Newborn on bottle, but trying to breastfeed (without success), lazy baby!

[PreggoEggo]

Any advice greatly appreciated!!

my ds is 4 days old, after the birth he latched on for a feed though it was painful for me. This is my 3rd DC and i decided at the hospital i wasnt going to push for BFing if it didnt work (i found it too painful and bled all the time with my other two).
Of course now Im home, and my milk has come in I want to try and feed him, esp as my two girls are full of cold and coughing all over him. He gets so angry when i try to feed him, i take him away and calm him down, lots of soothing talking and Im not getting stressed over it as i went through this with my DD.
Im doing loads of skin to skin, but i just cant get him to try the boob. As soon as i get him in the cradle position he starts to cry. Have tried lying down and also the rugby hold.
He has been licking/putting the nipple in his mouth every now and then but doesnt open his mouth wide enough to get enough breast in.
He hasnt fed from me in 2 days, and im worried now that he is preferring the bottle. Not sure what else to try really. Even when bottle feeding he seems lazy and its a half-hearted attempt

What sort of birth did he have preggo? I just wonder if he is experiencing some pain that is affecting his ability to latch on.

Also, how were the midwives in supporting you to bf in hospital? Sometimes, they get a bit over zealous and try and push the baby's head on to the breast which totally turns them off feeding.

You might find it useful to have a read of biological nurturing or laid back breastfeeding. Skin to skin is great and you could also take a bath with him and gently offer him the breast- no forcing or stress of course.

Finally- has he been checked for tongue tie? Might be worth asking the midwife about this.

It's great that you are not getting stressed about things, I can only add to keep him close to you so that you can pick up on his early feeding cues and offer him the breast as soon as he shows an interest.

Has the mw offered you any support in this?

thanks for your reply. I was induced with him, i think he was very stressed as they kept interfering down below- breaking my waters and kept poking his head, then i was on the drip, then they attached a monitor to his head- he was really active throughout the labour. It was a normal vaginal delivery though the labour was an hour and 10 minutes start to finish, would he have found that traumatic? I was 17 days late with him, i think he normally is a very relaxed baby but the entire labour was forced and rushed and i think really stressed him out.
I have only seen the mw once, and she is coming again tomorrow so will ask those things.
Ive been having lots of cuddles and i can tell before a feed that he is starting to think about it, but he just does not seem interested in me at all. At one point i was so relaxed i had milk flowing out while he was lying on me and he didnt even bat an eyelid (despite it being about 3 hours since his last bottle). Im thinking it may be a lost battle!!

4 days is still early days yet, it may take a while to get things going.

You could try smearing a little milk on his hands and then doing the biological nurturing Crikey talks about (babies smell their hands for the scent of the amniotic fluid as it smells very similar to BM and then follow the scent to the breasts).

Are you expressing to keep supply up?

Hi preggo

I also had trouble feeding at first and I expressed and fed DS my milk using a tiny cup rather than a bottle for a few days so he didn't get too used to the bottle. I'd give him enough from the cup so he wasn't frantically hungry and then put him to the breast (heavily smeared with milk). In the end, he got the message.

It turned out I was both flooding him as I had a bit of oversupply which DS found hard when tiny and he was too hungry to latch on properly.

It took around 6-7 days for him to really get the idea and then I fed successfully for 16mo so it's not too late if you are really keen.

Good luck.

I guess he may have found that fast labour a lot to cope with. I wonder if he would benefit from seeing a cranial osteopath? I know not everyone believes that it can work, but alot of others do recommend them for birth trauma and breastfeeding problems.

But on the other hand, as the others have said, it's still very early days, maybe he just needs a little more time to get the hang of things.

Definitely a good idea to chat things through with the midwife though.