Anyone breastfed just at night?

[Sunflower160]

DS is 4 months old. At 3 months he went on a ‘nursing strike’ and things have gone downhill from there and now he much prefers a bottle of expressed milk or formula, presumably because he’s getting the milk faster. I have been struggling to keep up with the expressing, then feeding him and trying to look after our other children so have started introducing formula. He breastfeeds at night without any issue (just not at all in the day!). He has one feed around 3am and another around 6am. I also express in the evenings and freeze the milk, usually around 4oz. Will I be able to carry on like this and still breastfeed during the night or will my supply dip too much? Anyone have any experience or just feeding from the breast at night and bottles in the day?

I'm having this too! We've always had to supplement DD (5mo)'s feeds but now she won't have the breast at all during the day, only at night. I pump regularly throughout the day and almost all of her bottles are EBM. But I really miss the BFing bonding and worry about when she starts sleeping through!

I'd try expressing more if you can

@HesTheFastestKidAlive glad to know I’m not alone, we had three breastfeeding strikes and I was at my wits end, he didn’t lose weight but hadn’t gained for three weeks hence why we started with formula as well as the expressed milk, I just couldn’t express more than I was already doing. When feeding him with a bottle I still try lots of skin on skin and feeding him at the breast but I know the problem isn’t going to get any better with the more bottles he has. Occasionally he will latch on in the day when sleepy but that’s rare, I just try and treasure the times when he does. He will latch on in the night MOST of the time without any issue, it’s more like a dream feed that he has. He wakes me up if he starts making suckling noises and shuffling about and I just latch him on, he isn’t actually awake, If he wakes up too much then he won’t latch stressful! Do you know what caused your strike or do you think it’s because of bottle preference?

@Sunflower160 I am going through the same as well. DD is nearly 5 months old. And since 3 months she started to refuse breastfeeding during the day. Unfortunately I didn’t pump to keep up supply, so have nothing during the day. I do think I am making less milk during the night, but mostly baby gets through the night without me having to or make a bottle. I think to increase supply you can pump after feeding, which isn’t ideal at night!

Looking for any other tips too! I’m keen to carry on with night feeds. I hate pumping, but could do it if it helps ☹️

My DD did the same at around 5 months. I persevered with expressing every few hours during the day for about a month until she was 6 months and then just switched to formula for during the day. I found expressing soul destroying and I actually realised she clearly preferred formula in a bottle rather than me upsetting her trying to BF during the day. She now has around 3 bottles of formula a day and then will BF before bed and over night, and then normally first thing in the morning as well. She's actually slept a lot better since I switched, she's gone from waking every 2 hours to just waking maybe twice a night having a feed and then going back to sleep. I had only every aimed to BF til around 6 months though so it wasn't the end of the world for me. I was struggling with supply when she stopped feeding and had started to literally manage to express a dribble of milk each time so it was a no brainer for me

Thanks all. It’s reassuring to know that I’m not the only one to have gone through a nursing strike. I’ve found it quite tough emotionally and felt a little rejected at first. I still want that close bonding feeling and to be able to give him breastmilk so I want to continue feeding him at night if possible, he also occasionally will feed from the breast in the day if he’s sleepy and napping on me. Other than that he’s been having formula and expressed milk and I’ve been expressing twice a day - once in the morning and once in the evening and I get at least 5oz each time so I’m hoping I’ll be able to continue for a little while yet. Hopefully anyway!

@Sunflower160 I think she just got lazy and started preferring the bottle. Since I posted I've had some success offering boob at nap times like a day dream feed!

Hi, I know this is a really old post, but was wondering what ended up happening in the end? I'm currently experiencing the exact same situation with my 6 month old who won't breastfeed during the day but spends the whole night nursing.

@Whatev3r my milk supply ended up dropping a lot a few weeks after my post. My baby was 5.5 months and she was latching as though feeding. She would be on me for an hour and then still awake and crying so I just gave in and made her a bottle of formula. So, breastfeeding ended for us then. My health visitor at the time said if I wanted to increase my supply, I would need to stop bottles and do lots of skin on skin etc, but it wasn’t something that I done.

You can BF just at night if you want to. By now your supply will be established and it’s those feeds in the early hours that keep it going.

Maybe offer a BF around 10 pm when you’re going to bed and another at 3am?

And you can always check this through with a fully qualified BFC on one of the BFing Helplines

So sorry, only just realised this is an old post.

@Whatev3rhave you got any RL support? If not, have you called one of the BFing Helplines?