Help - 7 months old baby completely refuses to nurse during day

[Nikita13]

I'm a first time mum to a 7 month old baby, I fully breast fed her but started to introduce solids with 6 months. She used to take the bottle (expressed milk) but not any more. Since 3 weeks I have a big problem with breast feeding - my baby girl stopped completely to nurse during the day and turned into a little milk vampire as she only nurses at night, half asleep ... :-( as I feed her up to 4 times/ night I am really exhausted and don't know how to deal with it much longer .

Whenever I offer her the breast she starts to cry, pushes away my breast and arches back. I tried different positions, singing to her, creating a calm, peaceful environment but did not succeed. I offered her the bottle (actually every single bottle type out there), no success. My husband tried, too - nil (neither my milk nor formula).

She has been teething for 3-4 weeks without any teeth out, yet. I should mention that she loves to eat - but I am afraid that she misses out on nutrients if she only gets her milk during the night and some vegetable & fruit puree during the day.

Anyone else had this problem? ANY support and advise is highly welcome - thanks so much ....

Hi there, that is hard work! Hopefully someone will come along who might be able to help more but I remember reading about this (reverse cycling) on the Kellymom site. Here are a couple of links but I'm not sure how helpful they are...

kellymom.com/bf/normal/reverse-cycling/

www.facebook.com/kellymomdotcom/posts/221160567984453

Ye we have a similar issue too. Ds is almost 8m now. He may have 1 or 2 semi decent bf in day hours but that is it. He eats a lot of solids and just isn't that interested in boob in the day. If we are out he absolutely wouldn't feed. I wouldn't even try anymore if we are out as he is so distractable. Night is a different thing tho.... He feeds pretty much every 2 hrs from 7-7. Nightmare. Not just little feeds either, proper ones!!! I do try encourage feeds in the day but there isn't much you can do other than keep trying, quiet rooms and catching them when they wake up from naps. It does pass. Hopefully!!!

feekeery - sounds exactly like what we are experiencing! Stopped trying to nurse in public, too as she really gets upset. I manage to feed her if I'm lucky 1-2 minutes after a nap if she is still sleepy but does not work always. She is happy during the day and did not loose weight so I guess she gets what she needs - though only at nights which is very tough for both of us due to lack of sleep ... good luck to you, too!

Was going to post the kellymom link on reverse cycling too. Have you read the info? What do you think?

Have you tried not offering solids and having a duvet day with her? You might also find that having a bath with her might encourage her to feed.

If you do offer solids, I would only offer them twice a day at maximum. This fits in with the nhs recommendations which is to move to three times between 8 and 9 months.

There is some good info on bfing and introducing solids here and it might be worth going to your local Bfing Support Group and phoning one of the Bfing Support Lines

JiltedJohnsJulie - have read the essay from KellyMom and must say that it makes perfect sense. Looking at the FB comments a lot of mums have been experiencing this - some are even quite happy with it if they need to go back to work. Unfortunately there is no hint how to change this behaviour back to a normal nursing routine.

I have a lot of cuddle time with her & stay at home iso of going out to much to make her feel as comfortable as possible - but have not tried not offering solids, good idea!

Re solids - at the moment she gets a porridge in the morning, vegetable / meat puree for lunch and fruit & joghurt in the afternoon. Maybe I'll skip the porridge to see if her appetite for milk goes up

Thanks for your advised and the links, I will have a look!

I should have added ds still sleeps on with us in bed side cot thing as there is no way I am getting out of bed every 2hrs!! So I just slide him over and usually fall asleep and slide him back over when I wake up so although it's not ideal I probably get enough sleep albeit broken. My first post sounded like I didn't care re the nights, I do, but it's just not hideously awful as he sleeps next to me. If you are getting up out of bed everytime that would break me I think!!