to feed her and turn her head away but took a bottle. I was fine with stopping so didnt try persevere. His likely is more to do with being ill and having a sore mouth though and if you want to continue and he does, I'm sure hel resume when he feels better.

Ignore the ‘just stop you he’s not a baby’ unhelpful posters.. WHO Recommends feeding until 2 - it’s good for both of you if you are happy to keep feeding.

hopefully he’s just off it for a few days due to pain, keep pumping and keep trying! Time will tell and the pumped milk will help him get better quicker! You’re a great mum.

I could never get my youngest back on the boob after she stopped abruptly with an illness. I kept trying, expressed for a bit, and then it petered out. She was a little bit younger than yours. Sorry OP.

I mean it does matter because a tiny baby needs it to survive, a toddler doesn't need it so it's not so much of a concern. 16 months is probably a perfect time really.

My youngest did this when she had an ear infection around 17m. She lasted nearly 4 days...I kept offering and she had sippy cups of BM during that time but she did go back to bf and then bf till she was nearly 3.

I would assume this is it at this age, yes, but you won't know for sure until he's less sore. Keep pumping if it's important to you to keep going and you never know.

My eldest had a nursing strike at about 10 months and never fed again. Literally stopped mid feed and never went back. Wouldn't take a bottle either, or drink milk from a cup. At least at 16 months he'll be fine either way!

I see you've got yourself a union man.

Thanks everyone for the great advice!

He's still refusing a boob but back on food and his sippy cups now so I think we may be done. I can't quite believe it!

Just to update this thread incase it helps anyone else as I found such limited info around nursing strikes at this age.

After a solid week of no feeding, DS woke the other night asking for milk, then did the same last night, and today he fed to sleep for his nap. So definitely a nursing strike and not self weaning! Luckily I kept pumping the whole time to keep my supply.

Part of me thinks I should have taken the opportunity to just wean him, but heart ruled over head on this. We will worry about weaning when he's a little older and I feel a bit more ready!

I wondered that too lol