Anyway back from breast rejection - HELP !!!!!!!!

[Guard]

DD3 (nearly 3 months) has just started refusing to BF yesterday and even worse today. She cries and howls until I relent and express a bottle for her - mostly will not latch just arches away. With a bottle she is fine (I use playtex which are meant to be similar to BF). She's always been an efficient feeder (athough not the best) and has had a late night bottle of EBM from about 2 weeks with no problem going back to BF. Weight gain a little slow (4-5 oz per week). Last night she woke at 4 am def hungry and would not feed. I refused to give her a bottle and tried every position eventually she had a couple of mins around 6am, went to sleep finally until about 8am but then would not feed and as we were going out I relented and gave her a bottle at about 9am - basically that continued all day and with 2 others under 5 I cannot spend all day battling with her. Any ideas - I really don't want to give up BF yet....

Here's what good ol' Kellymom says about "nursing strikes". I've only read about it, no personal experience but I know people on here have posted about this before and I'm sure will be able to advise/sympathise.

No ideas really but keeping this bumped for you.

You need tiktok or mears, hopefully someone will be along soon.

You can try skin to skin contact to settle her and hopefully then she might latch on naturally. Could she have thrush in her mouth? If so she might want to feed but find in painful which would be why she arches her back.

yes I would check there is nothing in her mouth causing problems - thrush? sore gums?
have you ever seen a breast feeding counsellor about your latch? you could ring a helpline or ideally get someone to come and see you or go to a drop in centre. it is hard to offer advice until the reason behind it is a little clearer.
do you think she is finding it painful, or might she associate feeding with something unpleaseant e,g, did she bite you and you yelped? or was there a sudden noice while she was feeding
a nursing strike can be sorted! but you do need a lot of support with your other children - can you get some help?
in the meantime, keep trying to feed and try not to give a bottle though I know it is hard

Guard,

this happened to me when dd1 was around 3 months too, purely because i was topping her up using a bottle at nearly every feed (i was niave and believed HVs advice) due to low weight gain. It got to the stage she would not allow me to even hold her in the cradle position when we were both fully clothed and NOT trying to feed. She would cry till she was loosing her breath.

What i did was ditched the bottles. i would feed her using a large feeding syringe (free from chemist) and also the Medela Softcup Advanced Feeder. This meant that her sucking needs were not satisfied and usually when she was really tired or actually sleeping i could get her to latch onto me using a nipple shield.

Then i started a mission to get dd to associate my breasts with a "Happy Feeling". The way i done this was by laying dd on the floor and blowing raspberries on her tummy until she laughed, then i gently and quickly touched her face with my bare breast. We done this nearly every waken hour throughout the day for about 10 days then she started to show loving signs of the breast again. She would happily cuddle into my breast and would let me hold her happily whilst i was clothed or not. Then suddenly whilst playing "Happy Breast Time!" she quickly rooted and latched on - i was on all fours on top of her but managed to stay there until she was finished! I honestly felt like opening the house windows and screaming to let the world know how excited i was.. this was around 2 weeks after we started it. Then we spent about a further week around the house.. sleeping together naked, bathing together and playing together naked!

Before long we were back in full swing and the bottles were long in the bin.. we managed to continue BFing until she was just over 2 and she self weaned as i got pregnant again.

It is extremely hard word and need complete dedication and determination, but sure pays off as a result. However, you will definately need help with your other 2 kids.

Hang in there,

Thanks all and esp determination - think I will need some ! Def going to try and get hold of syringe. The toughest thing at the moment is juggling the other two and trying to express when she won't feed and feeding as well = complete chaos ! However, she did manage to feed a good bit last night (about 4am)- rather uncomfortable position for me but I was just so pleased... Just good to know that it's not unrecoverable.