breast refusal after bottles

[swashbucklecheer]

Ds has been in hospital for 3 days this week for failure to thrive and while we were there the doctors asked me to express all my milk so they could monitor how much he was getting. Now we're back home and with 3 bottles of infatrini a day to supliment my milk and ds refuses to feed from the breast. I'm left now expressing every feed and it's really getting me down.

Does anyone have any ideas how to get him back to the breast?

Sorry to hear this hope your ds is ok it sounds very stressful.

I don't have a magic solution but I remembered this page from kellymom that might be useful to you kellymom.com/bf/concerns/child/back-to-breast/
And would say just keep trying you're doing great hope someone more experienced can offer more advice.

I used a nipple shield as a temporary measure to wean DS back onto the breast. Then weaned him off them. Might be worth a go? Definitely visit your local breastfeeding support group though as that might not be sound advice! Good luck op

Breastfeeding groups really helped me when DD2 refused to breastfeed. I used to offer her a little bit in a bottle just to calm her hunger and then try to get her latched on once she was not screaming with hunger any more.

I also found it was easier to get her to latch at night time and early morning feeds - when she was in bed, in the dark in a calm environment. Gradually she started feeding for longer and I was able to breastfeed at every feed not just morning and evening.

She does occasionally still refuse to feed when we are in strange or noisy places - where there are lots of distractions or when she is a little bit wound up - but it's much better now (at 4 months) than I ever imagined it would be in the early days.

Good luck & really hope you can find a good BF group near you!