Help! My 9m baby is completely refusing to breast feed today. totally out of character

[zzoey]

any one had this experience? any tips out there? my boobs are killing me and I feel really upset. when I pick her up and offer to feed her she starts to scream. she is eating fine and drinks water from her cup. she doesn't seem ill at all.
this is my 3rd baby and never had this happen before

Zzoey, (nice name btw, we are sort of cousins )

this is really common and of course very distressing for you. It's called a nursing strike and I will return shortly with links

Kellymom fab as ever

Phoning LLL would be helpful as well - they understand the emotional side of this situation and can give you lots of support. I forgot to get their phone number while I was fetching the link so will be back AGAIN in a minute

0845 120 2918

La Leche League breastfeeding telephone helpline

all their advisors are experienced mothers and I have found them extremely helpful and knowledgeable

thank you cousin Franny&Zooey! didn't realise it was so common or what it was called. glad my other babes didnt try this. Kellymom seems great. lots to learn. I will try the advice on there and call LLL if she's still screaming and not feeding tomorrow. how I wish I had expressed before... haven't tried it since dd1 was tiny, years ago.
thanks again
off to cuddle baby in the nude while pretending I dont really mind if she doesn't feed (that seems the tricky bit)...
zz

How are things today zzoey?

zzoey - good advice from Franny. When you say your boobs are killing you what do you mean ? Engorged or painful in some other way ?

Just wondering could it be thrush ? Ds had this at 3 months and refused to feed, every time he saw my boobs he screamed. I self- diagnosed thrush from kellymom.com and used daktarin oral gel/canestan to get rid of it. Sometimes baby has no signs of thrush in the mouth at all. Ds didn't which made it harder to tell what was wrong.

Of course it could just be a nursing strike.

Try expressing and cup/spoon feeding. That way you get rid of excess milk and make sure baby gets her bm.

Let us know how you get on

Sorry Franny&Z
have been too exhausted to get back to mumsnet
it was a nursing strike and thanks to your advice managed to solve the problem eventually - took over 24hrs. eventually managed to feed her when she was fast asleep. one of the tips from kellymom. had to keep doing that during her sleeps and eventuallly she got back to feeding as usual. thank goodness
yellowrose, i think it was just a nursing strike. i had thrush with my first baby. excruciating! just bad engorgement this time.
no idea why it happened. may be she was upset after I started back at work though that was a month ago...
any way, thanks so much
you are fab
zz

Oh I am so glad to read this

I have been told that it is fairly common for a nursing strike to happen in response to you suddenly becoming very busy - the baby is thrown off balance so to speak, and has very few means of communication to express this. The same thing happened to me.

Good old Kellymom, anyway