Baby doesn't seem to like breast milk

[Royston23]

Hi everyone, just looking to see if anyone has had the same experience.

Basically my DD is now only 6 days old, my other half has been really trying to breastfeed but DD is either just lazy with it or doesn't like the taste of breast milk (I get that sounds silly but stay with me on this one)
So the Mrs managed to express around 60ml of milk which we then tried feeding to our baby but she just spits it out and thrashes around to get away from it, as soon as you give her a bottle of formula milk she guzzles it down like it's her last meal!!
So what I'm asking is has anyone else ever had anything like this?
We had our 5th day visit yesterday and even the health visitor said she was a lazy little madam when it came to being on the breast

I believe formula has sugar in it. So it would taste nicer.

There are two separate issues here;
Nipple confusion is the cause of the ‘laziness’, as bottle feeding is easier for baby’s than breastfeeding, baby’s have to work a little harder to feed from the breast, which when a bottle is introduced early means they often ‘prefer’ the bottle. The only really way to deal with this, at such an early stage is to persevere just with breastfeeding at present, until babe is more efficient at breastfeeding.

The second issue is the milk, sometimes EBM can taste ‘funny’. Don’t quote me on this, but I have a vague recollection of reading something about how sometimes expressed milk will change in taste compared to when fed directly from the breast due to changes in temp/environment causing the behaviour of the proteins in the milk to alternate, I believe the way to deal with it was to ‘scorched’ the milk before using it for a feed. As I say though, don’t quote me on this, you’d need to look further into this matter.

Breastmilk also contains sugar - lactose. This is the sugar found in formula milk too. Excess lipase can cause expressed milk to taste soapy

Babies do not dislike breastmilk! That is just not a thing.

Can you see a lactation consultant or ring a breastfeeding counsellor? Midwives sometimes give really, really bad breastfeeding advice. Not all but some.

But yes the lipase thing is true. It sounds however like the issue is the same on the breast and not just with expressed milk.

@dementedpixie

Excess lipase can cause expressed milk to taste soapy

That’s it! I knew I wasn’t quite getting it right. The treatment of this is still to scold the milk before freezing, per my previous comment

@Whathewhatnow

So how do you explain the constant spitting out and thrashing around?

Is that just purely because she prefers the taste of formula over breast?

To everyone:
I will also mention, our DD was born a couple weeks early (37 and 5) but was dinky (5Ib4Oz) so we have been advised to keep a feeding diary and have been told amounts to feed etc which is why were using formula just to be sure she is getting enough food to grow big and strong.

Spitting and thrashing... very hard to say unless you're there watching and even then....

Has she been checked for tongue tie by someone who really.knows what they are looking for? This can cause major problems with latching on and milk dribbling out of the mouth.

I'm not sure newborns can spit. Is it posset? As in regurgitated milk.

The trouble is introducing a bottle so soon makes breastfeeding more difficult. Getting stressed about the situation also makes it more difficult.
The baby isn’t lazy- it’s confused. A synthetic test is a much more powerful stimulus that the nipple.
The baby doesn’t dislike breast milk. Formula is simply easier and gets them over the hunger barriers more quickly than an anxious breast feed.
EBM doesn’t feel or taste the same.
If you’ve no breast feeding support to use, I would suggest you back off a bit as you might inadvertently be adding to the stress.
Hold baby whilst mother has a lovely warm bath (no soap on breasts) no bubbles.
They retire to bed for a couple of hours and work it out between them in a nice relaxing way. Lots of feeding to boost the productivity and get the hind milk flowing. No worrying about thrashing just let them nuzzle around and root without fretting they don’t know what to do.
Bring your partner a mug of tea every so often. Let them just be together practicing and not worrying about ‘getting enough’.

Yes all of that has been checked, we had to spend a couple days in hospital with her and she had basically a complete MOT to make sure she was okay.
We have another visit tomorrow to check on her weight progress so I shall ask the same questions tomorrow.

Some peoples breast milk when expressed can change flavour I think it's some component in it that can give it a bad taste. Lipase I think?
Is it the same on the boob or only when bottle fed expressed milk? Either that or the baby is sensitive to a flavour in the milk from something partner has eaten. Has she had a lot of garlic/spicy food/ bitter greens recently? I'd try using bottles with a really slow release teat so your baby has to work for it in a more similar way to breast milk. I think medela do one - worth an Amazon search

Also if she is small and your wife's nipples are relatively flat or flat because of engorgement this can make things tricky. Really, I would see a specialist if breastfeeding is important to your wife.

@CherryPavlova thank you for all of that, sounds really helpful and we shall give that a try. Appreciate you

If you want to breast feed, stop offering formula, unless you are told this is necessary due to weight loss. Given the option some babies will choose the easier route of bottle feeding.

My baby was also born early and small (35w, 5lb) and feeding such a tiny baby was a challenge - very small amounts very often. I was encouraged by a HV to offer formula, but the midwife disagreed and we stuck at it and managed to establish bf successfully.

Have a google for a local breastfeeding counsellor - I had a wonderful young woman cone in to help me with both of mine and she is why I was able to bf long term both times. The health visitors only know so much, and they have a lot to think about on a visit - how the stitches are doing, mental health, general coping - so the technicalities of breastfeeding can be shunted down the priorities.

A proper breastfeeding consultant will sit with your partner for an hour or so at a time working closely with her to establish what the cause of the problem is, and overcome it. She will be worth her weight in gold, I promise!

If your wife has mastitis at all, from the baby not feeding enough, the milk can start to taste salty and can put babies off, happened to me and had to formula feed until I’d gone to the doctors and got antibiotics for it, I had no idea I’d had it, thought breastfeeding was just supposed to be that sore. Baby went straight back to breastfeeding after just over 2 weeks of expressing and formula. Best of luck in getting it sorted

(I had the lipase thing - my expressed milk tasted like soap!)

Stop with the bottle right away - just don’t use it again. It’s confusing your baby that one feed is super easy and then next one requires some actual effort!! Look at diagrams of what the baby’s tongue has to do to extract the milk - and how much of the breast has to be in her mouth to do it.

Thank you all so much for the advice, we have taken it all on board and we start putting a few things in motion like the breastfeeding counselor etc.
I'm glad to see that people understand the situation we are in and can see the reason we are having to use formula

Not sure if this has been mentioned but breast milk is a supply and demand thing. The more baby feeds the more milk is made.
If you start mix feeding the supply of BM will be reduced.
It does take a few weeks to get the hang of everything. The first weeks BFing my baby I felt like a milking machine, she was constantly on me but now we have an established supply and I make what she needs for when she needs it. I always know when she will be hungry, even when we are apart!

I’m super pro breast feeding (literally typing this as I feed my one year old) but the advice re: stopping the bottle is potentially dangerous. Your little one was born small and it sounds as if she is struggling to re-gain her birthweight it’s she is having another weight today. Top ups should be reduced gradually.

My plan would be to offer the breast on demand, a minimum of three hourly. Offer both breasts. Then offer a top up. If baby isn’t having a decent feed at the breast, mum should be expressing. Seek support with positioning and attachment from a local support group or a lactation consultant. If you can afford it, a lactation consultant would also be able to support you with using a supplemental nursing system which would help to wean baby of a bottle and hopefully combat the flow preference (‘nipple confusion’).

Your job is to support, make the meals, and facilitate mum and baby basically just staying in bed skin to skin all day. DO NOT make unhelpful comments about baby ‘not liking’ breastmilk.

Breast feeding is difficult regardless of babies size, however babies born quite early don’t develop the suckle as strongly as a later baby. Breast feeding is more work for the baby as they have to stimulate the let down rather than instantly getting the milk as they would get from formula. The thrashing and spitting out is most likely a combination of frustration at the delayed let down and the difference in the milk. Breast milk has a fore milk and a hind milk. The fore milk is more watery and the hind milk thicker and creamier. It may be that your DD is just more used to the premixed formula than the breast milk. If you are really want to breast feed I’d make sure this takes precedence over formula. You can express and bottle feed the breast milk if preferred.

My 5 month old can still fuss at the breast and she is exclusive.