Baby won't nurse

[Callipygian]

My baby is almost 3 months old and is exclusively breastfed with occasional bottles of expressed milk. She is gaining weight well and is on the 75% line.

In the evenings but at other times as well she gives me hunger cues, opens her mouth wide, eats her hand etc. i offer her my breast but as soon as I get her into a bursting position she begins to cry and will scream untill I take her out of that position and distract her with a song or toy. I've tried offering her a bottle or dummy but she's always less interested in bottles, she has never really liked them and only really takes them from my husband when I'm not around.

This is starting to become a regular thing now and happens around dinner time and again when I put her to bed (9:30). Usually there is about an hour of crying untill eventually she will take the breast but it's exhausting. She's never really been a colicky baby so this is all new. Has anyone else experienced this? This is my first baby so I have no idea if this is normal.

Could she be teething? It might be making her reluctant to nurse. You could try a teething gel before feeding and see if that helps. Worth a try!

we have nights like this with ds. Gives feeding cues,latches on then comes off crying. just seems to have a fussy hour!

sometimes it's wind and he's ok after a jig about and burp. another thing that seems to be working at the mo is lying him down in cot and using both hands to stroke down body (baby massage type thing I suppose). then after a while I try feeding him again.he's then usually fine and goes to sleep whilst feeding.

don't know if it's 'normal' but it's normal for us.

ds is 10wks

I'd try the teething gel too. If that doesn't work try a dose of ibruprofen. How is she apart from this? Does she have a raised temperature?

I don't think it's teething and she's perfectly fine the rest of the time and she sleeps really well once she's down.

I think some of the time it could be "boob rage" :p but at the end of the hours scream the only way to make it stop is to jam my boob in her (crying) mouth and a sudden realisation happens where she realises that's what she wanted and she angry eats. I hate doing this as I don't want her to feel forced espesh when it doesn't work :(

Breastfeeding is way harder than advertised!

Could she be overtired? I had this with DD and found that lying for skin to skin helped when she was sleeping. When she stirred I popped her on and she fed. A few goes of doing this helped lots.

My 16 wo goes through phases of this. I had thought it was related to her tongue tie, but now I'm not sure as she has patches of feeding fine. It seems to happen most when she's tired - so I thought perhaps she just wants to comfort suck but gets frustrated when she has to deal with milk. Kellymom has good ideas on why baby might be fussy feeding.

I deal with it much like you - distract her and try later. If she's really inconsolable and distraction doesn't work then sometimes feeding her standing up, walking around or rocking her gently works to calm her down and latch her on.

Good luck! There's nothing more soul destroying than baby screaming at offered breast :(

Could it be tongue tie City?

Have you been to a Bfing Support Group or called one of the Bfing Helplines, listed at the bottom of the page? Might be worth talking this through with a BFC to see what she suggest

Sorry should have said OP not city

You could be describing my ds (dc#3) OP. we have the same thing.
Half the time he's over tired and not actually hungry. A bit boob rage-y. Also takes the boob at the end of it all, but I think that is because he's worked himself into a state and wants to comfort feed himself to sleep then.

I've found with ds, if after refusal I try everything else, nappy, play, put down, walk in pram outside (he likes an evening walk). If then he still has boob rage I put him down carseat/cot and leave him alone, and wash up or something, and he usually nods off.

She had tongue tie but we've had it snipped about 10 weeks ago. If she isn't overtired at the beginning she definitely is at the end! Just had an unusual morning episode but she's calm now after a feed.

Walks usually work for her but the last two nights she's begun to cry towards the end :(

The finger trick does work for me sometimes but recently it's been getting a lot less reliable. She sucks and then after 30 seconds or so which is longer than my let down she has an annoyed expression.

One thing that I think it could be is that when she had tongue tie the only way I could get her to latch was with nipple shields so she was used to something deep in her mouth. But I managed to wean her off them (bloody hard work) and we've been off them conpletely for about 7 weeks now. Is it possible that that is still affecting her feeding?

Couldn't say whether it is or isn't. But ds behaves the same and I've never used shields.

At almost 3 months I would be expecting another growth spurt, so fussy(on off on off) frequent feeding for about a week whilst they boost your supply.
My ds is 12wks and has just hit this phase.

OP - could the tt have reattached? My dd's has been snipped 3 times - and always reattaches. The first sign it's growing back is that she gets fighty and fussy at the breast.

I had no idea tongue tie could re-attach! Whatever t was its stopped now, she's suddenly totally fine and we go to bed at 9:30 I feed her for 30 mins then she's in bed untill 9am.