10 month old suddenly stopped feeding

[GrandmistressGlitch]

Has anyone had this happen to them?

My 10mo was feeding fine, probably 3 or 4 times in a 24 hour period when a few days ago she started to take a few sucks then unlatch, biting me with her new teeth as she did so, and then cry. I probably squealed the first time which may have scared her. In any case she won't go near the breast any more, arches her back and cries. Or gets as far as opening her mouth ready to latch and then it's like she changes her mind about it, 'no, not that again!'

I've tried expressing and giving it to her in a bottle but she just pushes it away.

The only luck I've had is last night I fed her as she slept in the night as I was so engorged.

I don't think she's self weaning as the change is so abrupt and she's still quite young. Any ideas? It's quite distressing as she clearly needs the milk, she just cried herself to sleep (with me soothing her), her poos have gone hard and isn't weeing a great deal. Is eating food and drinking water fine.

Will this sort itself out over time or is this the end for her and milk?!

I was going to come in and suggest she might just be weaning herself - which I suppose she still might - but when DS2 did that at 8 months, he was completely happy about it, and even less interested at night (I still remember the last feed attempt - he just pulled my t-shirt down and gave me what I interpreted as a pitying look, rolled over and fell asleep!) - but this doesn't sound like that at all.

Might she just have a sore throat or a cold? She does sound like it hurts to drink (does she drink water?)

Thank you @Micke. I don't think it's her throat, she's eating food and drinking water from a sippy cup just fine, if not more. She just seems scared of my nipple. So maybe sucking hurts her somehow. Perhaps it's teeth.

I just don’t know how she can go from feeding so well to stopping altogether so suddenly. A few nights ago feeding was the only thing that properly soothed her at night.

My LG self weaned at 6 months exactly like this. Fine one day, completely resisted the next. Wish I'd thought of Night feeding to take the pain away.

Instead I used cabbage leaves and moved her on to formula.

No advice, just sharing so you know it's not uncommon.

I mean - if hard things suddenly appeared in my mouth accompanied by pain I'd be a bit freaked out, so it would be understandable...

DS1 had to re-learn to feed every time he got a significant new tooth, but he never gave up feeding - was eager until I got pregnant with DS2 and my milk dried up!

I've heard of kids getting scared by something while feeding and gaining an aversion - loud noise like a balloon popping, or mum coughing, or a bird hitting a window behind them - if she fed in her sleep, does anything like that spring to mind?

Have you eaten anything unusual? I remember mine did this when he was almost a year, and then I realised all I'd eaten that day was corn chips and (a lot) of wild garlic dip (oops) which was obviously not a flavour he appreciated. 24 (very engorged and uncomfortable) hours later he decided to give it another go, and fed for about another 6 months.

Thanks @glasshalfsomething I guess I'm hoping that's not the case for me. Which is silly really! I haven't bought any formula and live in the middle of nowhere. Will have to try expressed milk /formula in a sippy cup, see if that works.

I think she definitely did have pain whilst the new teeth were coming through. That was over a week ago. Perhaps she's just figuring out how they feel now. I think I scared her by unlatching her when she bit that day, I told her off too (I mean I said 'no biting' firmly, nothing outrageous!)

Hopefully she will come back to it. @Mesmeri did you do anything to encourage returning to the breast or did they just go for it? Every time I've offered today she got in a tizz.

Haven't eaten anything peculiar.

Ds does this when he's teething. He's bottle fed and starts sucking hungrily only to cry and push the bottle away.

The only thing we've found that works is using a medicine syringe to feed him for a day or so to give him a break from the pain we then reintroduce the bottle and he is fine.

I hope you find something that works for you.

Nursing strike. www.llli.org/breastfeeding-info/nursing-strikes/

It sounds like a nursing strike to me. They can last a few days. Think the kellymom website has some info on this.

It is very rare for a child under a year to wean

Mine did this at 11 months. It was HFAM in his case which just made feeding too sore. After two weeks he just wasn’t interested at all still so I stopped trying ☹️

Thanks all for the support.

That link is very useful. Will dig the syringe out. She was biting down on her water sippy cup spout so maybe it is still sore. What is HFAM please @KTD27?

This does sound very much like a nursing strike as it is very rare for a child to wean under the age of one. Weaning also tends to happen very gradually as opposed to a sudden stop like you describe. I would suggest reading the la leche link posted above, and also looking on kelly mom as they have good suggestions on how to deal with this.

I think I assumed he was self-weaning. And then after about 24 hours, he was really upset about something and I offered him again just to check and he took it like there had never been a problem.

HFAM is hand, foot and mouth. Can make their mouth incredibly sore. My DS has just got over it

My son bit me at a similar age and I yelped in pain and jumped. He then went on a nursing strike for few days (I cried!) but then carried on until he was 18months.

That explains it, thanks @ohwownosnow

Glad to know I'm not the only one getting emotional over this @Wallabyone! Must be the hormones, I felt like my milk had just come in last night! Told DH he was "useless and no help at all", classic hormone crash.

Great outcome @Mesmeri, happy to hear it

My son self weaned At 13 months .

The first day he would go to latch on and almost gag as if my nipple had bad breath .

To add insult to injury @Ohyesiam Did he take formula or cows milk or anything after that?

No, we are an eczema family so wanted to avoid all cows stuff, and he hated goats( don’t blame him). We made porridge with it, but he never had it as a drink.
I’d lived in japan with a Japanese family in my 20 s and they didn’t do any formula or milk for weaned kids, so although it’s not the done thing here, I knew it was fine.
He’s a strapping 11 year old now.

Update: I tried formula in a sippy cup and she had a couple of swigs and batted it away. Refuses the breast. Has had a few sips of water so I'm not overly worried, although she isn't weeing a great deal and she's getting a bit constipated.

(Also, that's interesting @Ohyesiam, our obsession with dairy must be at least partly cultural)