Baby won’t take breast anymore

[Mum7644885]

My 8 week old has stopped wanting to breastfeed and prefers the bottle and I’m gutted to say the least.

We were originally breastfeeding and then she was having 1 expressed bottle of milk a day but recently, she either won’t feed on the breast or feeds for 5 minutes and gets frustrated and stops, but then will take a bottle no issue.

Im currently offering boob, expressing milk and offering 1 bottle of formula a day. It’s gotten super complicated and I can’t work out how I can exclusively pump, I have another child to take care of and when I’m on my own with the baby she wants constant contact naps and isn’t awake very long betwrrn naps so no idea when I’d pump unless I listen to her cry whilst I do it, plus I’m getting sore from pumping all the time. My heart is trying to figure out a way but my head is saying just switch to formula.

Im torn because it’s really not what I want, I feel really upset about it and gutted my baby isn’t enjoying breastfeeding with me, same time, I’m getting stressed with all the constant sanitising, planning pumping in, dealing with breast refusal. It’s just not how I’d hoped this would go, has any one else experienced similar ?

My first and I had a great bond over breastfeeding and it was like my super power, i could always soothe her with the boob but that just isn’t the case this time round. I worked so hard the first few weeks to establish things and just sad it’s probably over.

Not sure the fact I know this is my last baby is also making things worse and causing me to feel more upset.

Aww thank you so much for reaching out and your encouraging words. I didn’t know hv could do that, mine only told me to get in touch with my gp which I did. She is due to come next week I’ll try to see if she can connect me to a feeding specialist, am she didn’t mention that something like that is possible. I did reach out to lactation consultant but she is on al at the minute so I’ll have a consult once she is back. My hv is aware of all the issues I have hence advised trip to the gp but as you say they their professional scope is so wide that infant feeding I don’t think is necessary detailed enough to be able to help thst much, but have to say I had a lovely gp that tried to help. Thank you again for your kind words, may I ask you mentioned having similar issues, how did you manage and what helped you.

@Mybaby2024 , definitely get that app with the lactation consultant and hound your HV for any help/support/resources available for infant feeding. I have to say most HV I have come across are useless, so don’t let them fob you off.

On the feeding issues, in all honesty … time, time helped. After a while she wasn’t as windy, she was able to get her burps up easier, once she started solids she was able to poo easier, it all just improved with time.

I honestly think the majority of mums find their newborns have digestive issues and we all look for fixes and medicines etc and I honestly just think it’s pretty normal, you battle through, make sure they are fed by which ever means, looks for signs of allergy etc but aside from that, it just improves in time. I look back and think, that baby was in the perfect conditions in my stomach for 9 months and then all of a sudden she had to learn to feed in a totally new way and has so many new things to figure out, it’s not crazy to think her digestive system would take a while to mature but I can think like that because I am out of it but when your in the thick of it, it’s hell