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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

4 month old refusing to breastfeed

5 replies

Somethingvague · 21/01/2021 06:32

Hi,

My daughter is 19 weeks old. For the first 3 months she fed brilliantly, latched on great within the first hour after a c section and gained weight really well. My only issue was an overactive let down, which by the 3 month mark was stopping being an issue.

However, since around 3 months she has become increasingly fussy with feeds. I have been having to walk around while feeding to get her to stay latched on, or switch with a dummy to get her to latch on. This is getting progressively worse. Overnight she had a sleepy full feed before bed at around 6:30, another sleepy full feed at around 2, but is now up for the day and refusing. This happens most days; if I get up and walk around she will probably latch on, but I don't want to have to do this every single feed and am starting to get back ache. Yesterday I gave her a bottle when she hadn't eaten for 3.5 hours, and she only ate about 2 and a half ounces.

I'm very confused as to what is going on, but it seems to be very frustrating for both of us. I breastfed my son until he was 1, and at this age he was still wanting a feed every two hours.

Any help or insights appreciated!

OP posts:
Sipperskipper · 21/01/2021 06:37

I'm formula feeding but my 5 month old DD started doing exactly the same at the same age! For her I think its a combination of the start of teething, and wanting to see everything - feeding is just too boring now!

Somethingvague · 21/01/2021 11:00

Thank you. I did wonder that, but it's been going on a month now and is getting worse. It doesn't seem to matter where we are and how quiet it is, unless she's sleepy, she's fighting and crying whenever I try and feed her.

It's making me feel like this might be the end of breastfeeding. I had wanted to keep feeding her, especially at the moment for antibodies and so on, but it doesn't seem like it's working for either of us now Sad.

OP posts:
Somethingvague · 21/01/2021 11:01

Although she didn't have much, she at least didn't complain with a bottle yesterday. She's such a happy little thing otherwise.

OP posts:
olderthanyouthink · 21/01/2021 11:03

How about in a dark quiet room? Or feed her in a sling if you can?

Sipperskipper · 22/01/2021 06:20

Try a bit of anbesol.liquid on her gums before a feed. Often feeding irritates the gums when teething, so this really helps my DD.

My DD is 22 weeks and its still going on! I remember DD1 being similar too.

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