16 wk old suddenly refusing breast- PLEASE any help or ideas?

[sammysam]

My dd has just started almost refusing the breast and its really upseting me. For the first 15 weeks shes been feeding fine (after a sticky start) but in the last week she first started just 'going off' the right breast but now its either-she'll feed for a few mins (sometimes up to 10 or 15) then she'll pull off cry and won't go back on so i try her on he other side and she'll go on for a bit and then do the same, but a couple of feeds a day she won't do it at all!

I really don't know why shes doing it and it really worries me, especially as she has always been a very slow and lazy feeder usually feeding for an hour a time! So now i'm worrying she's not getting enough.

Or has she very suddenly started getting her fill very quickly and then i'm trying to get her back on when she really doesn't want any more?

Any help or advise would be really appreciated as its starting to get me down a bit as i'm worrying and most feeds feel like a fight.

I am having the same problem with my 14 week old boy and have been in tears today thinking I have breast fed him for the last time. would be interested to see your replies.

It's just so weird and i have no idea why-especially as it started so suddenly and its not every time-just fed her and she was fine-but bet next time she'll do it again-she gives me these really angry looks when she does it

sammy - she's prob taking what she needs. Many older babies can do this in a few minutes. Trying to get her back on will upset her and put her off !

I'm just hoping that she'll stop- i really don't want to stop feeding her-especially as it was so difficult to start with. Please let me know if you find anything out-its good to know there are other people out there in the same boat-makes me think there must be a reason for it if it happens to others

As a first step, I'd get her checked out by the GP for possible ear infection. Any time DS behaved like this he turned out to have an ear infection with no other symptoms yet. Or it could be teething, but she's a bit young for that.

thanks tiktok-i'm hoping this is the case-its just weird going from an hour to 15 mins max!!

Actually, rereading your post (I'd missed the 10-15 minute bit before) I agree with tiktok (not that I would ever dream of contradicting tiktok anyway ) -- they do seem to suddenly get the hang of breastfeeding around this age and switch to pretty short feeds after previously having had marathon sessions.

If you are worried then get her checked out -- but if not, and if she's happy, putting on weight (albeit not as quickly as in the first few weeks) and having plenty of wet and soiled nappies, then it's probably not an issue.

dd2 also did the same , marathon feeds for an hour actively sucking on and off the whole time , then suddenyl a coupkle of weeks back 10-15 mins and then she would also get annoyed and stop. She also started to gain weight slower 6oz wk went down to 4oz a week and I was told thats normal too. Must be more efficient feeding as they get older. Good to know its a normal pattern and not all suffering with some other nasty problem. I think you know when they do though.

I think lemonaid may be right it is a sign of something else being wrong, but if she's generally happy and sleeping well, she's probably OK like tiktok says. Different mothers have different speeds of milk floww, and I found my two both filled up by about ten minutes. She may well just be better at feeding efficiently than she was (particularly if it took her time to get used to feeding at first). Get her weighed at your baby clinic and as long as the weight is there, she's obviously getting enough.

If she isn't feeding well enough and keeping her weight on, I would suggest brushing your nipple across her top lip to get her interested (my midwife called this "walking past the chip shop", because the baby smells the milk and gets hungry). Also, strip clothes off to feed her - she may be getting sleepy and therefore lazy.

If you're worried that your milk flow will start to dry up, I would really suggest that you express and freeze some - now you still have a really active milk flow and in a couple of months it will probably be much harder to express. Frozen expressed milk is brilliant for mixing with food for weaning, or putting in a bottle for someone else to feed to give you a break.