Baby searching for breast guilt

[Doggomom91]

Hi everyone

My baby is not good at breastfeeding and has now got bottle preference. She had tongue tie and various issues and with lots of perseverance at 12 weeks I have decided I can't deal with her getting upset and frustrated at the breast anymore. I am going to pump and top up with formula but the issue I have is she's constantly searching for my boobs, which is really upsetting especially as she would often refuse them. Has anyone else experienced this and how did you deal with it? Did it stop eventually? It's really hurting my heart 😭😭😭

Fed is best OP. Doesn’t matter from where or what.

You can feed her mainly formula bottles but keep latching on for "dry" breastfeeding. After a while she might well get the hang of it and you can wean off the bottles. Either way she won't starve, and will still get many of the benefits of breastfeeding ie closeness, skin to skin, skin oils, etc

I combo fed right from the start. I produced a lot but I couldn't get dd to latch (she'd just search and then keep her mouth on my nipple without drinking). Pumping breast milk was too emotionally draining and I decided after about a month to just give her formula seeing as she was drinking from bottles anyway. I had PPD so the newborn phase was really hard for me. My little one is toddling about now and totally fine and so am I!

The only thing I wouldn't bother with is expressing. It's generally easier to BF with a slightly full breast.

I do agree, I'm just struggling with her constantly searching for boob when I'm not giving her it anymore. I hope it stops as it's upsetting.

Unless you are a single mum of course, try handing her to dad, granny or whoever else for as many feeds as possible. Or sit her in a bouncy chair to feed once old enough, not against you. Babies are smart, she will soon get it.

That's a good idea, thank you. She can and will latch but only for a few minutes. Once the first let down stops she gets upset. She hasn't always been like this and fed a bit better between weeks 2 and 6, but since her tongue tie division she latches better but is more impatient. I just need to stop offering it to protect my sanity I think.

That's not a bad idea, I wouldn't want to do that for long though as I just love feeding her 💔 I'll give it a try though!

Sorry the post was about giving up BF and just pumping/expressing thing we got our wires crossed

@Doggomom91 i had this same problem and introduced a dummy, baby just wants to suck on something. It really helped.

Hi
this might sound stupid or obvious, my baby is BF but he would stay on for hours if he could just for comfort so when I take him off my breast I quickly pop the dummy in his mouth and it sort of tricks of him. Could you do similar if she is close to your chest?