Baby refusing one side

[MarathonMama]

DD who is 5mo is refusing to feed on my left breast. Any ideas why? Instead she is only taking 5 mins on the right breast fairly regularly. Help, my boob is about to explode!

Mine prefers the left and often shouts at the right one. Are you by any chance left handed, only I was wondering with DD if it's the boob or the hold?

I know a swap is unfeasible, though.

Can you express the left one for now?

I'm very glad to see this.

Dd has started shouting at my right breast She sucks, pulls off, shouts. Repeat ad nauseum

She's only 8 weeks.

I had this and there is a way round it!

Have you heard of the "rugby ball" hold? He is only accepting your right, which means he is lying on his left side. If you hold him most with your left hand, almost like you're carrying a rugby ball under your arm (!!) then he can still lie on his left side and feed from your left. If you put a pillow at your left side it is much easier.

Hope this makes sense!

Here is a link to a picture of it (used on right hand side but you should get the idea)

www.google.co.uk/search?q=rugby+ball+hold+breastfeeding&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari#biv=i|0;d|LOxA-3q0fZhqOM:

McPhee DD is only 12weeks.

Her order of feeding preference, if asked, might go something like this:

Left boob
Left boob
Left boob
More left boob until I'm sick
Left boob
Left boob
Oh, FFS, okay then, right boob if I must, but I'm really annoyed
Bat piss
Poison with ground glass in
Fermented lemming vomit
Perfectly normal expressed BM, fresh from the boob, in a sterilised bottle

[head in hands emoticon]

Babies are weird.

Thanks all, she's now refusing the right side too unless I feed her lying down - in which case she takes both sides. I'm totally bamboozled!!!! Have tried the rugby hold and the cradle hold but she screams as soon as you put her into that position before she's even touched the nipple. If it carries on I'll have to resort to a bottle as I can't feed her lying down when I'm out and about.

Any chance she's teething? Will she chew on a finger if one is offered? Some teething babies are soothed by (baby) teething gels, or by one of those teething thingies that you can freeze, which then numbs her teeth ...

Or could she have a cold? A blocked nose will make feeding harder.

has she had her jabs? brusing on the legs makes it uncomfortable to lie on them..

Has she been checked for tongue tie? Or maybe it's too full for her to latch on? Otherwise you may want to see a lactation counsellor.

openerofjars that sounds very familiar

DD2 did this a couple of times - I just had to express off from the left side, including once by hand at my brother's wedding.

Rugby didn't work at all, but I could latch her onto my right, and then kind of slip the left one in when she started nodding off. She would do it for a couple of days, and then go back to feeding from both sides though.

Good luck

If it helps at all - I fed DD from aged 3 months to 18 months on the right boob only. For various reasons: it was harder for me to feed on left as I have problems with my arms but I felt I fed noramlly on both... untill she just didn't feed well on that side anymore. After a few weeks my left boob got a little smaller (great in my situation as the left was always too big...) anyway... for the rest of her feeding we just used the right - no probs!

thinking about it... she only really cuddles me that side now too..

Thanks all, she doesn't like being breastfed on either side today but if I lie half reclined and put her on me so that she's facing my boob upright she'll take a feed. Very bizarre, she seems ok in herself so don't think it can be an ear infection but she is quite dribbly so maybe it's teeth. Babies are definitely weird!