Baby won’t feed from left breast?!

[Gobletoffire]

My DS is now 10 weeks old and is breastfed, he also has one small bottle of formula in an evening. He has always fed from both breasts fine up until the last couple of days, he now won’t latch onto my left breast. He won’t even try and latch on, I know he’s hungry but he turns his head away and gets irritable, if I try and persevere he then gets upset. If I immediately switch to my right breast then he latches on no problem. If I lie down feeding with him lay next to me then he will feed, but otherwise I am having to express from my left boob but I obviously need to try and find a solution to this. Anyone know why it might happen and what I can do to get him to latch back onto the left boob?!

I had problems with the left side as well when in a cradle hold...I found though that if I changed to either a rugby hold or laid back position she would latch.

My daughter was the same. My only advice is to keep offering. She did take it eventually but it took a long time for my boobs to stop looking lopsided

Some useful advice here

kellymom.com/bf/got-milk/lopsided/

I only fed on the right for 2 years, wasn’t particularly lop sided (definitely not noticeable clothed) and all was fine. It was me who didn’t like feeding her on the other side.

Only downside is it’s left me needing physio on right arm as so overused

Hi, when you pump do you notice that side having a very fast or very slow let down? If its fast baby might be finding that unpleasant, too slow and baby may be associating that with no milk. You could try pumping a bit then offering that breast to see if that helps, it might slow the let down and will also get the milk flowing.
Hope its going better today.

@noodledoodler hi, unfortunately he still won’t latch onto the left breast in the cradle or rugby hold, he doesn’t even try to latch he just turns his head away. He will still latch on lying down beside me after some perseverance so I’m not sure if it’s the way that I’m holding him and he’s uncomfortable for some reason. It’s stressing me out though 😭

Had similar issue but right boob! Rugby hold works for my right and normal cradle on a pillow for the left boob. Maybe try different position if he’s having neck pains or something.

If it gets better lying down, I’d echo previous poster and consider speed of flow. It sounds as if it may be too fast, but difficult to tell without seeing exactly how he behaves. Lying down would slow the flow down, so makes sense.

Alternatively consider movement of his head. Outside of breastfeeding, does he turn it both ways lying down, will he take a bottle from both sides? That will tell you if it’s something with him (such as tight neck muscles) or something with your left breast.

Your best bet however, is to get yourself to a breastfeeding support group, so someone can see the whole picture. You should be able to google one near you.

Mmm could you have a blocked duct in that side? That can sometimes make baby fussy about the breast. Sometimes its a process of elimination, well done you for persevering through it, i bet you get it sorted 😀