Nursing strike

[jemjabella]

Mums who've successfully beaten nursing strikes - please give me your stories, tips, reassurance etc.

I've been pumping twice a day at work for over 3 months now. There was a stage at 4 weeks where I hated it, but now it's just part of my day.

Still looking forward to not doing it.

At this age I guess they're as stubborn as we are.

I felt terrible when my dd had a strike,I think it sent my hormones haywire.I was crying,shaky,it was horrible for both of us.What worked for me was pumping,as you are,and then calpol and teething granules (she was teething and had sore ears).Lasted three days and then she latched on again,in the gP's,and it never happened again thankfully.

We have PROGRESS!

Yesterday she spent a couple of hours throwing temper tantrums. We were not having a good morning at all. Gave up reasoning with her in the end and chucked her in the sling to sing/jig her to sleep; started to dance around singing nursery rhymes, she calmed down and rested her head on my chest. It's after this that she drops off but I decided to risk upsetting her all over again (as the morning couldn't have got much worse) and slipped her out of the carrier and into the cradle hold. Instead of screaming at me she opened her mouth to latch

Fast forward to today and we've had 3 awake feeds, the second totally initiated by her.

Really buzzing right now. Thank you so much to all of you for your support/suggestions etc.

It was 2 weeks striking today!

:) :) :)

Thrilled to hear it - have been lurking sympathatically.

Brilliant,you have been amazing I think,as I know how stressful it is.I hope it is plain sailing now!

One last update - we're now 100% back to normal with the feeding. The probable cause of the strike was discovered on Thursday too (when DD broke out in lots of blistery spots... chicken pox!)

I'm so glad things are back to normal :) I hope your DD gets better quickly x

My 10month old started a feeding strike two weeks ago - completely out of the blue just refused the boob and then would get really distressed when I tried offering it to her at our usual feeding times over the next two/three days. She would use her arms and legs to push away from me whilst arching her head back as far away as possible - all while going hysterical screaming in floods of tears :-( the feeling of rejection was indescribable and put a real downer on our Christmas break. To make matters worse I had gone to my parents house about 150 miles from home (pre-xmas) so I didn't have my pump, bottles, steriliser, etc. Thankfully she took the bottle (formula) and when I finally got expressing she took that (albeit the amount I was producing by that stage had dropped already to 50-70ml) which helped ease the pain (both psychological & physical!). But I'd given up hope of having that special breast feeding time again. I was so upset. I put it down to a mixture of our wee one having a cold, teething & being in unfamiliar surroundings (her grandparents) for 3-4days without her dad - not a great combo resulting in copious drooling, plenty of runny nose & general grumbling. I kept expressing and the quantity increased to around 200-250 per day, with some formula and increased water with her solid meals. Anyway after two weeks of this her cold is clearing up & the drool has pretty much stopped & we were back in our own home, so I tried offering her the boob again yesterday morning in bed as we have always done and I was amazed that she latched straight on! Overjoyed. The strike appears to be over (touch wood) but I felt I had to share my experience. I hope this helps someone out there enduring a feeding strike - I guess from my experience, if they go on strike while poorly, just let them recover at their own pace without continually trying to force the breast feed but keep up the supply by expressing so you can offer the boob when they look & act better. Good luck.