Baby refuses to feed

[mama1987]

Hi all - I have been having ongoing issues with breastfeeding my 19 week old little boy since he was around 9 weeks old. I saw a lactation consultant yesterday and she seemed to think he struggles to cope with forceful let down so has recommended magnesium tablets to calm the initial flow. For the last few days especially he has seemed to struggle with this- he comes off as soon as my milk lets down and you can see an abundance of spray. However today he has been coming off even when the forceful let down has slowed- unless he's fallen asleep he will come off after a couple of minutes when there is no spray. It seems I can't win! Does anybody have any experience with this? I'm at my wits end as he isn't interested in taking bottles of either expressed milk or formula and his weight is starting to drop again after he had started to gain well again. The funny thing is he never seems to be hungry, he's very happy and alert most of the time.

Is he having lots of wet nappies? Is he actually losing weight, or is it just that his growth has slowed so that he's moving down his centiles?
If he's having wet nappies and isn't actually losing weight, it might just be that he's not a hungry baby and doesn't need much. My DD was the same, never fed for more than a few mins, her growth slowed massively but she was a very alert, happy baby that slept through the night (10+ hours) at 16 weeks. Born at 7lb 12 (50th centile), she only weighed 18lb at a year old but was so content, I was not worried. She's at school now and is much smaller than her peers so was just destined to be tiny. She never seemed hungry though, so I didn't worry.

His nappies are wet but not soaking, except for in the night when he feeds for longer but even then sometimes he will only wake once in the night. He was on 25th percentile when born but now dropped to the 2nd. His weight gain has been all over the place- mostly he will only gain small amounts. He had gained 8 ounces in two weeks when he was weighed last week. However this week he has actually lost half an ounce. He's always smiling but I do worry he's not getting all the nutrients for growth.