My daughter has just turned 9 months old. She is a very healthy weight and size. She is a good eater with 3 meals a day + snacks. She has been exclusively breastfed from birth and completely refused bottles.
On Friday morning she was teething while nursing and bit down and I yelped. She got a fright and has not accepted any nursing since and gets mad whenever I try.
I spoke to my lactation consultant Friday evening and did a lot of reading up on nursing strikes. I'm doing skin to skin whenever possible. I am trying to mix my expressed milk into her food. She will not take my milk directly, by the bottle, or in an open cup.
My diet hasn't changed and we haven't been sick as far as we can tell. The only thing that seems to match up with this nursing strike is her teething.
We've been keeping very careful track of her calorie intake since yesterday and she's getting about 850-900 calories in. And she takes sips of water with meals but not a lot. She's still been having 8 or so wet nappies and a few dirty nappies a day. The wet nappies are definitely lighter though just by feel.
My milk supply is drying up even though I'm pumping every 2-3 hours and doing all the advice online. I only managed about 200ml yesterday.
Everything online is saying half her calories should be coming from the milk with closer to 700ml.
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We've upped the dairy in her food and trying to introduce some higher calorie foods. We're also giving her more snacks like pieces of watermelon and wetter food to try and keep her hydration up since she's drinking so little water.
I just feel like I'm failing her. Online it keeps saying how important milk is at this age and she shouldn't be weaned until 12 months. I just don't know what to do. Is she going to be ok if this carries on?