Baby refuses bottle and eats tiny amount every 3 hours

[Mariposa87]

We have had absolutely no feeding problems with our DD and have been solely breastfeeding with one expressed bottle a day from 2 weeks.

She is such a happy girl but suddenly she refuses to take the bottle and only breastfeeds for 9 mins at a feed and refuses to do this more frequently than every 3 hours. If I try to feed her more frequently she screams her head off.

Has anyone else had this problem? She has been like this for 4 days now and I am getting really worried. I am worried I have given her an aversion to feeding by persisting she ate more when she started to eat less. I have stopped persisting now and allow her to take what she wants. Also my milk supply has gone down massively because she isn’t half her usual amounts PLEASE HELP!

How old is your DD? Does she still get weighed regularly? Have you changed anything in your diet? Could she be a little under the weather? If she’s still really young I would check with HV

9 minutes every 3 hours may be ok if she is getting enough - I’d check the weight gain

Babies get much quicker and more efficient at feeding. What age is your baby? My babies weee always very very quick feeders and only fed for about 10 mins (or less) at a time from the age of about 6 weeks.

Also as your baby gets older you stop getting the engorged feeling between feeds. It doesn’t mean your body is producing less milk but rather that your body is more in tune with what your baby needs and is producing the milk on demand. If your baby is settled between feeds and has wet and dirty nappies, gaining weight etc then I don’t think you have a problem?

What Cakescakescakes said is absolutely true.

Most mums feel like their milk supply has dropped when the early engorgement phase passes, that's normal.

If your little one has the opportunity to feed and doesn't want to feed any more frequently, that's also fine.

The only reason to worry is if her weight was plunging down the centile chart and/or she's stopped doing wet nappies.