DS suddenly seems to hate the breast, not sure whether to give up.

[Artijoke]

DS is my third. I BFed my first two for 14 months each and they both loved the breast, rejected the bottle and were therefore EBF.

DS has had 1 bottle of formula every night from six weeks. Never more than that. Last week I got mastitis but he fed happily through it. Then three days ago he started fussing at the breast, pulling off, screaming in anger while feeding. Every feed is a struggle but its worst on the right breast which had mastitis. In contrast he is so happy when he gets his one formula feed, no struggling, he looks so relaxed.

Why might this be happening? I feel like my supply may be low which is baffling as I never had supply problems in over two years of feeding my others. I am so tempted to move fully to formula right now as it would maje DS gappier. I need a pep talk please and some tips on getting DS to enjoy the breast again.

I've had this with dd several times (she is 6.5mo) it has been caused by

• my cycle coming back - every couple of weeks around when I ovulate and also just before my period she gets very fussy at the breast and wants to snack all the time.
• when I had a virus a few weeks ago and I was taking ibuprofen for the headache and the generally crappy feeling, she refused the boob point blank for 3 days and was totally bottle fed, I kept trying at each feed, and then the day after I stopped the I ibuprofen she suddenly started feeding again.

She also gets really annoyed now if the let down doesn't come quick enough, pulling off, screaming and then frantically diving back on for a couple of sucks then pulling off again. She does this about 10 times then the let down starts and she's happy.

Thank you. He is struggling away as I type but fed ok in the night. It's interesting what you say re ibuprofen as I am still on antibiotics from the mastitis. I wonder whether the ABs effect the taste of my milk.

Yes they do affect the taste I think, dd also fed ok ish in the night, I think she was too asleep to notice the taste, but then as soon as she woke up properly there was no way she was having any of it.

I was advised the ABs for mastitis would affect the taste of my milk - but that if ds didn't have an alternative (which he didn't) then it wouldn't matter too much. Not much you can do really. Drink plenty of water though, as dehydration will affect supply, but I suspect the problem is probably the taste. x

My ds is doing very similar, randomly refusing the breast, but taking bottle fine whether it has formula or expressed milk in.
No idea why, HV not sure either.

DD is doing this as well. In the morning/day she's fine but at night she goes bonkers. Arms flailing, pulling off the breast and screaming, shaking my breast like a terrier. It's making my nipples so sore I've resorted to a bottle of formula but as DD is only 7 days old that's not great.

Skin to skin and biological nurtering and swaddling don't work. Standing and rocking work a bit but I can't stand for a cluster feed.