Teething 12 mo refusing to bf - should I express?

[petisa]

Hello all,

Wow it's been a long time since I needed advice on here, thankfully! 12 month old dd2 is in a lot of teething pain poor love and is refusing to bf - her last feed was at 7am this morning. I have no pump as I gave back the one I borrowed months ago as I was only getting half an ounce after half an hour's pumping and didn't need to express anyway.

Should I rush out and buy a pump? (Don't have much money so would prefer not to) Will I lose my milk quickly, is it urgent I start pumping? Boobs are like rocks, am about to start to try to hand express, which I have never done, have no clue, and they are so painful.

I'm so so tired as dp is working abroad long-term atm and mum who helps me has broken her leg, and I have a pre-schooler who's fallen ill today too. They've both woken me up at 5.15am the last three mornings and dd2 didn't even nap today and has just conked out afer two hours of screaming. I have never been so frazzled! Sorry, all this has nothing to do with bf, but I had to have a cathartic moan!

Would really appreciate any advice, thanks!

bump!

Have had the night from hell with hours of screaming baby and she still won't feed. hand expressing didn't work, ended up painful and didn't get much out Boobs like rocks now and v painful, going to try and buy a pump this morning and get dd1 to and from nursery at the same time. Will dd2 not having bf for over 24 hours have damaged my milk supply? Scared I won't be able to get the milk out, never was able to before!

Would appreciate any advice, thanks!

Hi petisa it sounds like you are having a tough time. Could your LO have ear ache/ear infection as that can sometimes mean that nursing hurts them, maybe a visit to the GP may be in order. In regards to supply/pumping I have no idea but hopefully someone will be along soon who can help. Good luck x

You poor thing - sounds like things are really tough for you. DS went on nursing strike at 13 months and I found it hard not to take the lack of feeding personally.

You could try offering feeds when she's tired/sleepy, just waking up, in the bath, having skin to skin or being bounced in a sling. Could you try offering bf half an hour after giving Calpol/ibuprofen, or putting teething gel on before offering?

I'd also recommend getting a GP to look at her. When my DS did this at 13 months and it turned out he had a bad ear infection and chest infection - I had no idea he was ill (and then he went on to get a v&d bug and conjunctivitis too).

The nursing strike will reduce your milk suppy but not destroy it. DS's strike lasted for 12 days, although he'd still feed when he needed to go to sleep - so 3 x a day instead of the usual 6 or more times a day. When he resumed normal feeding, he had quite a lot of loooong feeds to build my supply back up, and then normality resumed.

Pumping will help if you can get one. I pumped a small amount but not much (I've never been able to hand express either).

If you google 'nursing strike' or look at Kellymom you'll find some more ideas.

If she still won't nap, would walking with a sling help?

Let us know how it goes. :)

Thank you so much for your replies! Everything's a lot better here now as dd2 finally decided to nurse again this morning and before her afternoon nap and has a big new tooth and seems a lot calmer. Dd1 has a temp and no appetite but otherwise is in good form. Bought an Avent hand pump (half price - yippee!) but haven't used it and think I might bring it back to Tesco. Boobs sooo much better, what a relief when she started feeding!

Have contacted Homestart to see if they can help me out, and my GP said if they didn't help me he would see what he could do about getting me support, so hopefully things will start to get easier.

Thanks again!