Nipple preference - frustrated mum and baby!

[Mella91]

My stressful new mum journey all started with a trip to the hospital with my 3day old baby. The doctor told us he had lost too much weight and that we should start using formula. What he forgot to mention was that if we fed our baby with a bottle there was a chance he would prefer the bottle and not latch properly.

I now have a 6 week old who refuses to breastfeed. He latches gulps a little milk for 20 seconds then lets go and howls in frustration. This continues for 20 minutes and then we both get frustrated to the point that he gets his bottle. I am pumping to avoid using formula however I have come to the point that expressing is simply not enough. I express around 100ml per 30 minutes which is barely enough for a feed.

I really want him to get used to being on the breast. It will make life so much easier for me. I have even contemplated giving up expressing and just putting him on formula to save my sanity but I know I will regret this in the future.

Please any tips welcome? Is it possible for him to get back to breastfeeding at 6 weeks?

It's normal for a BF baby to lose weight in the first few weeks. My DD was the same but I was advised to top up after BF with expressed milk in-between each feed using a syringe and this worked.

If you think your not expressing much I highly recommend going onto Pinterest and look at increasing milk supply. Lots of foods, drinks and tips to do this and also power pumping tips!

The only other things I can suggest is trying different latch positions. My DS took to BF straight away, DD took a couple of days to fully nail it but she's 21 weeks now and I have the opposite problem of you and she refuses a bottle.

I've read stories of people reintroducing BF when little one is months old, it's easier said than done but try not to worry. He is feeding at the end of the day and you're doing a brilliant job.

Good luck

I’m guessing your teats are much quicker than your let down. Find a bottle/teats that are slower, and Google paced bottle feeding. He will get frustrated on the bottle for a while just as he does on your boob but eventually will get used to it and won’t mind the flow of your breast asmuch. It’s worth a try. I would maybe discuss this with your health visitor first as you don’t want him to start losing weight by also rejecting bottles too