V worried bf baby sometimes refusing breast

[beijingaling]

Dd is 12w and ebf. She has had 5 bottles of breast milk in total and (now) takes a dummy happily. I no longer use nipple shields but did until probably 8 or 9 weeks. She has been comfort sucking and feeding to sleep but she's suddenly started to refuse to (which is great as I hated it. She's now also refusing to feed sometimes. For example she fed at 7-7:45 and is only now feeding at 12 having refused to do so eRlier at 10 when she woke from her nap.

Should I worry? DH thinks she will feed if she's hungry so don't fret but of course I am worrying!

DD does this, in fact I posted about it a couple of weeks ago. She quite happily takes a bottle and has had a dummy from about 8 weeks. At one point she was refusing me completely during the day, so I was expressing like mad, but was fine at night. That lasted about 4 days and now she just refuses me every now and then. Could it be wind? Or reflux? Have you tried some different positions when she's refusing you? I have expressed milk stashed in the fridge for such occasions and will give her this if I think she's gone too long between feeds and she really isn't going to take the breast. Sometimes just leaving her, not forcing the issue, and trying again in 10 minutes time works - so she doesn't get too stressed about it? I've never worked out what the problem is TBH, I just go with it! I was advised that some babies get lazy if they have too many bottles and start to refuse the breast 'cos it"s harder work for them, although that doesn't seem to be the case with DD.

How is she generally? Is she changing and growing? Does she have fat on her?

When she refuses the breast, is she upset and whingy and acting hungry? Does she get cross when she refuses, or is she just Not Interested? Talk about what happens?

DS (6 mo) sometimes refuses and then will pounce on me as though he hasn't been fed in a week if I just move into a different chair

I have concluded that if he is really hungry though, he will eat no matter which chair we are sitting in.

Very sorry to only just reply. My Internet has been playing silly buggers again and I couldn't get on. This has been since tuesday but it's definitely getting worse. It coincided with her getting another reflux attack which we are treating but is still affecting her.

She doesn't sleep a lot so it's sometimes hard to gauge her behaviour beyond tired.

When she refuses she is usually tired and fussing for sleep- fine I thought, she no longer wants to feed to sleep. I always offer a feed as soon as she wakes (plus if she hasn't slept, plus if she's fussing) so it's rare for her to go 3hrs without feeding. Thinking about it she more usually feeds every 2hrs in the day but happily goes to 4hrs or 8 at night. I'm definitely 'when in doubt, whip it out.'

However, now (yesterday, once) she is also refusing when she wakes up and also refused yesterday when I knew she was hungry (again yesterday, once) though she was also over tired then. However later that day she was feeding happily until another acid attack.

She fussed, turns her head away, whines and crys, getting angry and shouting if I persist. She absolutely gets cross.

I think she's still gaining weight, I haven't noticed less nappy activity, she is still a smiley, happy non sleeping baby!

That sounds exactly like what DD does. Have you tried feeding in a more upright position? This sometimes works for us, though finding a comfortable way to do it is easier said than done :) When she's overtired I tend to just try a couple of times and then put her down to sleep - she's usually less fussy after a sleep, though this sometimes means she goes a bit longer between feeds than I'd like. I always express the feed she's missed so there's always a bottle as back up, and she always takes a bottle no matter how cross she is at the breast.
I phoned the National Breastfeeding Helpline for advice when she first started doing this. Or have you got a support group near you that might be able to help?