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Infant feeding

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

5 month old suffendly refusing to BF - what to do?

5 replies

ellewildeireland · 19/12/2022 09:32

My 5 month old has, as of about 9am yesterday, gone on some kind of boob strike. He is EBF, bar the occasional bottle when I've had to be away for more than 3 hours. He did have 2 bottles last Wednesday when I went to my work Christmas party (the longest I've been away from him) but was straight back on boob when I got home, and fed like a champ on Thursday and all Friday night into Saturday morning. It was just when he woke on Saturday morning that he started refusing boob, seemingly out of nowhere.

He is showing signs of teething and has been a bit congested at night for several days. I've read these can impact BF but these were true before Saturday too. He's is great form. When he wouldn't feed yesterday I resorted to expressing his feed and giving that via bottle which he took no problem. At his next feed I gave him a bit of bottle and then swapped him to boob which worked. We have had varying degreess of success with this approach since then.

I had hoped he'd be okay for night feeds when he mostly stays asleep but he still refused boob at first. I really don't want the bottle to become a crutch. Has anyone been through his or have any advice? Thanks a mil.

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ellewildeireland · 19/12/2022 09:33

Suddenly* arggh typo!

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Tonsiltrouble · 19/12/2022 09:38

This can happen whilst teething. If he’s feeding at night (even under protest) I wouldn’t worry too much. How close to 6m is he? Tbh I’d be tempted to start with a little BLW right now, cold foods, things like cucumber for him to gnaw at. It will probably pass in a day or two so I would express for the time being. And if you want to you could try nurofen to see if that helps, always worked better than calpol for my little teethers

Scottishskifun · 19/12/2022 09:39

Its known as a nursing strike and pretty common especially if they are unwell.

Try feeding when they are asleep or sleepy. Have some skin on skin time, take a bath together etc. They are usually temporary but annoying and need a bit of riding out. By the sounds of it your doing all the right things. Some more info below . If your on Instagram follow Kathryn Stagg she has some useful posts on feeding unwell babies and nursing strikes

www.laleche.org.uk/nursing-strikes/

Tonsiltrouble · 19/12/2022 09:42

Oh and if it’s snot that’s stopping him latching then probably the most revolting (but highly effective) thing I have ever done is to put my mouth over baby’s nose and suck the snot out. It was really really grim but a lifesaver.

ellewildeireland · 19/12/2022 10:22

@Tonsiltrouble He's just turned 5 months this week. We were going to explore BLW in early Jan as he's showing signs of readiness and interest in food. Not sure if now is a couple of weeks early or if it's okay. We are using a snot sucker thing but his nose doesn't seem very blocked or anything - just a bit snotty.

@Scottishskifun Thanks for sharing that article. It is helpful and reassuring. I think my main conundrum is whether to continue giving him a bottle of either expressed milk or formula and trying to transition him to boob, or is it best to remove bottle altogether and just do lots of skin to skin etc to encourage him back to boob? He has refused boob outright this morning, even after 90ml milk via bottle. I will obviously keep pumping but just not sure what is best thing to do with bottle as I don'r want him to be hungry or upset. Up until yesterday, BFing was always his comfort so it's breaking my heart for him to be turning away but I know it's likely just a phase.

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